A flight attendant has issued a warning to holidaymakers who are planning to jet off this summer, urging them to check a certain appliance in their hotel room or else face the potentially grim consequences
Holidaymakers are being given a heads-up to give their hotel room kettles a once-over before using them, and the reason is quite bizarre.
Flight attendant Barbara Bacilieri has issued a cautionary message to holidaymakers as they gear up for their summer trips. The flight attendant, who is no stranger to hotel stays due to her career jet setting across the world, pointed out that while whipping up a hot beverage in your room might seem innocuous, it’s wise to inspect the kettle first.
The seasoned airline professional, who has a hefty TikTok following of 475,000, insists on ensuring the cleanliness of the kettle every time. “Always take a look inside the coffee pot. Before boiling water for making tea or coffee, think it through,” she said.
Barbara, originating from South America, represents an Argentinian airline and has seen her fair share of hotel rooms. She continued: “It is said that some guests use the boiling jar for weird stuff, such as washing underwear, cooking sausages or even cleaning the menstrual cup!
“You weren’t expecting this one, right? Just imagine how many other things guests do and we don’t know.”
The rise of extreme nutritional plans such as the all meat diet may be pushing some hotel guests to employ the room’s kettle as a make-shift broiling device. Perhaps more alarming, rumours have long circulated of visitors using the kettle to give their underwear a boil wash.
A comedy post circulated on LinkedIn two years ago in which a man claimed to use the kettle in his hotel room to cook chicken, in order to save his company money by not expensing a meal out during a business trip. Although the post was a satire of the ‘rise and grind’ mentality that the job site has become known for, the viral post has left many unable to shake the idea that hotel room kettles may have been misused in such an unpleasant way.
Dr Heather Hendrickson, from Massey University in Auckland, called the rumours of kettle misuse “super super super super gross”. She went on: “However, who knows how long that water, with nutrients that have been introduced and then sterilised, sits around in the kettle before someone else uses it? There are simply too many unknowns and hotel kettles are not industrial-strength cleaning facilities.”
Barbara offered another pearl of wisdom designed to keep you as clean and fresh as possible when staying in a hotel. She advised: “Before getting into bed, lift the sheets. Check for bugs or socks that other guests may have left behind. Some people think that everything that is in the room is free, or as they paid so expensive they have the right to take it.”
“The batteries from the remote control or worse, the light bulbs from the lights. You wouldn’t believe how many guests take the hotel pillows home. And how many people have hotel towels at home? A lot.”
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