Bedspreads and Blankets NOT Washed?

[RLRDA]

Hotels don't shampoo the carpets between guests, yet most of us spend our trips walking around in bare feet and letting infants & toddlers roll around on the floor.

They don't clean furniture cushions, doorknobs, balcony railings or many other surfaces that are regularly handled by guests in villas.

Call me naive, but I just file these things away with others that I'm much better off not knowing. Things like what the kitchen staff is doing to my meal behind closed doors, who touched the ATM buttons before me, who last used the grocery cart, public bathroom, etc. So far I've managed to survive all of that danger.

Yeah, I feel this way as well. Nothing is germ free. I try not to dwell on it. I don't let my children (or myself) walk around on hotel floors without socks/slippers on... then I watched an old video (3 years ago) of my 1 year old crawling on the rug at BWV Thankfully I don't have to worry about crawling children anymore.

 

[RLevy29]

I work with 5 year olds so I am totally used to germs. I get sick with a cold maybe one time a year. We travel extensively during my off times and I have never gotten sick while on any of these vacations. I think that you have to be aware and careful but not paranoid enough to spoil youjr vacation.

 

[jdg345]

 

[DisFlan]

Black lights can show good germs, bad germs, friendly fungi, evil fungi, harmless chemical residues, harmful chemical residues, laundry detergent residue, cleaning agent residue, minute plastic particles, scorpions at night, chalk dust, lint, quinine, high lighter ink.....etc etc etc....and etc. You get the idea.

Don't bother taking one on vacation - unless you enjoy the entertainment factor. (A glowing scorpion in the dark is pretty cool.)


DisFlan

 

[DebbieB]

It cracks me up that people bring lysol to wipe down the phone, remote, door handles, etc but then their hands are all over the rides that thousands have touched. I travel thousands of miles a year and am rarely sick (one cold in 3 years). I never wipe down anything, don't worry about the blankets. I can think of only one hotel out of probably a 100 that skeezed me - an Amerisuites in Kansas City.

 

[famsen]

This is really gross. I figure they don't wash the bedspread each time new guests check in but I at LEAST expect clean sheets, pilloe sheet AND blanket.
I never use the bed spread because I assume they are filthy.
So can I request a newly washed bed spread and sheets and blanket from housekeeping when I arrive? Quite honestly, how would I even know it was a freshly cleaned one and not one just pulled from another room?
I expect not so great housekeeping from low end hotels but for what we pay at Disney, I DEMAND better service then a Motel 6.

 

[DisneyFreaks]

It cracks me up that people bring lysol to wipe down the phone, remote, door handles, etc but then their hands are all over the rides that thousands have touched.

That's why we take hand sanitizer into the parks with us. We also use disinfecting wipes on grocery cart handles and sometimes on the ride bars as well. Our DGS's doctor instructed DD to do this before his first trip to WDW and I guess we've just formed a habit. May not kill all of the nasty germs but it makes us feel safer.

 

[famsen]

Oh and by the way I do bring my own Lysol and spray everything down when we arrive and I run the dishwasher to clean all the glasses and dishes.
I also wear slippers or shoes whenever I walk on the floor.
I may be a germophobe, but I take some comfort in what I do.

 

[CarolA]

I always love these threads.

I am currently in a Holiday Inn Experss in New Mexico.

Yes, I "lounge" on the bed.

Yes, I use the spread, comforter, whatever's on top of the bed.

No, I don't travel with Lysol. I don't travel with hand sanitizer etc.

Yes, I wash my hands

Yes, I am RARELY sick.

This always strikes me as "germ phobia" run amuck!

However, I guess my linens are cleaner because so mahy people are "afraid" of them and won't use them!

As a frequent traveler for over two decades...I figure it hasn't killed me yet and I will probably be just fine.

So for those of you currently panicing over this "new" information... WHY? You did just fine for years!

 

[famsen]

That's why we take hand sanitizer into the parks with us. We also use disinfecting wipes on grocery cart handles and sometimes on the ride bars as well. Our DGS's doctor instructed DD to do this before his first trip to WDW and I guess we've just formed a habit. May not kill all of the nasty germs but it makes us feel safer.

Yep. I also bring travel size bottles of hand sanitizers to the parks. I use it after every ride and after touching money.

 

[DisFlan]

I always love these threads.

I am currently in a Holiday Inn Experss in New Mexico.

Yes, I "lounge" on the bed.

Yes, I use the spread, comforter, whatever's on top of the bed.

No, I don't travel with Lysol. I don't travel with hand sanitizer etc.

Yes, I wash my hands

Yes, I am RARELY sick.

This always strikes me as "germ phobia" run amuck!

However, I guess my linens are cleaner because so mahy people are "afraid" of them and won't use them!

As a frequent traveler for over two decades...I figure it hasn't killed me yet and I will probably be just fine.

So for those of you currently panicing over this "new" information... WHY? You did just fine for years!

Increased germ fears crop up as a phenomenon every now and then - it may be connected to a period of social or economic stress. This is in addition to being told by manufacturers (who buy air time and ad space) and media (who sell air time and ad space) that we NEED these products to protect ourselves. Currently, marketing wizards are mining big bucks from the germ-a-fad. And, of course, millions of edgy consumers have fallen for the marketing. Big time. They shell out billions for products to "protect" them from an unseen world.

If smearing sanitizers and wipes all over the immediate vicinity or bringing sheets from home makes someone feel better or safer or more in control, I guess it's cheaper than therapy.



DisFlan

 

[MiaSRN62]

Just wanted to make a comment about the glasses not being washed. I am sure most places do a quick rinse and wipe (I saw the 20/20 special too). But we just stayed at VB last month. I know the housekeepers switched out our used mugs with new clean ones. I saw the clean ones on their carts and I saw the dirty ones placed in a big bin and taken away. We stayed 8 days so we had a good amount of time to witness this. But I never saw clean comforters being brought into the rooms.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

(or put it in a ziploc)

Great idea. I'll be using that one.

I think If I just address the remotes and shopping cart handles, I'm good.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I know that I've seen bedspreads in the bundles the Mousekeepers had with new sheets when we stayed at OKW.

Bobbi

I agree. I think the spreads are cleaned on a schedule, and I have seen them both fresh and not so fresh. The mousekeepers baskets always have fresh sheets, towels, and mattress pads. I get a little squeemed out by using a pillow that only has a case covering it, so I bring my own there!

 

[crisi]

I figure that by the time I've shared a very small kingdom with 75,000 other people for a day (many of them, children), I've pretty much lost my advantage over germs.

The way I understand germ theory is its a little more like an action movie. You start out conquering small swarms of bad guys - as life progresses, every small swarm you knock off makes you stronger for the next swarm of bad guys. Until you can take out an entire regiment of Nazi's with a whip and the minor minions are offed simply by random events occurring in your presence. A big bad guy might still knock you around.

So you are gaining an advantage over germs by exposing yourself to them.

 

[dianeschlicht]

The way I understand germ theory is its a little more like an action movie. You start out conquering small swarms of bad guys - as life progresses, every small swarm you knock off makes you stronger for the next swarm of bad guys. Until you can take out an entire regiment of Nazi's with a whip and the minor minions are offed simply by random events occurring in your presence. A big bad guy might still knock you around.

So you are gaining an advantage over germs by exposing yourself to them.

Good analogy! The problem is that some of us have more compromised immune systems than others and those people have to adjust acordingly.

 

[JodyTG]

The majority of bacteria and viruses cannot live for long at all without a host...we're talking seconds or minutes, not hours or days.

We just have to be smart about it. If it looks dirty, it probably is. If it looks clean, then it's probably not dirty.

It just seems to me that people weren't sick as often before the antibacterial hand gel craze and travel size Lysol became a must have.
* I used to eat dirt as a child (well, I did have the absolute best mud pies around) and I'm still here.
* We scraped snow off of cars and my grandmother made snow ice-cream.
* I could go on and on and on...but you get the idea.

As someone else said, you can't develop immunity to something until you experience it.

 

[honeymo78]

And remember, germs evolve too. The more people use sanitizers the more those bugs develop characteristics that make them immune to the sanitizers.

Not only does over protecting yourself from germs keep your body from developing natural immunities (in a normal immune system), it encourages the germs to evolve into "superbugs" which are immune to conventional germ killers.

 

[JodyTG]

Exactly! The overuse of antibiotics is what led to MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) that is killing people. A staph infection used to be bad, but now it can be deadly.

I don't want to go all microbiology class on y'all and describe how mutations happen, but we need to chill out on the antibiotics/antiseptics. We need to wash our hands with plain-old soap and water and save the Lysol for the obvious/important stuff.

 

[kathrna]

Germ-a-phobe or not, people DO things on these beds. Change diapers, sex, accidents, sit on the bed to get dressed (bare bottom and all).

One could throw the blanket in the washer when you get there. I take heart in thinking that the sheets are clean. We've been staying in studios lately (no washer). I've been bringing my own "blankey" just because I like it better. I'm always too hot with the Velux blanket. I like my cotton thermal one. But I've got an andvantage that I drive up here and have the car space. But if I didn't, I'd throw it in the washer. And I fold down the spread when I sleep and put it back on during the day so it looks nice. And we sit on it to watch TV.

I am sure that they are laundered on a schedule, but that's not enough for me. I don't go as far as bringing a black light with me. I just like things to be clean and sanitary. Sure this is the way the hotel industry has always done it, but more people are saying something about it now.

My 2 cents.