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Brown Palace housekeeper takes pride in work

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Contributed by: Erin Feese/YourHub.com on 4/9/2008

Editor's note: Visit our Faces of Denver page, where YourHub.com staff and readers will introduce you to more people who make this part of the metro area what it is.

Attention to detail. That is the mission on Georgia Romero's mind as she fishes a Brown Palace pen from her pocket and places it oh-so-precisely next to the matching notepad.

"Everything has its perfect place," she says cheerfully before bustling to her next task, polishing an antique water pitcher.

Romero, a housekeeper at the Brown Palace Hotel, 321 17th St., takes pride in leaving her rooms not only clean, but spotless. Housekeepers clean 13 to 14 rooms per day and are expected to clean a room from top to bottom in about 30 minutes, Romero says.

"It sounds corny, but I have always liked cleaning," she says. "When I was a young girl, my mom would leave and I'd change her whole house around. I've always had a knack for it."

A Denver native, Romero graduated from North High School and Metropolitan Stage College and worked for the city and county of Denver as a legal secretary for 17 years.

After working at a hotel-casino in Las Vegas for five years, she says she wanted to stay in the hotel business and has been at the Brown Palace for 10 months.

Romero arrives for work at 8 a.m. each day, changes into her uniform -- the hotel takes care of dry-cleaning employee uniforms -- and grabs a cup of coffee and her list of rooms for the day. She is usually assigned to the fourth floor. Romero is one of 20 housekeepers who keep the 241-room hotel running smoothly.

To prepare a room for new guests, Romero typically tackles the bed first. She bundles the dirty linens into a heap and hefts them on her shoulder to be deposited in the laundry chute. Next, she makes up the bed, using three flat sheets, deftly creating crisp hospital corners all around.

"No wrinkles allowed," she says, carefully smoothing the bed's duvet. The Brown Palace is one of few hotels that use French-inspired duvet covers over its comforters, so each guest receives a fresh one, Romero says.

Before a housekeeper leaves a room, every surface must be dusted and wiped down, the marble in the bathroom must be buffed to a glass-like sheen and the floors must be scrubbed the old-fashioned way on hands and knees. From the toilet paper folded into a point to the classical music playing on the radio, it's the details that make guests feel special, Romero says.

"I always call guests by name, smile and make them feel at home," she says.

Due to the hotel's unique triangular shape, each room is shaped differently, says public relations manager Shannon Dexheimer. Each room's décor also is distinctive, and four of the hotel's suites are named for their famous residents: The Beatles Suite, Eisenhower Suite, Reagan Suite and Teddy Roosevelt Suite.

Romero says she enjoys working in the Brown Palace's nostalgic atmosphere, but her favorite part of her job is the staff.

"You walk down the hall, and people tell you hello and are so friendly to each other," she says. "Everyone is treated with respect, top to bottom. (The housekeepers) aren't executives, but they make us feel like we are."

Brown Palace fun facts, celebrity sitings

- Before the Beatles' visit in 1964, the hotel saw a great surge in applications for housekeepers by young girls. After the Beatles' stay, monetary offers were made for the dishes from which they ate and the sheets on which they slept.

- Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to stop at The Brown Palace Hotel. He came to Colorado to hunt bear in the spring of 1905.

- Every U.S. president has visited The Brown Palace since Teddy Roosevelt, with the exception of Calvin Coolidge.

- 222 pieces of luggage arrived with the Rolling Stones when they visited the hotel for two nights in 2003.

- For Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, a helicopter ride to Crested Butte, Colo., was arranged so she could have dinner with a friend before retiring for the night.

- During one of his visits, pop star Billy Joel played a duet with the pianist in the atrium lobby for elated guests enjoying cocktails.

- Action film star Steven Segal asked the concierge to store the elk from his successful hunting trip in the hotel's freezer during his stay.

- Rock star Don Henley requested that his bed, stored in a truck that follows him on his travels, be placed in his hotel room. However, he later asked that it be removed because he found The Brown Palace bed so comfortable.

- The BrownPalace has been hosting four-legged guests since Lizzie the cat made permanent paw prints in the concrete a century ago. Dogs of any size are welcome to stay in the guest rooms and suites with their owner (a $75 charge, dog registration card and proof of rabies shot is required at check-in). A Brown Palace dog bowl and brass bed are delivered to the room upon arrival for use during the stay.

Famous guests

1892-1900
Buffalo Bill Cody
Marshall Field
Adolph Coors

1901-1910
Thomas Alva Edison
Lillian Russell

1911-1930
Helen Keller
Jack Dempsey
Margaret Tobin "Molly" Brown
Col. Charles A. Lindbergh

1951-1960
Jack Benny
Victor Borge
Bob Hope
Jimmy Stewart

1961-1970
John Wayne
James Cagney
Helen Hayes
Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds
Ginger Rogers

1971-1980
Truman Capote
Bette Davis
Luciano Pavarotti
Gloria Steinem
Howard Cosell

1981-1990
Elizabeth Taylor
Phil Donahue
Katharine Hepburn
Alan Alda
John McEnroe

1991-2000
Joan Rivers
Jerry Seinfeld
Cindy Crawford
Goldie Hawn
John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Kevin Costner
Michelle Kwan

2001-2007
Robin Williams
Glenn Close
Mary Higgins Clark
James Earl Jones
Oprah Winfrey
Steven Spielberg
Dave Barry
Eddie Murphy
Bill Murray
Wayne Brady

Musical guests

Classical
Itzhak Perlman
Andre Watts
Yo Yo Ma

Groups
The Beatles
Rolling Stones
Eagles
U2
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Dave Matthews Band
Bon Jovi
Aerosmith

Country/Folk
Reba McIntyre
Clint Black
John Denver
Roseanne Cash
Joan Baez

Pop/Rock/Rap
Bruce Springsteen
Billy Joel
Snoop Dog
Kanye West
Gloria Estefan
Pete Townsend
Prince
Cher

SOURCE: BROWNPALACE.COM

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