A two-night stay in a hotel last week left me less than impressed. I’m sort of a neat-freak (to give you an idea, my bare foot has never touched a hotel-room floor) but what I found when I checked into my room was outright disgusting. Before you jump into conclusions, the hotel wasn’t a budget brand, so why was the housekeeping staff so careless?. I’ve made myself the same question on several occasions, mostly when visiting hotels. Too bad I didn’t have this article on hand, so that I could recommend it to the manager when I checked out.

There are lots of articles written on how to retain workers and how to make them happy about working with you. Offering perks like time off for family events, flexible hours and training opportunities are generally accepted as good ways to retain key employees.

But most of the ideas I read about seem geared to salaried employees these days. This article focuses on what one San Francisco hotel did to satisfy more of its hourly staff. Since two-thirds of hotel and restaurant staff turnover each year, finding ways to keep them around is a good idea for the industry–and any other that employs lower-income workers, and definitely those working on an hourly-wage contract.