How to Sanitize Your Hotel Room to Ensure It Is Clean and Hygienic

One thing you need to consider when making hotel reservations is the cleanliness of the room you’re booking. If the room is thoroughly cleaned, you’re able to fully enjoy your trip since you’re less exposed to germs that can make you sick. It’s easy to check if the hotel is implementing the proper housekeeping protocols. With a quick search, you can find establishments that are applying hospital-standard and industry-leading cleaning procedures like Westgate’s cleaner hotels approach.

Nevertheless, even the cleanest hotels can face issues from time to time. It’s possible that the beddings haven’t been changed since the previous guest’s stay or there’s a putrid smell coming from the vent in the bathroom. To ensure that your hotel room is spotless, it’s best to take matters into your own hands and sanitize the room yourself. Here’s a list of things you can do to help keep your hotel room clean and hygienic during your stay:

Come Prepared

You don’t have to bring your home cleaning equipment to sanitize and disinfect your hotel room, even if it’s a Penthouse. Packing disinfectant sprays, alcohol, disinfecting wipes, and gloves will be enough to help get rid of most of the contaminants in various surfaces in the room. If you want to further improve the cleanliness of your surroundings, you may invest in a portable UV air sanitizer to get rid of the bacteria and allergens lingering in the air.

Aside from these, you may also bring the following items if you’re uncomfortable using the equipment the hotel provides:

• Bed sheets
• Glass or dispensable plastic cup
• Indoor slippers
• Hygiene products (e.g. toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, shampoo and conditioner.)

This way, you’re less likely to come into contact with elements that have collected in the room over time.

Don’t Unpack Immediately! Sanitize the Entire Room First

It’s tempting to open up your luggage and place all your things on the bed or in the closet once you step inside the room. However, it’s smart to sanitize the different areas of the room first so the items you’ll unpack won’t be contaminated.

The best place to start is the bathroom since it’s known to have the biggest source of germs. After spraying the bathroom with disinfectant, take a piece of tissue and lift the toilet seat up. Then, use some disinfectant wipes to clean both sides of the seat. You can also use alcohol wipes to wipe down frequently touched spots like the toilet lever, faucets, shower knobs, and light switches.

Once the bathroom is dealt with, you can move on to the other areas of the hotel room. In the same manner, use a disinfectant spray first before wiping down the following surfaces with disinfectant wipes:

• Light switches
• Keycard docking stations
• Door knobs and handles
• Kitchen counters
• Tables and desks

Clean the Vents and Air Ducts. If you notice a strange smell circulating in the room, there’s a possibility that the HVAC vents and ducts are dirty. HVAC systems that are riddled with filth not only make the room’s environment uncomfortable, but they also make the perfect habitats for mold, insects, and vermin. In this case, you need to call hotel management and let them take care of it. Cleaning vents and ducts require special equipment to ensure that the part of the system that delivers air conditioning in your room is free from contaminants.

Move on to the Bed, Couch, and Chairs

Debris like hair, nail clippings, and crumbs can collect in the crevices of the bed, couch, and chairs, so you need to take the time and inspect these areas. If you see any particles, put on a pair of nitrile gloves and wipe them off. Nitrile gloves provide better chemical resistance if you’re using cleaning products that may cause skin irritation. You may also check Primo Dental Products. It’s also a good idea to peel back the fitted sheet of the bed to see if there are any bugs or stains on the mattress.

When you’re finished checking these areas, alert hotel management and have your room cleaned. This is also a good time to have the housekeeping staff replace the bed linen with newer ones if you didn’t bring your own sheets.

Clean and Disinfect Commonly Used Items

TV remotes, kitchen utensils, and telephones are items that are frequently touched by hotel guests, so it’s not surprising that their surfaces are covered in germs. As such, before you use any of these things, you have to wipe them down with disinfectant wipes. For kitchen utensils, however, washing them with dishwashing soap and water will suffice.

Do Your Part

There’s no question that sanitizing the hotel room’s surfaces will keep it clean and hygienic. However, there’s still so much you can do to further improve the cleanliness of the room. Washing your hands after touching the doorknob or light switch, for example, will help stop the spread of germs. Cleaning the kitchenware after each use, on the other hand, will prevent bugs and other types of vermin from infiltrating your room.

Sanitizing your hotel room does take time and energy, but it’s a task that will elevate your whole hotel experience. When you’re able to keep your hotel room’s surroundings in immaculate condition, you can rest easy knowing that you’ll return to a healthy and comfortable atmosphere after a day of seeing the sights.