Guest beware! These common surfaces, hotel room amenities, and features could be harboring germs or worse. Here’s how to keep safe.
Even in the most high-end stays, hotel rooms can look sparkling clean at first glance, but germs and grime often lurk in places you wouldn’t expect. Beyond the usual suspects like TV remotes, toilet flush handles, and decorative pillows, there are plenty of overlooked spots that can be more germy than they seem.
While daily housekeeping helps maintain cleanliness, tight turnaround times can make it tough to thoroughly clean every surface. “With check-out at 11 a.m. and check-in at 3 p.m., that limits how long housekeeping can spend cleaning each room,” says Mona Murahwa, a professional cleaner with experience in boutique hotels and the founder of natural cleaning supply brand Cleaning Mama. “If they have 15 rooms to finish in that four-hour window, they only have about 15 to 20 minutes for each. That is not long enough to deep clean every surface, as disinfectants need to sit for five to 10 minutes to effectively kill bacteria.”
Because of those time pressures, cleaners are trained to focus on high-touch and high-visibility areas, like counters and mirrors. “If a carpet looks clean, they might skip a thorough edge-to-edge vacuum to save three minutes for the bathroom,” says Murahwa.
Here’s what to keep an eye on when you check into your next hotel stay, and a few simple ways to keep germs at bay.
