Using the Detector

How do you test the hygiene cleanliness of a hotel room?

In fairness to those Hotels, Motels, Airbnbs who are conscientious in maintaining hygiene cleanliness in their rooms, there are many who do not, or have staff who will take short cuts with cleaning and hygiene to make their work load easier.

Its human nature to disregard what we cannot see.  There in lies the problem.

When inspecting the hygiene and cleanliness of a Hotel room, you will be mostly looking for traces of body fluids:

Urine,  Semen,  Vaginal Fluid,  Saliva,  Sweat and Vomit

under UV light, each of these substances has a natural, low-level fluorescent glow, so do expect a supernova!  The brightness of the fluoresce will vary depending on the substance, its age and amount. Therefore you should only perform the inspection in darkness and you may need to be close to some stains in order to see them.

Hotel Room Hygiene can be split into three areas:

1.  Room Hygiene 

The first thing to do as your enter your room is take a moment and smell the air. Does it smell clean and fresh? If it smells musty or stale, that’s a sign that the room hasn’t been cleaned properly. If it smells a little too strong of air freshener, it may be helping conceal an underlying unpleasant smell within the room.

Moving round the room we find a host of frequently touched items and surfaces, eg: 

Drinking glasses, light-switches, TV remote, door handles, toilet flush, taps, guest book, menu, telephone, mini-bar and room key card etc. 

Each of these items or surfaces ‘should’ really have been hygienically cleaned after each occupancy. The likelihood is some if not all may not have been.

Do the finger-wipe test for signs of dust or dirt and you will know for sure if it has not been cleaned if you touch an item or surface which feels sticky or tacky!  Under the UV light from your Hygiene Detective Pro the surface dirt will show up clearly as glowing specs of dust and fibres and will indicate which surfaces have been housecleaned or at least ‘dusted’.

The Hygiene Detective Pro will help reveal the room’s true state of cleanliness and reveal traces of body fluids remaining on most surfaces. Check the floor and carpets too for signs of permanent staining, along with the walls, bedframe and the sides of furniture.

Hotels are unlikely to deep-clean the carpets, walls, bed-frame or furniture on a regular basis.

Pro Tip:   UV light needs darkness to deliver the best results.  Turn off the lights and close the curtains before conducting your UV inspection.

Pro Tip:   Bring your own anti-bacterial / sterilizing wipes with you to clean these items yourself.

Pro tip:  Bring bottled water and do not use the room drinking glasses.

 

2.  Bed Hygiene

The assumption we all make, is that all bed-linen; top and bottom sheets and all pillow cases, are replaced with clean laundry after each occupant.  How do we know this is so?  There have been many high profile exposé reports highlighting profound Hotel housekeeping failures (see video examples).  Cost saving is a irresistible force for hotels and hygiene shortcuts in laundry and cleaning will be inevitable. For housekeeping this means …  If it looks clean, leave it; Retook the sheets and fluff and turn the pillows!  Next room.

If we suspect the linen has not been changed then the Hygiene Inspector Pro will help you check the linen for signs of ‘recent use’ and the presence of body fluids remaining on the material!  But that is just on the surface!  The mattress will have been slept on by potentially several hundred ‘strangers’ with who knows what standards of personal hygiene or undeclared skin conditions!

Pillow cases are the one potentially dirty (ie: as used by the previous occupant) surface to actually have a prolonged, intimate contact with your face, mouth, eyes and ears!  The possibility of direct contact with head lice or someone else’s body fluids is reason enough to bring along your own clean pillow cases.

See these short exposé videos

Along with any visible and UV-visible staining or contamination of the mattress, the presence of live Bed bugs is a real possibility. Bed bugs are not known to spread disease, but their bites can be itchy and uncomfortable. Bed bugs are known to be hitchhikers and can be transported from one location to another on clothing, luggage, and other personal belongings. They are small, flat, and reddish-brown insects that feed on the blood of humans and can hide in cracks and crevices found in mattresses, bed frames, and headboards. However, bed bugs can also be found in other areas such as carpets, curtains, and furniture.

Check mattress seams and headboard and surrounding areas with your Hygiene Detective Pro and it will help you determine the hygienic state of the mattress. If you find evidence of Budbugs, you should notify the Hotel immediately and change room.

Note:  When using your Hygiene Detective Pro / UV Forensic Torch on white bed sheets, white pillow cases or white towels, you will see they react strongly to the UV light shining a bright blue, this is due to a chemical present in white cotton to improve its whiteness. The downside to this is that it may prove harder to distinguish Body fluid stains on these white fabrics.  A body fluid stain which has a weaker glow would appear as a slightly darker area on white fabric under UV light.

Pro Tip:   If there happens to spare linen in the room, change the pillow case(s) and sheets or ask housekeeping for clean bed linen.

Better Tip:   Why risk it. Bring you own clean pillow cases to use. Use distinctive patterned or coloured cases so you are less likely to leave them behind when you check out!

Pro Tip:   UV light needs darkness to deliver the best results.  Turn off the lights and close the curtains before conducting your UV inspection.

 

3.  Bathroom Hygiene

Despite bathroom furniture being specifically made to be easy to clean and maintain, hotel bathrooms are a hot spot for germs and bacteria!  The most obvious, personal hygiene risk is the loo seat. This is the one shared-contact surface which will make actual, intimate contact with your body!

Use your Hygiene Detective Pro to reveal the true state of hygiene in your bathroom. Check down the sides and behind the W.C.  Look into corners and those hard-to-reach places where housekeepers may just skip if they ‘look’ clean enough.  Also look for signs of mold as this can be a strong indicator of lapse hygiene standards.

Pro Tip:   UV light needs darkness to deliver the best results.  Turn off the lights and close the curtains before conducting your UV inspection.

Note: When using UV light to detect body fluids, it is important to be aware of the limitations of this method. UV light can only detect certain types of body fluids, and it can be difficult to identify the specific type of fluid based on its fluorescence. Additionally, UV light can be affected by other factors, such as the presence of certain chemicals or the type of surface the fluid is on.

 

Not all Hotels are the same!

It’s important to note that not all hotels are the same, and many do take great care to maintain high standards of hygiene and cleanliness. However, it’s always a good idea to take precautions when staying in a hotel or airbnb, such as bringing your own pillows or pillow cases, using disinfectant wipes on surfaces, and washing your hands frequently.

Pro Tip:   Before booking your Hotel or Airbnb, take a few minutes to check out their reviews on travelers guides such as Trip Advisor etc.  Whilst individual reviews cannot be trusted, you can get a ‘feel’ for the standard of accommodation and service they offer.

It’s important to note that not all biological fluids are visible under UV blacklight, and some substances that may appear fluorescent under UV light may not be biological in nature. Additionally, the visibility of these fluids can be affected by factors such as the age of the stain and the presence of other substances.

Do not allow children to use this product unsupervised.

Remember. Safety first!  Do not shine torch beam directly into the eyes or at faces.