An Open Letter to the Hospitality Industry

I mentioned here in another post that I have a dust mite allergy …

These can affect me (and anbody else suffering with this) through three ways I’ve identified:

1. The Laundry
2. The Carpet (if any)
3. The HVAC system (if forced air)

Most hotels reduced their cleaning during the pandemic without realizing what effect this would have on a set of their customers (including me).

The ones I’ve tried recently:

Interurban Tukwila WA

Comfort Suites Tukwila WA

Courtyard by Marriott Tukwila WA

Interurban was the best … they just need their HVAC system serviced as they don’t have carpet (in the room I was in anyway).

The Marriott was the worst … I spent 3 days in Boston in a Marriott in 2015 that was just about this bad where my dust mite allergy was on display hugely. (I moved to a new hotel my next trip to Boston and the problem went away.)

How would Marriott and the others fix this problem if they wanted to?

1. Clean carpets! Every 3 months at least. I understand this may be “impractical” cost-wise but there’s a way to do this without real carpet cleaning:

I tried this in our house, but I didn’t use enough.

This could be the solution for a busy hotel without breaking the bank.

2. HVAC system cleaning … every 3 months for this one too.

3. Change the sheets (especially pillowcases) every other day minimum.

This is all easy to do: if you want to keep my business.

Otherwise: I will stay home (or keep looking for a hotel that cleans this way).

We’ve stayed several times at the Embassy Suites in Tukwila WA… I didn’t stay there this trip because Hilton’s web site wasn’t working … but I will try them in a couple of weeks … Hilton may have this figured out when nobody else has.

I’ll keep everybody posted on this. Thanks for reading.