Undercover as a hotel cleaner in Ireland: ‘Lifting the heavy mattress, I cry tears of rage and exhaustion’ | Saša Uhlová

by anmcnama

22 comments

  1. Are there any Irish people doing that unappreciated hard work anymore

  2. That was a grim read, sad to see people gey exploited like that

  3. So Irish hoteliers rip off migrant workers – even if they’re EU citizens.  Then they charge embarrassingly high (for an Irish person) rates to their customers and complain about VAT rates on the radio. I’d love if they named and shamed the hotel. 

  4. This is the same “hospitality” industry crying for yet another VAT break ladies and gentlemen.

    Haven’t stayed at an Irish hotel since they started the insane gouging with Covid. Every time I looked, I have thought “Jesus I’d be away somewhere foreign for a few days for that price” so did exactly that instead.

    The collapse of the Irish hospitality sector can’t come quick or hard enough. Dreadful sector filled with horrible work practices and exploitation.

  6. It’s good to see such normal responses here. Spent an hour looking at responses to other news stories around Reddit and the gloating and sneering is enough to make you puke. Thank you, /Ireland commenters.

  7. I’m ashamed to read this, knowing that in Ireland anyone could be subjected to this, when many of our grandparents/greatgrandparents were treated like ×××× in other countries.

    How can any company treat their workers like this? (Regardless of where they come from) How can ‘management’ be complicit in this? What is the problem with treating everyone with respect. It really doesn’t hurt.

  8. These are the problem people, Irish people who supposedly opened their homes to refugees and all that, yeah cus the government paid loads for it. Everyone thinks it’s about culture etc but it’s actually about how your boss can squeeze as much work and profit out of you while paying you the least they legally have to. Pretty fucking sickening stuff.

  9. It’s an absolute disgrace , treating people like that. The same fuckers are changing absolutely outrageous rates for a room. I stayed in Killarney recently on business. The hotel looked ok on the website, was €190 for the night. I had had no choice as anything else available was similar or more expensive. When I arrive, the place was a fucking dump. The room I had was last decorated in the fifties I’d say. The 1850’s I mean. It looked like Michael Collins was the last person to sleep in the bed and it didn’t look like they had changed the sheets either. The couch in the room looked and smelled like it had its own ecosystem. Fucking vile dump. 190 sovs. Jesus.

  10. Last time I stayed in a hotel in Ireland I paid an outrageous price for a very dated (decoration, peeling paint etc) room with a mouldy bathroom, and a very fucking rude receptionist who didn’t know how to work her card machine, and repeatedly and loudly asked for another card and implied I must not have money on that one before FINALLY trying it a second time, when of course it worked.

    There were a bunch of other complaints which I detailed in a lengthy review, only to be met with a reply that was nothing but excuses.

    Would never recommend anyone get a hotel in Ireland again.

  12. Irish hoteliers giving publicans a run for their money to see who’s the most unlikable gougers in the country.

  13. Ireland Inc everybody, the best little country in the world to do business but not be a minimum wage worker.

    I wonder how much money is being received by this hotelier for housing Ukrainians etc.

    There are so many employment laws being broken here it is a handy win for any enterprising employment solicitor.

  14. An appalling read. I think a lot of people are willingly ignorant about just how much cheap labour props up the greed and decadence of rich nations. Any political debate about migration should have stories like these at the heart of it if we want to resolve the issue.

  15. And this is exactly why I try not to support hotels.

  16. Remember this article next time you read about the hospitality sector needing a reduced 9% VAT rate or looking for other favourable treatment (like they got during COVID-19) from government.

    Much of the “Hospitality” sector in this country is built on exploitation of migrant workers and ripping off hard-pressed customers for appallingly poor standards.

  17. This is fucking horrific. And judging by the workload the hotel seeme busy. Wankers.

  18. This story leaves me sad. This “Hotel” needs exposing for exploiting their staff.

    How anyone could profit off the backs of others in this way shocks me.

    How can the owner sleep at night?

    HOW??

  19. The hospitality industry in this country was built by migrant Labour while the management of hotels and hotel associations cried poor pauper.

    One of the scummiest industries ever that deserves to be completely nationalised and run by a state tourist agency in conjunction with worker directors running it day to day. Would stop the price gouging and keep a lot more wealth locally.

  20. The Ireland of a “thousand welcomes” where tourists are routinely fleeced and migrant workers casually exploited.

    A member of my extended family worked in a hotel here for about 6 months and they were a mess after it. Constant rota changes, no breaks for hours on end, given manual jobs to do (outside of their contracted role) and generally treated like a dog.

  22. People like to ignore it, but most of our lower paid industries are propped up by near abused foreign staff trying to make a better life for themselves.

    Worked in 2 hotels when I was younger as a way to make money for the summer in college. In both instances, the majority were foreign workers who also worked another job or 2 on the side to support living here.

    I remember 1 in particular who was my supervisor, when he was done his night shift at the hotel, he went striaght to the local mcdonalds where he was also a supervisor and done another 8 hour shift.

    I asked him when he had time for himself and he basically just said I didn’t want my daughter growing up in the same situation in Pakistan as me, if I have to then that’s my job. Which was sweet but also heartbreaking.

Leave a Reply