ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Cleaners at luxury hotels in China have been caught on camera cleaning guests' teacups with toilet brushes. Footage then shows them using the same brush to scrub down the toilet and bath.

Cleaners were filmed by undercover journalists at the Kempinski Hotel, the Shangri-La Hotel and the Sheraton Harbin Xiangfang Hotel in Harbin, north-western China. Also captured on film were cleaners dipping towels into the toilet bowl and folding duvets on the floor.

One cleaner used the same cloth to clean tea cups, the waste paper bin and then the toilet. When challenged by the reporter she admitted that her actions were against hotel policy but added that she was "too lazy" to follow the rules.

In a statement on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, Sheraton Hotels said it "deeply regretted" what had happened and added that it intended to provide additional training to stress the importance of hotel policy.

Meanwhile, Kempinski Hotels stated that it had taken additional steps to make sure that employees adhered to the "strictest standards of hygiene". And Shangri-La Hotels claims to have begun an investigation immediately after seeing the video. The chain will increase its training and tighten supervision as a result.

"What the video shows is unacceptable and if accurate is a severe violation of our strict hygiene standards", it said in a statement.