A video confession from a former hotel worker has left us reconsidering our need to stuff ourselves silly every time we happen upon a hotel breakfast buffet.
The confession comes from Knoxville resident and TikTok user Brandi Augustus, who advised followers: “If your hotel serves like a hot continental breakfast or whatever, eggs, waffles, stuff like that, yeah don’t eat that sh*t.”
Brandi said she had worked at numerous brands of hotels doing front desk and night audit for almost 15 years, sharing: “What I have come to realise is they [corporate] don’t give a sh*t about that breakfast.”
“There was one hotel I was trained at, the night auditor who was training me he used – this is what spawned this whole thing – I was cleaning up and I had a paper towel and I remember when that man told me to use one paper towel to clean everything all night… disgusting.”
“He said it was environmentally friendly instead of using a rag or a sponge or even multiple paper towels to clean things like bowls, spatulas, the tables. I was like: ‘how is that even possible? I can barely keep one paper towel together just to wipe some stuff off or whatever,’ and he was like: ‘well you’re just being too aggressive.'”
Brandi’s advice to those staying in less expensive hotels is to choose food that is made to order: “I would say if you were to do a hotel breakfast; do a double tray. Do something that has a chef that makes your breakfast. There are some higher-end hotels but we ain’t talking about them.”
“I’m just trying to save y’all a headache.”
Brandi also said to check the waffle station: “See if the waffle maker is even clean – often times it’s not.”
Worse, Brandi added: “That waffle batter doesn’t get made every day – that waffle batter gets re-used until it starts to smell like beer.”
Other TikTok users shared their own horror stories (and suspicions) in the comments.
TikTok user @lilblumamba wrote: “As a night auditor for a very popular hotel, she telling the truth!! Stick to the pre packaged foods, also check the room before you bring the luggage in” (to which Brandi responded: “This!! Check the beds, baseboards and headboards for critters or evidence of them.”
Another commenter said they only ever ate the bacon, and asked why it tasted like plastic (to which other users said “bc they buy the cheapest brand”).
Another user claimed that in some hotels the scrambled eggs come in a plastic bag.
Some questions remained unanswered, with one concerned TikTok user writing in all caps: “WHAT ABOUT THE BAGELS???”
Some users, however, appeared unbothered. One wrote: “Girl it’s free bye.” Another quipped: “It builds up the immune system.”
Another complained: “TikTok keeps ruining things for me.”
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So, are we being neurotic, or is this useful advice?
Judging by the video’s view count, the internet thinks it’s useful. The clip has more than 1.5 million views on TikTok, according to the New York Post. It also has 221k likes, 5979 comments and 13.5k shares, at the time of writing.
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