Some Hotels May Not Be Cleaning Bathrooms Properly, Investigation Finds

When you check into a hotel, you expect the room to have been thoroughly cleaned — especially the bathroom.

But does that always happen?

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To find out, Inside Edition painted a harmless, washable fluorescent gel onto the toilet seat, sink counter and shower floor using stencils of the show’s logo.

With the lights on you can’t tell anything is there but turn on a UV light and the logo can be seen glowing.

At the upscale Intercontinental Hotel in New York City, Inside Edition left our fluorescent logo all over the bathroom. Then we checked out.

The next day, Inside Edition Chief Investigative Correspondent Lisa Guerrero checked into the same room under a different name.

When she flicked off the lights in the bathroom and turned on a UV light, only a small portion of the fluorescent gel could be seen on the sink counter. It appeared to have been cleaned well. We were off to a good start.

She then checked the toilet seat and found that the logo seemed to have been wiped but was still mostly there. As for the logo in the shower; it was never even touched.

Guerrero then called the manager to come up to the room.

“We found that this bathroom was not cleaned thoroughly, in particular the toilet seat and the shower floor,” Guerrero said.

“That's definitely unacceptable,” the manager admitted. “I apologize for that. That is definitely not the standard at the Intercontinental.”

A spokesperson for the Intercontinental Hotel told Inside Edition they have “rigorous cleaning protocols” and they take swift action on the rare occasion they get a complaint about room cleanliness. They also said our test damaged their toilet seat.

Of all the hotels Inside Edition checked, the dirtiest bathroom award goes to a Homewood Suites by Hilton in midtown Manhattan.

While the sink counter had been wiped clean, the toilet seat and shower were apparently never even touched.

Guerrero asked for a manager to come to the room.

When the manager surveyed the situation he said it could have been a mistake.

“Do you think housekeeping is doing a good enough job?" Guerrero asked.

“I do think they do an excellent job," said the manager. "It just could have been overlooked.”

“How do you overlook the toilet seat?” Guerrero asked.

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“I'm not sure,” the manager replied. “We are humans and they definitely could have made a mistake but it will be corrected.”

Inside Edition also wondered how one of President Trump’s hotels would check out.

At the luxurious Trump International Hotel and Tower across from Central Park in New York City, we also left our mark.

So was it cleaned properly? When we checked back in the next day our gel was nowhere to be found – each area had been cleaned well.

In all, four out of five hotels checked by Inside Edition were not cleaned properly.

Watch: Some Hotel Bathrooms Are Not Properly Cleaned Between Guests, Investigation Finds