CleanStay
 

I found this article about Hilton's new CleanStay program/branding interesting: https://onemileatatime.com/hilton-ho...ing-standards/.

This new set of housekeeping practices is Hilton’s attempt to get folks comfortable with staying in hotel rooms again.

Remember the paper strip that hotels used to put across the toilet to assure you that it had been cleaned and not used after cleaning? They’ve essentially brought that back…But stickier and as a seal for the room door. Of course, it doesn’t really tell you anything about how thoroughly the room was actually cleaned, how often the duvet insert is cleaned, or (most importantly) how much time has passed since the last person entered the room. Most people would want to have a room that hasn’t been entered in two days, since that way anything that’s been breathed on will be coronavirus-free, even if it is a bit dirty. But, of course, hotels can’t guarantee that, because their business model depends (if they have any level of occupancy) on guests checking out of a room in the morning and new guests checking into that same room the same evening.

Oh… They also are stressing mobile phone app check-in and room key. But that’s something they’ve been trying to get people to use for a year or two. It used to be sold as a means of skipping check-in lines and avoiding having to fish around for a key card in your pocket. Now it’s being sold as a sanitary measuse for avoiding interacting with a person at the front desk or touching a reused key card.

I heard about this a week or so ago, but my upcoming stay won't include this. But, I do my own cleaning anytime I stay in a hotel anyway. All housekeepers do is spread germs from one room to another using the same disgusting dirty rags😬

I have made it a point to proactively do the Digital Key for the few stays I have had since the coronavirus spread. Been careful to minimize things I touch including choosing ground floor rooms (which I typically avoid like the plaque) so I wont need the elevator

I still can't bring myself to use the digital keys, mainly since I hate having to flip through an app every time to get in my room, but also because i don't like having to bring my phone to the gym when I work out. That being said, I definitely lysol the room keys and clean the room on my own when I first get in anyway.

I find the digital room key often has issues at smaller hotels such as Hampton Inn, HGI, etc in smaller communities. I’ll also add that housekeeping has never been a strong suit at most of the Hilton properties I stay at. I can’t imagine they will improve much. This seems like a lot of PR.

Well, personally I think that this is a pretty good initiative, with the co-branding with RB and all, but this being FT, of course the first comment to start the thread needs to be skeptical and somewhat negative...


Oh, so you're the person who comes into the gym like no one else is there and sets the TV to blast Fox News at deafening volume since you don't bring your own music. Really appreciate that. :p


Also, while people have been getting all worked up about surface transmission and infectious particles lingering around for a long time, the amount of detectable material drops off exponentially - the 24 or 48 or 72 hour figures we hear people cite are literally the limit of detection with laboratory equipment, not a statement on whether that is anywhere near sufficient viral load to cause infection. See below. The literature I've reviewed has only found one suspected case of surface transmission. So frankly, while I'm not an "expert"*, I personally think that the scare about surface transmission is highly overblown.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c071510872.png


(*Of course these days everyone is an "expert", when the most-read author on this subject is some guy who worked for a video game company...)

Actually, I'm the one doing a quick 20 minute circuit training workout that lets me get in and out with a better workout and not having to waste time with tv distractions :)

The problem is of more recent reports of people that have contracted the coronavirus and never left the house, but had groceries delivered without human contact. The virus was most likely transferred via surface of the groceries. imo

All the more reason to have your phone; I find mine invaluable for interval timing since a significant percentage of hotel clocks are non-functional or don't have an easy-to-see second measurement.

I was a slow adopter to digital key, but I really took to it in the first couple months of this year and it became second nature. I think of it this way - all of the fiddling with an app to open doors across stays still adds up to less than one single 10+ minute wait at a check-in desk during a buy period.


Provide data please. And remember, the sum of "anecdotes" <> "data". FWIW, a quick google search on this topic shows one case, of one individual in North Carolina who, *drumroll*, in fact did leave the house.

Generally speaking, while I'm 100% bought in on the seriousness of this and the danger that the virus poses, there's also an empirical perspective that has to be respected here - if this virus was infecting people through all the crazy channels that people are afraid of - third-hard transfers from surfaces, 100-meter travels through air ducts, water, pools, dog hair, luminiferous ether (I mean, I'm only half joking - have you seen some of the crazy questions via Twitter on the CNN town halls?), then we'd all have it by now.

For context, the best estimates are that the R-naught is something like 1/8 of that measles or 1/2 that of SARS. The fact that it has "only" spread as far as it has means that there is some threshold of exposure and that, in my mind, sensible measures should prevail. I'm simply not going to convince myself that it's hanging around for weeks on random surfaces, waiting to get me. I'm very cautious, but there's a limit to that where it digresses into the realm of the unbelievable.

I mixed up the reports I read. It was basically 66% of recent hospitalized patients had been quarantining at home in NY.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/66-of-ny-coronavirus-hospitalizations-are-people-who-stayed-home/#app

The other stories were in other countries where elderly folks contracted the virus and had no outside contact. But groceries.

Again...data? Obviously people who are under restrictions are going to claim they "never went out".

Think about it...if packages left on doorsteps were a serious vector, then the stay at home orders and lockdowns would have had no impact; whereas in actuality they have had a profound impact. It's easy to be scared, but sometimes we just need to think a bit...

Without knowing what literature you have reviewed it’s hard to comment specifically, but while many cases can be traced to the proximity of an infected individual in many of those cases there is the potential for both surface and airborne transmission and I don’t think it is feasible to determine which was the actual cause - an in fact with community spread more and more cases cannot be traced to a source. At the same time, there are certainly anecdotal cases of suspected surface transmission - remember the NBA player who deliberately touched the microphone and table at a press conference?

I do agree that the exponential decay does substantially reduce the risk over time, but in a gym - or grocery store - I would still be worried about the person who touched the surface within the last hour.

Yes - we are in agreement. The post I was responding to was suggesting that hotel rooms needed to be empty for two days after the previous guest used them.