UK budget hotel rooms teeming with mould, blood and faeces
London:
Budget hotels in the UK have been found to be contaminated
with blood, mould, urine and even faeces, an investigation
has revealed. In fact, the "most disturbing" discovery
was made in a room at the Ibis hotel on Charles Street
in Manchester-there the mattress was so badly soiled that
the cover had started to fray and mould had begun to grow.
The
investigation by the consumer group 'Which?', during stays
at the UK's five most visited budget hotel chains, also
found food debris and stray fingernails lying on the floor,
and duvets with suspected blood stains. The five hotel
chains investigated were -Travelodge, Premier Inn, Jurys
Inn, Ibis and Comfort Inn. "The rooms we inspected varied
quite significantly when it came to standards of cleanliness,
adding a whole new meaning to the concept of a dirty weekend,"
The Telegraph quoted the report as saying. The investigation
found that carpets in one of these hotels contained high
levels of dust and the mattress was in such an appalling
condition that mould was growing on it. Other than that,
bathrooms were seen with urine streaked down the outside
of a toilet and faeces on the toilet seat. The report
claimed that the revelations come, as the budget hotel
sector seems to be bucking the downward trend in the hotel
market amid the economic downturn. For the investigation
researchers from Which? Holiday inspected 16 rooms in
budget chain hotels in London and Manchester during a
four-day period in September 2008.
Lorna
Cowan editor of Which? Holiday magazine said: "Our investigation
was only a snapshot, but we are concerned about the standards
of cleanliness we found. "It is clear from our research
that bacteria can be eliminated if appropriate cleaning
materials and methods are used - as was the case in some
of the rooms we inspected. Paying guests should be guaranteed,
at the very least, a clean room." Experts called for a
single accepted standard for hygiene in hotels across
the UK to help improve standards.
-Jan
5, 2009
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