No clean rooms, no hotel business: Subversion tactics in Las Kellys’ struggle for dignity in hotel housekeeping

Abstract

This article examines the struggle of room attendants in Spain for dignity in hotel housekeeping. We focus on Las Kellys' collective action to counter stigma as well as dignify the work of room attendants. To do so, we conducted qualitative, digital ethnography, comprising 40 semi-structured interviews, online observation and documentary analysis, and we based our analysis on the political notion of ‘subversion tactics’ and a multi-level conceptualisation of dignity in tourism employment. Our analysis reveals that Las Kellys deploys three subversion tactics that impinge on three different but interrelated levels: room attendant as a skilled and rewarding job (occupational level), housekeeping as the heart of the value chain (organisational level), and Las Kellys as a socio-political agent (socio-political level).