I work in room service at a 5-star hotel - these are the biggest things I wish guests wouldn't do

Even though we're required to follow a particular script when we come up to your room, we do still like to engage in a little small talk.

Comment on the weather, ask how our day is going, or tell us about your stay so far. This is a great way for us to assess how happy our guests are.

Although I'm sure my managers feel otherwise, I don't like it when guests take items from their mini bars.

The mini bars in each room of our hotel contain over 20 different kinds of snacks and drinks, and I'm in charge of restocking them — meaning that I have to review a master list in every single one of our 144 rooms every day to figure out if anything's missing.

Then, I have to bring the items to each room via a very badly designed, top-heavy cart, or, if it's not on the cart, I have to run across the entire hotel to get it from the supply closet. This whole process can take over three hours.

Since my idea of fun isn't exactly running (what feels like) a hundred miles to replace that one water bottle you felt like drinking, I would love it if you all just brought your own refreshments.

Some people are overly critical, but others are afraid to speak up if they aren't satisfied. As long as you tell us nicely, we really do want to hear if there's something we can do to make your stay more pleasant.

Tell us in person when we visit your room, leave a note, or talk to the front desk — these are the most efficient ways to make sure a wrong gets righted.

Since we're a five-red-star hotel, we have to try our best to comply with any and all of your requests. We've orchestrated wedding proposals, served champagne on the beach, and hosted lavish surprise parties. Those things are doable for us, but scheduling a charter flight to Guam tomorrow is not.

It may seem obvious, but we hotel staff are real people too. Without our uniforms on, we're no different than the other guests. Some of us even stay in the hotel sometimes (we get a fabulous employee discount on rooms).

So please, just treat us with respect — it makes the work environment so much more enjoyable.

We have a strict protocol to follow, which involves visiting rooms several times a day to collect room service items and restock the mini bar. If you don't want to be interrupted, use your "Do Not Disturb" sign. We are not allowed to enter a room or even knock on the door when that sign is hanging, so you're guaranteed peace and quiet.

The worst thing for us is getting a last-minute call and scrambling around the hotel to get all of the dishes you requested. We don't just have an endless supply of breakfast food cooking — chefs work in shifts, and it's really hard to get a breakfast together if the breakfast chef has already left.

Someone once called in a full three-course breakfast at 12:05, just after breakfast had closed at 12. Being a five-red-star hotel, though, of course we had to try our best — which meant a bunch of cursing chefs and a lot of unnecessary stress for us room service people. So, just try to let us know about your order in advance, and we'll be sure to bring it to your room on time.

We're not allowed to tell you who they are, what room they're staying in, or if they're even in the hotel at all. Because of super-strict confidentiality codes, we may not even know who's in the hotel at any given time.

We work at five-star hotels because we love to delight our guests in fun and creative ways. If you tell us a bit about yourselves when you check in, or in passing throughout your stay, we can play to your likes and dislikes and make sure you have the best experience possible.

If you say that you like the flowers in our garden, we'll bring you up a bouquet. If your kids don't like waffles, we'll come up with a cool breakfast alternative.

It's those little things that can make a great hotel stay truly amazing.