[HONG KONG] Luxury Chinese hotels run by Hilton, Marriott and several other chains apologised for unhygienic practices after a video went viral on the Internet showing housekeeping staff using the same sponges to clean cups and sinks, and wiping down bathroom surfaces with guest towels.

The statements came after an 11-minute video was posted on Weibo, a popular social networking site, claiming to show hidden-camera footage of cleaning staff at hotels operated by Shangri-La Asia Ltd, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc and others.

The video has gotten 29 million views and elicited tens of thousands of comments and shares.

Bulgari Hotel Shanghai, which is run by Marriott International Inc, apologised in a statement posted on Thursday on Weibo, saying it will investigate and take appropriate action.

A similar apology came from The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which said it would strengthen room-check rules, and work with government to respond.

The video, which was posted Nov 14, shows a housekeeper at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Shanghai using a single sponge to clean cups and the sink.

The housekeeper then takes the same sponge and cleans the toilet, according to text shown in the video.

The hotel chain apologised in a statement posted to Weibo.

At the Bulgari Hotel in Shanghai, a worker is shown reusing a plastic-cup cover fished out of a garbage bin.

A worker at a Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Shanghai uses a gel that the video describes as shampoo to clean cups.

A statement issued on Thursday by China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism said "all levels of cultural and tourism authorities should draw inferences and give high priority to the supervision of tourism service quality".

BLOOMBERG