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Entry bubble Hotel Hygiene

By: Jake | November 19, 2007 | Category: Health

I go to Philly, I get sick. I go to San Diego, I get sick. Long story short, I travel, stay in a hotel, and I come home ill. I thought I was wearing myself down on the trips and the headache, sore throat and stomach ache were just the hometown allergens welcoming me home. That was until a friend sent me this blog post from the Consumerist.

The video is down now, but if you were to watch it you'd see sights scarier than anything you saw on Halloween. The hidden video camera investigation shows hotel maids in all five different hotels of five different chains in Atlanta rinsing and wiping glasses dry (sometimes with dirty bath towels and in one case wearing cleaning gloves they used to clean the toilet) and putting them out for the next guest.

The experts in the news report maintained that this is a serious health code violation since, of course, dirty glasses spread disease. Most of us don't pack glasses when we travel. Generally, I buy a gallon of water and other drinks and use glasses and ice in the hotel. I'd rather not buy dishwashing liquid and do dishes while on a trip, so from now on I'll just get smaller bottle drinks to be safe.

To be fair this could be an incident isolated to Atlanta and the rest of the nation's hotels put their glasses through a dishwasher--twice. But if you are like me, you see it was five different hotel chains and you can’t help but wonder.

If you stay in a hotel and suspect or see a hygiene problem, you should file a complaint with the hotel. If you are unsatisfied with how your complaint is handled or you see evidence of a larger problem, you should speak with the local health department. You can find local health departments by visiting the state health department website where the hotel is located.

| View Comments [2] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: complaints   department   health   hotel   hotels   hygiene  

Comments (2):

blue comment bubble Posted by A frequent traveller on November 20, 2007 at 11:41 AM EST

Not to be paranoid, but I think hotel rooms are crawling with germs. A few years ago, there was a lot of media attention around the fact that hotels hardly ever launder their bedspreads, There has also been speculation as to whether they even use hot water and bleach in laundering towels and sheets - a necessity in order to truly sanitize these products. I for one never walk barefoot on the carpeting. But I'm not as bad as my sister who will not shower in a hotel room without her flip-flops.

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blue comment bubble Posted by mml8028 on November 21, 2007 at 11:34 AM EST


Here's the story in case you want to see it:

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=4838888&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

also:

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=4850545&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

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