Most hotel guests don’t give much thought to what their room looks like after they leave. You pack your suitcase, check the bathroom for your phone and charger, grab your belongings, and head for the door.

For the person assigned to clean that room, though, the condition you leave behind can make a big difference. Housekeepers often have a long list of rooms to finish within a limited amount of time. A room that needs extra picking up, stain treatment, or special cleaning can eat into that schedule quickly.

Nobody expects you to clean the room yourself before checking out. You’re a guest, after all. But a few small courtesies can make the next part of a housekeeper’s shift much easier.

Here are some of the checkout habits hotel housekeepers wish guests would skip.

Checking Out Late Without Telling Anyone

Staying a few extra minutes might seem harmless, but late checkouts can throw off the housekeeping schedule.

Rooms are usually assigned based on expected checkout times, and staff need enough time to prepare each one for the next guest. If you need extra time, contact the front desk and ask about a late checkout rather than quietly staying past the scheduled time.

Even a quick heads-up gives the hotel a chance to adjust its plans.

Leaving Personal Items Spread Across the Room

Chargers plugged into every outlet, clothes hanging over chairs, toiletries cluttering the bathroom counter, and shoes tucked under furniture can make cleaning a little more difficult.

Housekeepers generally try to avoid moving guests’ belongings unless they have to. Keeping your things together while you pack makes it easier for them to wipe down surfaces, vacuum, and clean the bathroom without working around a pile of personal items.

It also lowers the chance that something gets overlooked or accidentally moved.

Leaving the Room in Complete Disarray

A hotel room is meant to be used, so some clutter is expected. A suitcase on the floor or a few clothes on a chair isn’t going to shock anyone.

The bigger issue is a room where clothing is scattered everywhere, food containers cover the surfaces, towels are thrown around, and belongings are packed into every corner. Cleaning a room like that takes more time because the housekeeper has to pick up before the actual cleaning can begin.

Before you leave, spending a couple of minutes gathering your trash and belongings can make a difference.

Hiding Wet Towels Around the Room

Wet towels left behind doors, under beds, or in random corners are a headache for housekeeping staff.

Damp fabric can develop a musty smell and leave moisture on carpet, wood, or other surfaces. Most hotels already have a simple system for towels that need to be replaced. Leaving them on the bathroom floor or in the designated tub or shower area makes them easy to find.

There’s no need to hide them around the room.

Leaving the Toilet Unflushed

Nobody wants to walk into a bathroom and discover that the toilet wasn’t flushed after the previous guest left.

It takes only a few seconds to handle before checking out, and it saves the housekeeper from having to deal with it as soon as they enter the room.

It’s one of those tiny courtesies that costs you almost no effort.

Leaving Food All Over the Room

Room service trays, takeout containers, pizza boxes, open snacks, and half-finished drinks can quickly turn into a much bigger cleanup job.

Food left sitting around can create unpleasant smells and attract insects. If your hotel has a room service pickup system, use it. Some hotels ask guests to leave trays outside the door, while others have a phone number for pickup.

Either way, gathering food containers and trash before leaving makes the room much easier to clean.

Leaving Hair All Over the Bathroom

Hair is one of those things housekeepers notice immediately. It can end up on the shower walls, around the drain, on the sink, and across the bathroom floor.

Nobody expects guests to scrub the bathroom before leaving, but large clumps of hair can be particularly unpleasant to clean. If you’ve shed a lot of hair during your stay, gathering it up before you leave is a small courtesy that can save some extra work.

Tossing Trash Everywhere Except in the Trash Can

Empty bottles on the nightstand, wrappers on the floor, tissues tucked behind furniture, and other random pieces of garbage add time to the cleaning process.

Emptying the trash cans is already part of housekeeping’s job. Having to walk around the room picking up individual pieces of garbage is another task altogether.

Most rooms have at least one or two trash cans, so using them makes the cleanup much easier.

Getting Makeup and Self-Tanner All Over the Linens

Hotel towels and bedding are usually white for a reason: they’re easier to inspect and keep looking clean. Unfortunately, they’re also very good at showing makeup, mascara, foundation, self-tanner, and hair dye.

A little makeup on a washcloth isn’t the end of the world, but heavy stains can require extra treatment. Some stains may even be permanent, which means the hotel has to replace the linen.

Using makeup wipes before washing your face and keeping hair dye away from hotel towels can help prevent unnecessary stains.

Keeping the “Do Not Disturb” Sign Up for Days

A “Do Not Disturb” sign can be useful if you’re sleeping, working, or simply don’t want anyone entering your room. Leaving it up for several days without allowing housekeeping to service the room can create a much bigger cleaning job later.

Trash builds up, towels pile up, and bathrooms get harder to clean when a room goes untouched for several days.

Some hotels also have housekeeping policies that limit how long a room can go without service. If you prefer privacy, ask the front desk about the hotel’s housekeeping schedule and let staff know what you need.

A little consideration from guests can make a housekeeper’s day easier. You don’t need to scrub the bathroom, make the bed, or leave the room looking like nobody stayed there. Just gathering your belongings, using the trash cans, keeping wet towels in the bathroom, and giving the hotel a heads-up about a late checkout can go a long way.