An inspection by a nongovernment appraisal agency found that many a time five-star hotels in Beijing, including Hilton and Intercontinental, fail to change the bedding and toiletries of used rooms.
An inspection by a non government appraisal agency found that many a time five-star hotels in Beijing, including Hilton and Intercontinental, fail to change the bedding and toiletries of used rooms.
Photo:Fox
On Sept. 4, Lanmei Test, a self-proclaimed independent team, released video from its investigation of the Intercontinental, the Hilton, the Shangri-La, JW Marriott, and W Hotels. The investigation found unchanged bed linens at three of the hotels, and dirty toilets at all five.
The team checked in to the same rooms at each of the five hotels on two consecutive days. On the first day, they used invisible stamps to mark the bed linen, toilets, bathtubs, and tumblers. They returned on the second day and found that the marks were still there. And these employees even found a used condom under a bed in JM Marriott.
The video has drawn wide attention and gone viral on Chinese social media.
Photo:Ifeng.com
Photo:Ifeng.comStaff at the Shangri-La Hotel and Hilton Hotel have responded, saying that an investigation is underway.
Meanwhile, the Beijing government has launched its own probe of 691 different express hotels, discovering 46 that failed to meet hygiene standards. Thirty-five of them were fined 69,000 yuan ($10,760) each because of poor hygiene conditions in their rooms.
“If there are 200 guests in the hotel but the hotel only has 50 bed sheets changed, it is obviously unreasonable,” said Beijing Public Health Inspector Gao Xudong.
Photo:Ifeng.com
Last year, American Inside Edition’s investigation found that some hotels did not change bed sheets between guests in New York.
Photo:Inside Edition
Unchanged bed sheets, bed covers and pillow cases are no doubt a bummer to hotel guests. But even if they are ostensibly cleaned, there is still a risk that caustic soda－mostly used as a strong chemical base in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents, and as a drain cleaner－has been used by some budget hotels as a cheaper “detergent” to clean the used bedding.
If luxury hotel rooms are not immune to compromised hygiene conditions, there would be fairly limited options left for travelers who want a clean bed and a tidy bathroom. Changing bedding is arguably the least every hotel should do to serve guests and stay in the business. Dirty bedding, on the other hand, could deal a major blow to customers’ confidence in the overall management of hotels, five-star or not.
Photo:Ifeng.com
Urging customers to keep a sharp eye on the hotel rooms they book is too much to ask. Without designed detective equipment, one is not likely to notice unchanged bedding and not properly cleaned toilet seats. The supervisory gray area merits extra vigilance by the health and family planning authorities at all levels.
That established hotel operators have been accused of putting profit before proper service came as a shock to many, adding to the fact that even streamlined hotel managements have loopholes.
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