Spending a night in a hotel room can be relaxing.
But even if it feels homey, your room likely still contains plenty of invisible germs.
So, what can you do?
According to health inspectors, microbiologists, and various other experts, you can start by
avoiding - or cleaning - a few certain items.
Hotels may provide you with drinking glasses, but in some places, you might be better off
drinking from the faucet.
One undercover investigation into the cleanliness of hotel rooms conducted by ABC15 revealed
that hotel room drinking glasses can be so dirty they pose a potential health hazard.
Out of the four hotels examined in the investigation, three failed for nauseating reasons ranging
from hotel staff using a towel or sponge to wipe them "clean" or not even replacing them
with fresh ones for the next guest.
Other ABC News stations conducted their own investigations and found similar results across
the United States.
One housekeeper at a hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio was seen spraying dirty drinking glasses
with what appeared to be Lysol mildew remover.
At another hotel in Cincinnati, investigators witnessed a housekeeper drying drinking glasses
with a dirty hand towel.
Housekeepers at a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona were also observed rinsing and drying dirty
drinking glasses with a rag.
Small coffee machines have become the norm in hotel rooms, but you may want to think
twice before brewing some morning java at your hotel.
For one, coffee makers need to be thoroughly cleaned and descaled.
Otherwise, mold and bacteria will take over.
In one study, researchers at the University of Valencia in Spain examined nine Nespresso
machines that had been in use for over a year.
All of the machines were found to contain a "moderately to highly abundant" amount of
bacteria.
Coffee makers confined to hotel rooms can be even worse.
This is because housekeepers can transfer germs from one room to the next during cleaning.
And how these coffee machines are "cleaned" is even more horrifying.
ABC News investigators witnessed a housekeeper at a hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio using her foot
to wipe a clean towel across a dirty floor.
She then took that same towel and wiped down the coffee pot.
Dale Grigsby, a representative of the Cincinnati Health Department, likened this method of
dealing with bacteria, grime, and pathogens to, quote, "playing with a loaded gun."
In a study presented to the American Society for Microbiology in 2012, researchers revealed
that around 81 percent of the hotel room surfaces they analyzed contained at least some fecal
bacteria.
While you may think of hard surfaces as the ones to harbor bacteria, soft surfaces were
also proven to contain the harmful bacteria.
Kelly Reynolds, germ expert and associate professor of environmental health at the University
of Arizona, told Time that hotel guests should be wary of the bedspread.
Although housekeepers are instructed to change the sheets and towels prior to a new guest's
arrival, those bedspreads aren't necessarily laundered after each stay.
In one instance, investigators for Inside Edition appeared to catch a Manhattan hotel
red-handed in neglecting to change bedsheets, proving their case with an "I Slept Here"
stencil and some ultraviolet light.
"This sheet hasn't been changed.
Why weren't the sheets changed."
"Okay, I…
I expect them to be changed every day, and that is a policy of our property."
Of course, this can vary by hotel, so it's a good idea to call ahead and ask about cleaning
practices prior to arriving.
Otherwise, you'll want to steer clear of the bedspread.
Reynolds explained,
"Your best bet is to avoid contact.
A lot of people will recommend just folding the bedspread back or throwing it on the chair
and don't use it while you're there."
Turns out that pillowcases can be pretty gross in hotel rooms too.
An undercover investigation conducted by Today in 2014 found that many popular hotel chains
didn't change all the bed linens, even when requested by the guests.
One housekeeper was witnessed setting the bed pillows aside as she changed the sheets,
then putting the same pillows pillowcases unchanged back on the bed.
A housekeeper at a different hotel was also observed putting used pillows back on a guest's
bed after she set them down on a chair.
Jacob Tomsky, a hotel expert and author of Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels,
Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality, commented on the investigation, saying,
"Housekeepers should change the pillowcases, obviously.
That's where you put your face.
That's what you sleep on.
What really bothered me was that she put the pillowcase on a dirty chair prior to putting
it back on the bed.
That just gets it even more dirty."
You may want to consider bringing your own pillowcases on your next trip.
A study conducted by TravelMath revealed that the average hotel room is way dirtier than
you might expect.
As part of the study, rooms in three-, four-, and five-star hotels were analyzed.
It was revealed that, on average, the bathroom counter is the most contaminated surface in
the rooms.
The bathroom counters in 5-star hotels are the only exception, coming in second place
to the TV remote.
In addition to the counters, the sink, too, is likely to be contaminated.
A study by the University of Houston found hotel sinks to contain fecal bacteria.
So, what should you do?
TravelMath advises guests to wash their hands frequently, and to disinfect surfaces they
plan to spend time touching.
One alarming CBC investigation found MRSA or MRSA , a contagious antibiotic-resistant
bacterium — on the faucet of a high-end hotel.
"MRSA is widespread, but to find it on a faucet which should have been cleaned was very alarming."
A study conducted by the University of Houston in Texas confirmed that TV remotes are one
of the most contaminated items in hotel rooms.
A separate investigation led by Rossen Reports found similar results.
Laboratory testing revealed that all of the hotel TV remotes analyzed contained shockingly
high levels of bacteria, making them the dirtiest object in a typical hotel room.
Bacteria expert Dr. Luisa Ikner, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona Gerba Lab, explained
to Today that the TV remote in a hotel room is a common transmitter of infectious diseases,
such as e. Coli.
According to Dr. Ikner,
"This indicates there was fecal contamination on the remote.
So perhaps someone used the restroom and didn't wash their hands when they were done."
So if you still want to watch TV, but don't want to come into contact with these worrisome
diseases, experts recommend wiping the remote down with a disinfectant wipe.
You can also seal the remote in a plastic bag.
This way, you'll still be able to press the buttons to change the channel, but you won't
be exposed to the dangerous germs.
While it's a great hack to wrap your hotel room's TV remote in a plastic bag, that trick
isn't going to work on the bedside lamp switches.
And, unfortunately, they're also among the most contaminated things in a hotel room,
according to a study conducted by the University of Houston.
There's no guarantee that you'll get sick if you touch contaminated surfaces in a hotel
room, but Dr. Philip Tierno, professor of microbiology at the New York University School
of Medicine in New York City, told Real Simple it's possible to, quote, "catch anything from
a norovirus to a cold to a staph skin infection."
Thankfully, there's an easy solution one that doesn't involve simply keeping the lights
off and spending your trip in the dark.
Tierno simply recommends using alcohol wipes on the lamp switches to kill off all those
nasty germs.
And when you get back home, maybe you should wipe down your own house's light switches
too, for good measure.
According to Kelly Reynolds, germ expert and associate professor of environmental health
at the University of Arizona, hard surfaces that are often touched by many different people
make great homes for microbes, including bacteria and viruses.
This is why it makes sense that phones are among the germiest surfaces you can find in
a typical hotel room.
Per Travelmath's study, the phone is, on average, the fourth-most contaminated surface in hotel
rooms.
Yes, even in those expensive, five-star resorts.
According to Dr. Philip Tierno,
"People think a higher-end hotel guarantees cleanliness, but that's not always the case.
There can be housekeeping staffers who cut corners in any hotel."
If you can, avoid touching the in-room phone.
If you must use it, though, you can clean off the germs by using an alcohol wipe.
When staying at a hotel, experts advise disinfecting any surface you're going to have to touch
frequently, but especially the areas that you're going to be eating food off of.
Your hotel room may not have a dining table, but chances are it'll have a desk.
And, if that's where you plan to have your breakfast, you're going to want to give it
a thorough wipe-down with a disinfectant.
Even if the desk looks spotless even if it looks like you could eat directly off of it
chances are it's not, and you shouldn't.
Travelmath found that desks are, on average, the third-most contaminated surfaces in hotel
rooms.
Want to crack open a bottle of champagne on your trip?
Since many hotels have ice machines on every floor and an ice bucket in every hotel room,
you don't need a refrigerator to chill your bubbly.
But, before you celebrate, there are some things you should know.
Health inspectors in Minnesota revealed to Fox 9 that there's no actual code stipulating
that ice buckets be sanitized after each stay even if the bucket was used.
As a result, health experts say that the buckets can easily become a viral hot spot.
Even if you use a plastic liner inside the ice bucket, the ice itself may be contaminated.
One investigation by CBC Marketplace showed an alarming amount of bacteria living inside
the ice machines of multiple hotels.
"At half the hotels we tested, coliform bacteria a sign the ice could have fecal contamination."
According to another investigation by Fox 9, 19 hotels in the Minneapolis area were
found to have been cited for their dirty ice machines.
At one particular hotel in Minneapolis, inspectors noted buildups of pink slime in every single
ice machine inspected.
That's not very cool!
Some hotels provide their guests with free slippers.
This may seem like a swanky touch, but author Jacob Tomsky says there's likely another reason
behind the complimentary comforts.
He asserted in an interview with The Sun,
"The dirtiest part of a hotel room are the carpets.
Yes, they are vacuumed but they will almost never get a shampoo and a deep clean as there
are constantly people staying in the rooms."
He also warned that it's not at all uncommon to find fragments of broken glass in hotel
carpets as well.
Germ expert Kelly Reynolds agrees that hotel carpets can be far more dirty than they appear
to be.
When speaking with Time, she revealed that guests should avoid contact with the carpeting
just as they would with the bedspread.
Going barefoot might not be the best option.
With so many hotel room surfaces teeming with germs, you may think there's nowhere safe
to touch.
But that's not entirely true.
After all, the study conducted by the University of Houston revealed that 81 percent of hotel
surfaces contain fecal bacteria.
While that's certainly quite appalling, that does mean that there's still a whole 19 percent
of the room that's safe to touch.
Interestingly, the researchers found that the cleanest surfaces in hotel rooms were
bathroom door handles, curtain rods, and headboards.
The study's lead author, Katie Kirsh, told Reuters that she hopes their research will
eventually lead to changes in hotel housekeeping practices, so that everyone can be assured
of a clean and comfortable stay.
But until those changes happen, there is one thing you can do to hopefully avoid staying
in very contaminated hotels.
Dr. Philip Tierno shared some easy-to-follow advice in an interview with Real Simple.
He said,
"The best thing you can do is read lodging reviews online.
Specific feedback and photos from former guests are more helpful than star ratings; if other
customers experienced dirty sheets or a grimy tub, you may encounter the same during your
stay."
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