① Serious Hygiene Issues of Hotel Sofas
Hotel rooms with pristine bedding and tidy arrangements may look spotless. However, you may have heard that the hygiene of hotels can be at a severe level, contrary to what you see. Indeed, hygiene controversies at luxury hotels have shocked many people.
Not only abroad but also domestic hotel hygiene has been a hot topic. Several incidents that put global guests on edge have occurred. Many areas in a room, such as remote controls, cups, and electric kettles, harbor many bacteria.
Experts point out that the dirtiest place in a hotel is the sofa. Dr. Nidhi Ghildayal, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, has informed about the hygiene of sofas in the room.
If a stain appears on the sofa, it is not cleaned but treated with a chemical to remove. Because the entire sofa is not cleaned, invisible bacteria remain. For this reason, she claimed that numerous bacteria inhabit the room’s sofas.
Moreover, a hotel is a space used by numerous guests. You don’t know what was put on the sofa or how it was used. Someone may have climbed up with dirty shoes or put a dusty carrier on the sofa. Occasionally, there are cases where a bad smell comes from the sofa. In such cases, there is a high probability that mold has grown on the sofa.
Dr. Ghildayal advised that if you need to use a sofa in a hotel, you should not let your bare skin touch the sofa directly. Laying a towel on the sofa and sitting on it was introduced as one of the methods.
② Chinese Hotel Guests Complain of Skin Diseases
There was an incident where several guests who used a hotel in Hubei Province, China, developed skin diseases. The problem started with the factory that was washing the hotel bedding.
In this factory, disposable underwear was put together when washing bedding. A strong toxic bleach, which is prohibited, was used during this process. The staff put various chemicals into the washing machine wearing thick cotton gloves. He showed a carefree attitude, saying, “It’s for bleaching. It can wash away any color to white.”
In the factory, employees were seen smoking nonchalantly under a no-smoking sign. Nobody cared, even when the laundry fell on the floor during drying. They were also seen walking over to the laundry with their shoes on. More than 200 hotels entrusted their laundry to this factory, and some guests complained of itching and other skin diseases after sleeping there.
③ Hygiene Controversy in Korean Hotels
They cleaned the coffee cup with shampoo and left the remaining shampoo for the guest. Such hygiene controversies in Chinese luxury hotels are not uncommon.
In China, many people prepare their towels before going to the hotel. This shows how serious the hygiene controversy of Chinese hotels was.
Fourteen hotels with poor hygiene conditions were revealed, including luxury hotels that cost over 800,000 won (about $680) per night.
Such incidents are not only a problem in China. There have been hygiene controversies in domestic hotels as well.
Such incidents occurred and became a hot topic even in a luxury hotel in Seoul. ‘CSI Consumer Investigation Team’ reported shocking hotel hygiene scenes.
There were cases where water cups were wiped with a sponge used for cleaning the bathroom and towels already used by guests, and bedding such as pillow covers were not replaced.
One hotelier said not to touch the coffee or tea bags provided for free. He said that most of the products not used and left in the room are recycled, and the expiration date of the food cannot be known.
The more serious-than-expected hygiene condition of the hotel shocked many people.
By. Seo Sung-Min (fv_editor@fastviewkorea.com)
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