How Clean Are the Pillows and Mattresses When You Go to a Hotel?
Category: Goose Down Pillows Answers
i have a report due on guess what! PILLOWS AND MATTRESSES! i need to know how clean the ones at hotels are.
Tags: mattresses, Business Finance, hotels
Filthy
Well, I'm sure hotels think they are clean, however nasty little critters can get into matresses. These critters are called bed bugs. They can get into pillows as well. Because of this I always check matresses and take a vinyl pillow cover when I stay at a hotel.
I don't know about pillows and mattresses, but you can never assume a hotel/motel room is thoroughly clean. On a trip several years ago, we stayed at a motel in Nashville, Tennessee. I opened the dresser drawer, and there lay a folded up, bloody Kotex. Gross indeed. My wife wrote a letter to the home office of the motel chain. I cannot remember the name of the motel, otherwise I would happily divulge it to the world.
I don't think they're very clean. We always bring our own pillows when we travel.
The pillows and mattresses are not disinfected regularly, but the linens are washed daily. A web site to get more information for your report is allergysolutions.com
This past Monday 1/22/07 on the Rachael Ray show she did an expose on bed bugs and dust mites that are found in hotels check out rachaelray.com
For healthy home cleaning products check out http://www.tagurit.net
good luck!
Pillows should be replaced every 6 months and washed once a month in hot water... to get out the dust mite poop. Mattresses replace every 5 years. Do hotels do this? I doubt it.
Hotel pillows and mattresses are fairly clean BUT ONLY if they are less than 3 months old. Not so with the bedspread (yuck!) which I immediately remove and stash in a corner, out of my way.
Unfortunately (across the U.S) and not until the general public begins requesting and/or DEMANDING sanitized mattresses and pillows, the Hospitality Industry will continue to be slow to respond due to the added expense. This is an extremely poor choice. Surveys conducted by the Travel Industry have concluded that "room cleanliness" and NOT "price" is the #1 reason why loyal guests will either return or change hotels. A queen-sized hotel bed (mattress and pillows) can be professional serviced every 90 days, at a cost to the hotel for as little as $0.25 per day. I believe ANY guest would be willing to pay $1.00 per day more for a "hypo-allergenic room", KNOWING that the mattress and pillows (and even the bedspread) have been recently sanitized.
Hotels offering either "smoking or non-smoking" rooms will soon (very soon) discover that they need to discontinue the "smoking rooms" and replace those rooms with "hypo-allergenic rooms" due to the "health and wellness" mind-set of millions of American's, many of which are traveling "baby-boomers" and the 50 to 60 million (1 in 5) American's that suffer from allergies. ** (note to Hotel GM's... SMOKING IS OUT!)
One year ago, there were only a couple of professional mattress cleaning services in the U.S., yet there are nearly 4500 in Europe and many more still, in Australia and southeast Asia. Entrepreneurs in the U.S. are now beginning to offer mattress cleaning services, for not just the commercial Hospitality Industry, but also for residences due to (here's just a few) confirmed facts:
1). The U.S. EPA has confimed that Indoor Air Quality is always 2 to 5 times worse than Outdoor Air Quality and often times it can be 100 times, or even 500 times WORSE!
2). Children, nowadays, spend 90% of their time indoors. (Children and the elderly are most susceptible to poor indoor air quailty)
3). Asthma and "hidden" asthma amongst children has continued to steadily increase every decade since 1980.
4). The American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI) has suggested that 50% of ALL ILNESSES may be caused by, or aggravated by, poor indoor air quality.
5). Dust is the #1 indoor air pollutant and the potent allergen "guanine" produced in dust mite feces is the most harmful.
6). Recognizing the severity of the current problem, the EPA has initiated a public awareness campaign (www.noattacks.org)
Due to the micro-habitat (think separate little ecosystem) provided by pillows and mattresses, this is exactly where dust mites live, thrive, and breed. It gets even more disgusting when you consider the poop pellets (billions) and dead dust mite pieces are 10 to 20% of thje weight of a 2 year old pillow. The "particles" are so light-weight that when a person fluffs a pillow, or turns over during the night (average is 50-60 times), these "particles" become airborne and stay airborne for 2 hours. The particles, except the ones that are inhaled, spread throughout the entire home, suspended in the air.
Above you say "i have a report due on guess what! PILLOWS AND MATTRESSES!" if you would like more information visit:
http://www.sterilmattress.com/index_mattress_cleaning.html
Good luck on your report!