Inside Edition reprised its role of hotel investigator and exposed three New York City hotels for failing to fully clean guest rooms between guest stays. The revelation is horrifying, disgusting, but frankly something I don’t want to even think about.
Filthy Hotel Rooms: Three Hotels Fail Clean Test
Perhaps one of my character flaws is that that I somewhat subscribe to the notion of what you don’t know won’t hurt you. That’s simply foolishness in an objective sense, but especially being married to a woman who loves microbiology, your stomach would turn inside out if you looked under a microscope at all the microbes invading our living spaces.
So my antidote is out of sight, out of mind. I don’t want to know what is lurking in my sheets or pillow. Heck, I don’t even want to open threatening mail. Sometimes I’ll wait a day or two…
Inside Edition reported on the hygiene practices of three New York hotels (H/T: One Mile at a Time). Using infrared paint only visible under UV light, they sprayed pillows, sheets, and towels. They also marked remote controls, counters, and thermostats. Somehow, they were able to check out and then return a few hours later and check back in to the same room.
Bed linens were not replaced at the Hyatt Place Times Square and the TV remote had not been cleaned. Same story at the Hampton Inn Times Square. At the Trump International Hotel, only one of the pillows still had the Inside Edition logo. The desk and TV remote also had not been cleaned.
In what can only be described as a Trump-esque response, the hotel flatly denied the report:
“Following an internal review, we have concluded that the claims made by Inside Edition are categorically false. Trump International Hotel & Tower New York is one of the premier luxury hotels anywhere in the world and has received countless accolades, including the Forbes Five-Star award for the past 13 years, for its consistently impeccable service.”
Meanwhile, Hyatt and Hilton expressed shock and vowed to investigate.
Can We Just Change The Subject?
This sort of thing has gone on for years. If anything, it may be better now than before, but still is disgusting. Expose after expose has demonstrated sheets are not always changed, cups and glasses not cleaned, and hotel rooms are likely cesspools of germs.
And so what do I do when I check into a hotel? I just put these fears out of sight, out of mind. Hotels are an unavoidable part of my job, and I don’t just mean this blog. I’ve never been a germaphobe, but I fear that I would become one if I dwell upon news like this or pull out a microscope. So I just hop into bed and even wear hotel robes.
Maybe it took Inside Edition 20 hotels stays to find these three featured in its report. Maybe the paint bleeds through the pillowcase to the pillow itself. Somehow I doubt it. And it doesn’t make these three offenders any less offending.
CONCLUSION
So yes, I’m disgusted too by all of this. But I just assume hotels are filthy and block it from my mind. I don’t want to even think about all the nasty things that may be lurking in my hotel room. How about you?
I, too, choose not to think about it very much. I know the rooms are filthy. I suspect they frequently don’t change sheets between guests. Pre-Covid, I would occasionally sanitize my remote control or put it in a plastic bag before use. I’ve stayed in a few hotels during this epidemic. I would say their cleanliness level is visibly worse than normal to the point where even I’m getting grossed out. I expect they can’t afford to pay many housekeepers. These days, I wipe down absolutely everything I can with sanitizing wipes before settling into the room, but there’s not much I can do about the moldy shower/curtain, filthy carpet and dirty bedding.
I have been sanitizing rooms myself. It’s quite surprising what the cloth looks like when I am done.
Want to know the dirtiest surface in a hotel room that has consistently made my cleaning cloth nearly black after wiping down? The desk chair. I assure you they are NEVER cleaned. Anywhere. And it’s an area we sit on and touch often. Trust me, clean the desk chair completely.
I see it the same way. If you dwell too much on what a hotel room actually is, you’ll never want to stay there. Fifteen years of traveling professionally and I’m yet to sick from a hotel room. That said, going forward, I intend to bring disinfecting wipes with me as part of my travel kit and will wipe down surfaces.
I only had two incidents of a hotel room not appearing clean when I checked-in. The first was, at all places, the Park Hyatt Sydney. The room looked fine, but it was clear someone had laid on the bed. They were horrified and moved us to a really nice room with a view of the Opera House. Excellent service recovery.
The second was a Residence Inn in Indiana. The room looked old and worn, which, for me, is a huge turnoff. What did it for me was a pizza left in the fridge. I was supposed to live there for two months as I was moving. I promptly checked-out and moved into a Courtyard instead. Less space, but a new property and much cleaner.
I am surprised people are surprised by these findings. Same goes for airplanes. Nobody cleans anything. To be fair, I only really care for bed linens and towels in a hotel since I always assume the rest of the room was never cleaned. Way before Covid I never touched a remote control in a hotel room before spraying hand sanitizer on it. No, for towels and bed linens it is a bit easier to notice if they were changed or not. In any decent hotel those are pressed so if a towel was used you can see it. A bit more difficult on bed linens but usually you can see if there are wrinkles and they smell bleach if they were washed.
Now, my assumption is always that hotel rooms and planes are filthy so I touch very little of anything. You can go crazy like a friend of mine that brings her own pillow and towel every time she goes to a hotel but if I have to do that I will probably just stay home..
Humans have strong immune systems. 35 years of half my life in hotels I am still alive. The stay, no stay, is clean linens and no sticky or wet rugs. Since Covid, hotels are doing much less normal housekeeping as staff is laid off. I have seen it all including bed bug incidents. My biggest fear is taking a bed bug infestation into my home.
The pesticides these hotels use are extremely toxic to humans. In the Caribbean many guests have died from exposure to toxic levels of pesticides. If your room has any odor of bug spray say no. The flea bag motel may actually have a better cleaning staff than Trump Resorts.
I am definitely double-checking the sheets, pillows and towels. In about 50% it’s visibly dirty, regardless of hotel category, be it an IC or a Holiday Inn. I always complain, demand the room to be fully cleaned plus ask for a hefty compensation. This simply has no excuses.
And in my experience, IHG is the worst, in terms of cleanliness/dirtiness.
That’s odd… … Are the hotel cleaning staff not finding all those spare tens and twenties we leave for them… …???
Are you implying that I should have to offer an extra bribe on top of the clearly marked housekeeping fee I see on my bill just to get a service for which I’ve already paid? I suppose you’re one of those people who tips people for bringing your carry-out food from the window to the register…
If you knew what I do in hotel rooms, you wouldn’t want to think about it either. 🙂
Yes, that too. Who wants to really think about all the bodily fluids regularly discharged in such a small space?
“Trump-esque reply?”
The left (Dems) lie with the ease at which you and I breathe. They lie in everything and in every way. If you want to use politics in this article, at the very least use the lying leftist ideology/religion as your example.
They destroy everything they touch. Remember, Russian Collusion? Spying on the Trump campaign? The list goes on and on. It was treasonous. But yeah, Trump lies. Unreal.
AND aliens are visiting the earth, Bigfoot exists, Covid-19 is all a hoax, man-made carbon emissions don’t have any effect on the atmosphere, racism didn’t exist before Obama, and we never went to the moon.
Joe, you took it as an insult against Trump, which I did not necessarily intend it to be. Don’t you think the retort from the hotel sounds like something the POTUS would say, whether true or false? I was much more amused than disgusted by the Trump Hotel’s response.
Yeah. Trump doesn’t lie. He only sucks up to Putin and Xi.
Hell, he doesn’t mind that Russia is paying a bounty to the Taliban to kill Ud soldiers.
You’re another one of Putin’s Pussy Cats. Ready to support Mother Russia through your Dear Leader, Herr Trump
Inside Story didn’t explain their methodology. If the beds were slept in or not slept in. If they just open the blankets on one corner but leave the foot tucked in, housekeepers would be tempted not to change the sheets. I’ve heard of business travelers trying to avoid that to the next person by stripping the sheets at least partially to discourage reuse.
One reason I like lower tier hotels like Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, and Holiday Inn Express is that they use paper cups wrapped in plastic. Those are unlikely to be reused compared to glasses with a round paper cover.
I worked at an airport and a nearby hotel was assigned to employees during a snowstorm because we were needed the next day and driving any distances were impossible. When I checked the bathroom there was a ladies negligee still handing on the hook behind the door. Bed sheets did not look fresh so I called down to the desk and asked to be put in another room. They claimed they did not have another room, so I stripped the bed, took all the towels out of the bathroom and piled everything on a chair. Next, I called Housekeeping and told them my room was assigned to me but obviously had not been cleaned or made up. When they came in to look, they were “forced” to redo the room with fresh linen and towels (as I watched). Just call housekeeping or offer to refresh the room yourself if it’s in the middle of the night. They can always unlock a closet with supplies and bring it to you. Trust me, I have done this more than once – at a Marriott and a Hilton.
Great tip, though sad you have to stand over them to ensure it is done properly…
Surfaces aren’t really a major issue for transmission of this virus — it’s about being in close proximity to an infected person in a closed environment for an extended period of time. So, I don’t really care about surfaces that much. I’d be more concerned about riding the elevator than whether or not my remote control was clean.
It is not surprising that the Trump International Hotel was not only filthy but the management had attitude about it.
Hilton and Hyatt reacted appropriately.
C’mon Shirley, this info. Isn’t new(s).