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Male Housekeepers Love Their Jobs

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Written by Michelle Sprehe

Wednesday, 01 July 2009 08:00

With the Fourth of July only days away, the Best Western in Paola is booked. It’s a time for celebration and parties. Hotel guests feel free to leave their rooms a mess because, hey, they’re on vacation and that means no responsibilities.

Best Western housekeeper Henry Freeman vacuums a room during his shift Sunday morning. Henry and his brother Charles work together and love their job. (Photo by Michelle Sprehe)

But when the party is over and guests check out Sunday morning, Charles and Henry Freeman are left to clean up the mess — but they don’t mind.
The brothers are hotel housekeepers and have been working at the Best Western for more than a year.
Being males, Charles and Henry are not the typical picture of housekeepers.

“I figure if it’s OK for a woman to drive a semi-truck, there’s nothing wrong with a man cleaning and cooking,” Charles said.
Each day the Freeman brothers work, they arrive around 8:30 a.m. and receive their room assignments. Sometimes they work together on the same floor, but other times they are working alone on separate floors.
These men have cleaning hotel rooms down to an art. Once they walk in a room, Charles starts work on the bathroom, cleaning everything with a rag by hand — even the toilet. Meanwhile, Henry has already started making the bed and then moves to dusting the tables, television and window. Back in the bathroom, Charles is mopping the floor and sweeping the hair out to the carpet to be vacuumed.

“The hair is the hardest to get up,” Charles said. “There’s a lot of hairy people in the world,” he added with a laugh.

Back in the main room, Henry is cleaning out the inside of the refrigerator and microwave.

Sometimes guests leave food and drinks for the housekeepers to have. Last weekend, a guest left a pizza in the refrigerator, which became the brothers’ lunch.
“The food is great, but we’d rather have a money tip than food leftover,” Henry said.

After lunch, the men return to their floor to finish off their rooms. They are so speedy at cleaning, they’re often assigned the most rooms. And when they’re done, they go help out the other housekeepers.

The rooms they cleaned last Sunday weren’t as bad as the ones from the weekend before, Charles said.

Rooms tend to be dirtier in the summer after wedding parties and graduation celebrations move through the hotel.

“On our night shifts we’ve seen drunk people from the pool going through the hall with no clothes on,” Charles said with a chuckle. “Our pool towels come in a variety of sizes but they don’t always cover people.”

Another time, the brothers cleaned up a large mess that some duck hunters left
.
“We walked in and there was blood everywhere,” Charles said. “We thought somebody got hurt really bad, but then we started seeing feathers here and there.”
They were able to clean up the whole mess with their cleaning chemicals.

“I don’t mind cleaning up after people,” Charles said. “Once you get started it’s hard to slow down.”

Both Charles and Henry keep their own homes very clean.

“I can’t live in filth,” Henry said. “You see people trash rooms and it makes you wonder what their own houses look like.”

Though the men enjoy cleaning, they say their favorite part about their job is talking to customers.

“Sometimes on break you can have a whole conversation with a customer and they’ll make you bust out laughing,” Henry said.

Charles agreed that customer interaction was his favorite part and he tries to make the customers feel like they are at home.

“Whatever mood we’re in at home, we leave it behind.” Charles said. “When we come to work, we’re friendly and happy.”

As for their least favorite part about their job — it’s having to take a day off. But when they do have a day off, the brothers, who are also neighbors, enjoy cooking out between their houses.

“If I can I’ll come in on my day off,” Charles said. “I love to clean.”

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