TRAVEL TIPS
Before kicking back and enjoying your stay, keep yourself and your family healthy on vacation by wiping down certain surfaces in your hotel room with antibacterial wipes. Given the hundreds of different people who stay in them, we can assume that hotel rooms will never be as clean as a typical home.
Don't assume that paying more means you'll get a cleaner room. A study by TravelMath focusing on three-, four, and five-star hotels revealed that some areas in more luxurious four-star and five-star hotels tended to be dirtier than less luxurious three-star hotels. For instance, the dirtiest surface in a three-star hotel room, the bathroom counter contained an average of only 320,000 (colony-forming units (CFUs) – around eight times less than a four-star hotel room and three times fewer than a five-star hotel room.
Overall, according to the surfaces TravelMath tested, the average hotel room appears to be dirtier than a typical home, an airplane, and even a school. What can you do to minimize the risk of illness? Wash your hands frequently, for starters.
Pack a small bottle of disinfectant spray and alcohol wipes to disinfect frequently touched and germiest surfaces below:
TV Remote Control
The TV remote control is the germiest item in each hotel room, frequently carrying levels of bacteria four to five times above the limit deemed acceptable.
Telephone
The room phones can have three times the acceptable bacteria level.
Bathroom Faucet and Countertop
The bathroom faucet and countertop are high risk of inadvertent cross-contamination by housekeepers when they clean bathrooms. As mentioned above, the Travelmath study found the bathroom counters in three-star hotels were cleaner than their four- and five-star counterparts.
Desk
The TravelMath study found that desktops were among the germiest surfaces in hotel rooms. Those in three-star hotels were cleaner than their four- and five-star counterparts.
Other areas common place for germs to linger are lamp shade switches, main lightswitches and coffee makers - consider giving these areas a wipedown too.