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A bare and grungy hotel room.

The 10 Dirtiest Things in a Hotel Room

Everyone assumes a certain amount of grime when they stay at a hotel. We all just sort of collectively decide, to either ignore it or not care. But even considering this, there are some things you may want to steer clear of—or maybe wipe down.

  1. TV Remote
    Just about every study conducted on hotel rooms ever conducted comes back listing TV remotes as the grossest thing possible. Everyone touches them, and nobody washes them. They’ve even found MRSA on them—the same garbage in the poop-filled waters of the Olympics. Better bring wipes.
  2. Light Switches
    Like the TV remote, people touch the light switch all the time. Right before bed, right upon awakening, stumbling around to and from the bathroom—you name it. But light switches aren’t generally on the list of things that get TLC when you’re cleaning a room. It’s a bad combination.
  3. Maid’s Mop and Sponge
    The brutal irony of sponges is that they’re basically incubators for all manner of hideous bacteria, and then people try to clean stuff with them. A University of Houston study showed that these disgusting germ conservatories are among the filthiest parts of a hotel, and then they get smeared around on everything else.
  4. Pillowcases
    It sort of makes sense that some things like comforters might not get the full run-down every single time. But a Today Show report revealed that in more than one hotel chain, the pillows are just tossed to the side and put back dirty. That’s cool. It’s not like there’s dandruff or drool or anything on them.
  5. Comforter
    There’s no accounting for what may or may not happen on the comforter in your room, but there is accounting for how often it’s cleaned. Apparently, that can be as seldom as once every three months.
  6. Glasses and Cups
    Ever notice you never see glasses on a cleaning cart like you do with sheets? A host of hidden camera studies by an Australian news site found that time and time again they just got rinsed out and set back down—if they got anything. What’s worse is they’re usually dried with the same towel that tackled the toilet — room cleanings tend to be “one for all” as far as towels go.
  7. The Phone
    Like the TV remote, it’s something that gets handled often and cleaned just about never. The sheets may get cleaned, but the tools seldom do. And while you may have a hard time imagining that anyone uses the hotel phone anymore, you’d be surprised.
  8. The Faucet
    The faucet goes into the same category as the remote and light switches. The handles get…well, handled, all the time. But they don’t seem to be on anyone’s radar for cleaning. This is extra unfortunate considering it’s the thing that has the highest probability of being touched right after someone uses the bathroom.
  9. Bathtub
    You can be skeezed out over the number of people that have put their naked posteriors where yours is, but honestly, the size of the surface is your real enemy here. It’s not uncommon to drench a huge surface like this in a toxic cleaner and then half-heartedly rinse it off instead of making sure the chemicals are cleaned away.
  10. Shower Curtains
    Like bedspreads, shower curtains apparently only need to be cleaned once every three months. Which sounds okay until you open that one fold at the very front that’s just been fused shut for eternity and find it’s full of mold.
Last Updated: January 22, 2024