Enhanced Hotel Room Cleaning: Environmental Microbiological Sampling Investigation in a Midscale Hotel Property

The purpose of our study was to illustrate the efficacy of an enhanced cleaning process during a pandemic by quantifying generic and pathogenic microorganisms before and after cleaning in hotel rooms. The objectives of our study were to: 1) sample high-touch surfaces before and after the rooms were cleaned and 2) swab high-touch surfaces using an adenosine triphosphate (ATP) meter before and after the rooms were cleaned. Overall, 10 rooms and 37 surfaces per room were sampled before and after cleaning. The results showed that several areas of the room had a higher Staphylococcus aureus, aerobic plate, and E.coli/coliform count after cleaning, suggesting that contaminated towels were being used to clean various surfaces in the rooms. In addition, we found no correlation between microbial counts and ATP meter readings. These results show that a more effective method needs to be assessed for practitioners to effectively quantify environmental safety in hotel rooms.