Outrage after spy cameras capture disgusting hygiene in five-star hotels

Hygiene problems in five-star hotels have raised concern from the public, as a video titled “Secret of the Cups” went viral on Wednesday on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform.

The video shows a sponge, dirty cloth or bath towel was used to clean cups, wash basins and mirrors.

The 12-minute video exposed 14 five-star hotels in various cities in China. Seven of them are in Shanghai.

The Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration said the authority has paid full attention to the report, and inspection and investigation work is underway, according to news website thepaper.cn.

The authority will actively coordinate with the lawenforcement department, and the hotels involved will be dealt with in a strict manner upon investigation. At the same time, the authority will suggest the hotel star-rating department update its rating standards.

The video uploader told thepaper.cn that he recorded the footage with a needle-camera placed in the bathroom of 30 hotels in different cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Fuzhou and Nanchang. He compiled footage from 14 of the cameras.

A woman surnamed Deng with the public relations department of the Shangri-La Hotel in Fuzhou, capital of East China’s Fujian Province, apologized to the public on Thursday morning, saying that the behavior is inconsistent with the standards of the hotel, according to thepaper.cn.

Deng said that the hotel started an investigation on Wednesday evening, which proved the hotel does have the problem shown in the video, and management has attached great importance to the problem.