Guests staying at the Expressway Suites in Fargo, North Dakota, this November learned how some hotels manage their mountains of laundry when they witnessed a hotel worker drop a pile of stained sheets into the hotel’s hot tub and stir it with a broom handle.

Witnesses watching the scene couldn’t initially understand what they were seeing, with some speculating the hot tub was broken and maintenance was attempting to sop up the water.

Alex Kenmille, and his family, who saw the whole thing, said, “At first, I thought maybe the hot tub was down, the drain was broken, they were trying to soak up the water, but then he started adding more in there and I was like, what is going on?”

The family filmed the employee stirring the spa like a witch with a cauldron.

When they understood what they were watching, they were revolted. “That’s disgusting. Are you kidding? Are we sleeping on those sheets? I was really disgusted,” Kenmille said.

Hotel staff was oddly unapologetic regarding the incident, more embarrassed by having been witnessed than by the act itself. Evidently, soaking the sheets in the hot tub was standard practice for the hotel, and they regretted only that the employee had been seen doing it.

Management explained that it was a “last resort” for removing stubborn stains from sheets before disposal. According to one employee, “The sheets are put into the hot tub, and it gets out tiny little stains, then the hot tub is drained. It is really heavily cleaned by a huge deep cleaner.”

The hotel says the linens had already been washed before going for a hot tub dunk. They also added that the soaking was intended to happen after hours — i.e., when no guests would (in theory) be watching.

The video went viral shortly after the incident was recorded.

Some viewers flagged health risks — noting that even a heavily chlorinated hot tub might not be enough to sterilize water after a rag-and-broom laundry session. Local health authorities launched an investigation and ordered the hotel to stop using the hot tub for linen soaking. According to public-health officials, the hotel must “stop or cease soaking the linens in the Jacuzzi and go to another means of a different basin.”

No fines were issued because, officially, the hotel wasn’t violating the existing city code, which doesn’t explicitly state that washing sheets in hot tubs is frowned upon.