Self-cleaning hotel room technology is now virtually real
When one travels, there is a degree of uncertainty. Uncertainty, however insignificant, will accompany you all the way on your trip and beyond; that you won’t get ‘bumped’ of your flight, that your baggage will be on the carousel at the airport at journey’s end, and, that the hotel room you enter is reasonably clean. No doubt there is that lurking concern, which we brush off as ‘not gonna happen to me’. Not really.
As uncertainties’ go, the uncertainty of a seemingly clean room can top the list. No matter how scrupulously the housekeeping staff wipes, dust, vacuum and scrub, there will always be microbes ranging from influenza and salmonella to mold spores and allergens in the air. Have faith though, because pretty soon you might be able to take the uncertainty of a clean room off you list. How?
Cover a room like invisible insulation and it can purify the air for up to a year, removing microbes and contaminants such as cigarette smoke or other odors. It all seems a bit sci-fi, flight-of-fancy or fantasy – but no, this could be the next best futuristic thing to invade hotel rooms. In an age where check-in kiosks or robotic attendants handover your digital room key, how seamless can it get when you get to stay in a room that disinfects itself each morning without housekeeping lifting a finger?
And, that’s exactly what Copenhagen’s newly opened 155-room Hotel Ottilia has done by partnering with the Danish company AC.Global, to utilise the brand’s self-disinfecting product called ACT CleanCoat. The transparent and odourless substance, which contains the key ingredient titanium dioxide – a naturally occurring compound, can be applied to any surface and is activated by sunlight. Once the photo catalytic reaction begins, it automatically de-composes microbes like bacteria, viruses, airborne mold spores and chemical compounds, in addition to purifying the air.
“We’ve been testing this system for two years,” says Karim Nielsen, CEO of Brockner Hotels, the Ottilia’s parent Company. He compares the invisible coating technology to Teflon and first trialed it at the nearby Hotel Kerman K. Now the two hotels are the world’s first to use it to clean themselves.
The upside of using ACT CleanCoat is that it helps reduce labour by 50%, eliminates the use of harsh chemicals, cuts down on use of water, produces a healthier environment for guests and workers, helps speed up the cleaning process, which translates to a getting a ‘ready’ room’ room faster than before. Staff doesn’t have to apply chemical detergents and cleaners and breathe toxic fumes. The non-use of chemicals that can cause allergic reactions also benefits guests.
Downsides to the use of the substance include having to fully empty a hotel room of furniture to spray it with CleanCoat and the formula has to be reapplied each year. Each room costs $ 2,500 to coat with CleanCoat - although a good part of it can be recovered from the cost saved from labour. Ofcourse, this product will cut down on some jobs – efficient technology has never been kind for employment, but it does make life much easier for staff. Cleaning staff will still be needed to change bed linen, replenish towels and amenities, and wipe down and vacuum clean surfaces and tidy the room.
It is expected that switching to ACT CleanCoat technology will allow for faster, more sustainable cleaning of hotels while cutting down on harmful chemicals. With hotels looking to stand out in a saturated market this could be an answer for some.
Hospitality Sri Lanka.
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