Ex-employees at a collapsed hotel chain say they were asked to clean up bodily fluids "without proper equipment" and reuse "dirty, stained" linen for new customers before the firm entered administration.
It was announced on Wednesday that administrators were to be called in for Hashtag Hotels, with hundreds of staff members told they no longer had jobs via a group chat.
The firm had 17 hotels up and down the country, with all 264 of its staff on Wednesday told how to claim back money from the government's Redundancy Payment Service.
Now, ex-employees have revealed grim anecdotes about goings-on at the chain.
Numerous attempts were made to contact Hashtag Hotels throughout Wednesday and Thursday.
The company's website, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages were also all unavailable on Thursday.
Ex-employee Meadbh Erne used to work at the Liverpool branch, which was based inside the Collegiate Fontenoy Apartments student accommodation building in the city centre.
She told the ECHO: "We were told to re-use dirty linen and Febreze it, some of the linen was covered in hair and mucus stains, but head office told us to re-use it.
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"There were also occasions when there were bodily fluids in rooms and staff were expected to clean it up without proper equipment."
On Wednesday,
Fellow ex-employee Sean Mullan, who left the firm at the end of July, said he was also asked to re-use dirty linen for new guests over "two or three weeks".
He added: "We also had to spend our own money on cleaning supplies and many of us never got reimbursed."
A third ex-worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said working at the chain was "horrible", describing "constant poor management".
She said: "[There were] always shortages on linen that would arrive late leaving guests without bedding on multiple occasions, limited stock on toiletries and cleaning supplies, some of which the staff had to buy themselves and were not reimbursed for most of the time."
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According to the ex-employee, she and others received little training, adding: "We were all just made to work on the spot, managers included sometimes, so it was difficult to uphold a standard as we were learning on the job."
Mr Mullan added that during his two months with the company, he was made assistant manager for "£1 extra an hour" with "no help or support", adding that it left him so stressed he was forced to quit his job.
As well as six in London, other Hashtag Hotels locations include Bangor, Dublin, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Nottingham.
The ECHO has obtained screengrabs of the group chat of a workplace app in which the 264 staff were suddenly told they no longer had jobs via a PDF letter.
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Several have since said there was no prior notice to the announcement - only that delays in pay had in previous weeks been blamed on a "glitch".
The anonymous employee added: "I worked there for just over a month before being made redundant on Wednesday, I have been underpaid already on my first paycheck because they didnt properly file my tax codes, and on my second paycheck I was missing money from my overtime pay, and it's uncertain even after having applied for redundancy pay if I'll even get it.
"The situation was handled poorly, we were just sent a message in a group chat, which no longer exists but we have screenshots as evidence."
She said fellow members of staff in the group chat had raised fears of homelessness and being unable to pay rent or support their families.
A fourth former employee told the ECHO ex-colleagues of his would now struggle to pay university tuition and rent. He said he was "shocked but not surprised" when he heard that administrators had been called in.
Many, he claimed, had not been paid "for weeks", while some had not been paid for any work they did for the chain whatsoever, and would now face a battle for it.
Leonard Curtis is acting as administrator for Hashtag Hotels, with Evolve IS appointed agent to manage employee matters, with the firm supporting all employees to claim payments from the government's Redundancy Payment Service.
A statement from Leonard Curtis issued on Thursday said: "The London-headquartered firm was a hotel chain that rented out university accommodation - used by students in term time - to visitors throughout the summer months.
"It had 17 sites across the 海角视频 and employed 264 people.
"The company was placed into administration by its directors after it experienced financial difficulties.
"After seeking the appropriate professional advice, the joint administrators were appointed.
"Trading ceased immediately and all 264 employees were made redundant."
A letter to staff from Evolve IS sent to staff over social media on Wednesday said: "I understand you were an employee of the company and your employment has ended today, by reason of redundancy.
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"Due to the company's current financial position it is not able to make payments to you for monies due such as arrears of pay, holiday pay, redundancy pay, and compensatory notice pay.
"Under the provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996 you may be entitled to claim any monies owed to you by the company from the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) subject to certain statutory limits."
The firm's website is now in "private" mode, but yesterday stated: "Hashtag Hotels was founded and created by Nash Cohen and Simon Gilbert, who had become frustrated with existing Hotels that were built on archaic technology and systems which lead to poor customer service and a laborious Customer Experience.
"To combat this, Hashtag was created using some simple, but unique tech themes and elements, which allows us to scale our solutions across a wide geographic area, alongside a large number of sites and guests.
"Hashtag will remain a lightweight agile business which more than prepared to compete in the Hotel Industry."