Your Hotel Room Looks Clean, But These Key Areas May Not Be

One of them is, you guessed it, the key itself; but there are others harder to clean. Here are some solutions and other tips.

Originally published in Counter Arts on Medium on May 14, 2023.

About a week ago I booked a room for my mother and brother’s trip to Paris by calling the hotel itself. My mother wanted that specific hotel, and there were no double rooms left on the very familiar travel website.

So I called the hotel and by doing this I was able to save 135 Euros for 4 nights, down to 455 Euros total. I’m not sure if it was my ability or a standard difference between the prices on the hotel website and those on the large travel website (because for triple rooms the prices were similar), but it felt good to save all that money.

The hotel room turned out to be quite clean and comfortable, even if on the small side, which is to be expected in a city like Paris. When I traveled to London in 2011 the room was so small I barely had room to open my suitcase. (I was still traveling with a large suitcase at the time.)

Moving on to the topic of today’s article, cleanliness, here’s what doctors and travel experts have to say about how to handle — or not — various objects in a hotel room, starting with the key.

For some reason, the key is usually not disinfected, so maybe do that with an antibacterial wipe when you get to the room.

I also recommend a small spray bottle with alcohol, to add to the disinfectants in the wipes themselves and to use when the wipes don’t do the job well. You can find 100 ml receptacles that are okay for the plane ride — if you want to have everything ready when you get to the room.

You may need to, because while you will be able to clean the faucet with the hotel’s soap, you will need something else for the light switches.

The light switches are a pet peeve of mine. I go to apartments and houses where the homemaker prides herself on her housework, and, indeed, there’s no dust, the carpets are very clean (and threadbare in places), the bathroom is spick and span, but . . . the light switches . . . are awful, with seemingly centuries-old grime. First time I noticed this I was a kid who didn’t yet do any cleaning, and I was so used to seeing it everywhere that I didn’t mind it (!). At that time I wasn’t thinking of germs and didn’t think twice of sitting down in the middle of a pavement either, among other things.

Speaking of which, after you clean those light switches (or else you’ll wash your hands and get even dirtier when you turn off the bathroom light after legions of people who don’t wash their hands after using the toilet), be aware that those carpets may look clean but can, in fact, be full of all sorts of little things, from bits of poo people carry on their shoes to everything else one can find in the streets. So, doctors advise, it would be preferable not to walk barefoot in a hotel bathroom. I always bring one of the complimentary pairs of slippers I have from the very rare occasions when I had vouchers to stay for a night or two at a five-star hotel.

Then the bedspread. That one is so rarely cleaned, you’d better not plump down on it after arriving in your hotel room. Okay, if you’re in your street clothes, it may not matter too much, but it may matter if you put your head on the throw pillows lying on the bedspread — those get often, well, thrown to the floor when the maid makes the bed.

As a side note, I always sat on that bedspread in the past, without giving it much thought. But after this pandemic, like many people, I have become way more aware of surfaces and their potential for housing germs.

Germs that include STD bacteria and viruses, by the way. After all, I can see many people going at it right there on the bedspread.

Of course, chairs are no cleaner. They may not have STDs (they’re not that comfortable), but I wouldn’t sit there in my undies.

Sometimes now even the sheets are all that clean, which is why some people bring a sleeping bag. Some of them can be very thin, actually. Or you could bring a very thin blanket.

When I used to travel with a large suitcase, I brought my own towels as well. Now that I travel with carry-on luggage I can’t do that, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to buy some towels when I get to the destination, and leave them there at the end of my stay. Although I always wash towels and clothes I buy before I use them, so that presents a different problem. But a hotel should be able to let me use one of their washers.

I was worried about HPV at the time. Apparently, that’s not such a big problem, but reading online I was surprised to find that you can find STD-contaminated towels even at five-star hotels in Beijing!

The above-mentioned article also mentions the risk of respiratory illnesses, since the maid may shake out the duvet (before straightening it out), if not the bed sheets, and that’s not all that great. But we can’t fight that, I guess. I only wish more hotels would leave the ability to open windows. I’m not very happy relying only on those air vents (which can be full of dust, by the way).

Back to things we can improve in a hotel room: the hotel glasses. I’ve always been happy to find those two glasses in my room, until I noticed once that one of them had a smudge. According to an article I read, in some cases they are just rinsed with water instead of properly washed. I can definitely see a cleaning lady coming to the room with all sorts of cleaning products but a dish detergent. So I guess look for smudges at the rim if you decide to use them. Otherwise, you can bring your own collapsible drinking glasses, the kind that save packing space when going hiking.

Then the phone. How hard could it be to spray it, for instance, with an antiseptic? The phone is truly a germ bank, given all the microbes spread from talking into its mouthpiece. You can use it on speaker, if need be.

Finally, among other objects (such as the hotel room safe, which is not that safe, anyway (but there are workarounds, if you need to use a safe), the remote deserves a special place. Just like at home, few people remember to disinfect the remote. Why, I don’t know. Here the spray bottle with alcohol will come in very handy. It’s what I use to disinfect remotes at home.

Why these things — cleaning all the necessary objects in a room that can be cleaned — are not par for the course in hotels is beyond me. However, some of these objects are easily cleaned, so if no one else does it for us, I guess we can do it ourselves upon arrival.

So bring in a few items, do a few cleaning rounds, and then relax and enjoy your trip and hotel stay!

How do you manage cleanliness in your hotel room upon arrival?

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Thank you for reading! I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. As always, pins and shares are much appreciated!

To a happier, healthier life,

Mira