Gadling

With the way media news travels, one would think that hotel water glasses are no longer being squirted with glass cleaner and are being properly washed. The Atlanta news story about the questionable methods of cleaning hotel room glasses aired in November. It’s been two months since Martha’s post on these germ vectors.

If an article in yesterday’s Columbus Dispatch is reflective on the current hotel glasses scene, Martha’s advice to bring your own glasses might be well heeded–or, be prepared to wash glasses yourself, just in case. Don’t let that clean paper lid fool you. A team of reporters in Columbus recently pulled an undercover investigation similar to what was done in Atlanta area hotels and found similar results. The experiment of using glasses and then filming what happens after wards showed that although some of the high end hotels were in compliance with the standard others were not. At some of the high end hotels, infractions ranged from glass cleaner being used, glasses being wiped with a dirty towel and soap not being used to clean the glasses, only water.

When we stayed at a hotel in January, I was wary about the glasses and cleaned them myself. Martha’s post had a direct influence. Thanks, Martha. When I looked at the maid’s cleaning cart, I didn’t notice clean glasses ready to be put in rooms. What I think would be a great invention is a portable glass cleaner that could be attached to the bathroom sink. A maid could bring into a room, plug it in, pop in the two or four glasses that need to be cleaned, do the rest of the room while the glasses are going through the cycle and by the time she (or he) is done, the glasses would be sanitized and sparkling. If we’re heading towards space tourism, isn’t there a way we can get the glasses clean here on earth? By the way, coffee cups are also an issue.