A Hotel Industry Secret: Wall Tattoos
Chris · May 08, 2007
Back in October, 2006 I discovered a little hotel industry secret that was, well, surprising. This juicy piece of information might affect you too, but you are probably are not aware of it. Housekeepers and maintenance engineers, cover your eyes...you might feel better not knowing what you’re about to discover.
As a long time hotel industry manager who has worked in senior levels of Rooms Division and beyond, I’ve developed a conscientious outlook on guestroom etiquette. And over the years I have generally expected (or at least hoped) for the same from both guests and colleagues.
Bed Jumping is a stretch for some, but the video below features a guest activity that certainly pushes the envelope in guest behaviour for most.
Secret Wall Tattoos
Most of you know that guestroom wall treatments are fastened to the wall by an intricate little mechanism that makes it pretty hard to remove. Naturally the intent is to ensure that pictures and other design elements stay behind when the guest checks out. Of course most guests would never even consider stealing wall pictures, electronics, or other expensive items from their guestroom. Experience, however, has taught hoteliers to be safe now rather than sorry later.
The pictures hanging in your guestrooms are probably difficult to remove, but not impossible. Some of your guests, as the video you are about to see reveals, are not interested in stealing pictures. Nope, they simply want to remove them for a little while, then replace them again. But not before leaving a little-known secret behind!
Check out one YouTube member’s video that unveils a version of art that you might have walked past dozens of time and not known about at all.
I’ve had this video saved for about seven months, and chose today to show it. Why today? Because I was searching for some hotel related information on Wikipedia.com, and found an entry for secret wall tattoos.
Mainstream Art? Not quite. At least let’s hope not.
Perhaps the next time you are doing renovations or replacing pictures in your guestrooms, you too will find a “secret wall tattoo!”
