So you think your hotel room is clean?
You get to your lovely resort hotel by late evening, unload the car and eagerly walk into the lobby, for that much looked forward to seaside holiday. You expect to enjoy good food, swim in the hotel’s pool, try out some exotic cocktails, go to bed late at night and sleep late into the morning, maybe even catch ‘forty winks’ in the afternoon…but by no means do you expect to catch a cold or flu!
After check-in, you enter your room expecting it to be clean. Lo and behold, it does appear neat and orderly. Don’t be fooled however, because what lies beneath the appearance can be totally different.
The first thing most people do upon entering a hotel room is to check out the bathroom, some may rush to the window to see what view it offers. Others may grab the remote before flopping down on the invitingly soft comfortable bed to check out the TV. Despite the best efforts of housekeeping staff to provide superior service, you probably have exposed yourself to many viruses and bacteria within your short time in the hotel room.
By turning on the lights to/in the bathroom, you have touched one of the many places germs are waiting. How often have you struggled to figure out which light switch goes with which light in your hotel room, or looked all over, until you find an array of switches cunningly hidden behind a lamp shade? Touching each of these switches is a passport for germs. Now, do you think the cleaning staff remembered to clean the light switches? Not likely.
Even if the houseman had done a thorough cleaning of the room, the chances are that he did not clean the TV remote control. Germs that cause colds are capable of surviving twelve hours on hard surfaces: hence the remote can be a real culprit. Add to it, the door handle, telephone, alarm clock and the lamp and you have a line-up of suspects – any or all of whom can be guilty of making you fall sick.
Although it used to be done previously, no longer do hotels change bedroom linen on a daily basis. Some hotels change linen in their rooms every three days (unless otherwise necessary), other hotels change linen when a guest requests it. However changing bed sheets once a guest has checked out from the room is non-negotiable. It’s probably safe to say that all major hotels instruct their housekeepers to change sheets between guests. Whether this happens in all hotels all the time… is debatable.
Changing bed linen is a lot of work, particularly in hotels that have triple sheeting, and when staff has to clean upto 16 rooms during their shift, there will be someone who will cut corners by not changing the sheets, and only remake the bed that was slept in the previous night. This is referred to as ‘popping sheets’. To the untrained eye, the remade bed and the fresh one doesn’t look any different. Guests should always look out for creases in the sheets to check if they are clean, a clear indication that they were recently laundered and folded. Others steps include lifting up the bed spread to check for loose hair strands that may have been left behind by previous guests. How about the guest with a sense of humour, who, before checking out, left a note on a piece of paper, under the bed sheet, that read “if you are reading this, then housekeeping did not change your sheets.” Certainly, not a laughing matter.
Another piece of bed-linen to be avoided is the comforter on the bed. Comforters are no different to bedspreads - except that they are more insulated. If they could talk, they would complain about the mum who changed a baby’s diaper and about those who ate dinner – using the bed as a table with the comforter on. What’s equally not comforting to know, is that comforters are washed every three months and that’s in well-run hotels.
Be cautious of the bathrobes in hotel rooms. Some guests simply try it on ( and we really don’t know what they were doing while wearing it), before putting it back on the hanger. If you suspect that it had been used by the previous guest, just call housekeeping and ask for a fresh one.
What steps can one then take to protect oneself from catching a cold or something else? Choose a reputable hotel. Doesn’t necessarily mean that all will be clean, but it may improve the odds. Check online reviews. Bag the TV remote - a clear plastic bag will prevent your fingers touching the remote. Toss the comforter away. Pack some disinfecting wipes. Use the wipes to give the light and lamp switches, the taps and washbasin a ‘once-over’ to reduce the chance of infection. Wash your hands often, including the occasional use of a high alcohol content hand sanitiser.
When you stay at a hotel that runs at 80% occupancy, where the average length of stay is 3 days and most rooms have double occupancy, it means that 20+ people at least have stayed in the same room each month. Multiply that by the number of years that the hotel has been in operation. Voila, that’s an army of strangers that have slept in the same bed, felt amorous, rinsed their mouths, and …well I guess you get the drift.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, ‘Hospitality Sri Lanka’, Consultant, Trainer, Ex- Hotelier.
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