Avoid Hotel and Travel Ick

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I know you’ve seen the hidden camera investigations revealing the disgust of hotel rooms. Ugh. Those shows are enough to keep even the most non-germ-a-phobe home for years.

One of the first things I used to when I was a flight attendant and sleeping in a hotel three nights a week (after checking for creepy strangers hiding under my bed) is use sanitizing wipes on the phone, remote and door handles. (Have you seen those shows?) Now that I’m thinking about it, this is a habit I should pick up again.

Another habit I acquired, which is unlikely to ever cease, is not using hotel dresser drawers. I either hang up my clothes or keep them in my suitcase. Why? Because once I opened a hotel dresser drawer to find it filled dirty, stinky shirts, socks and underwear. That moment was enough to make me swear off using hotel drawers forever (you don’t really think hotel dresser interiors are ever sanitized, do you?). Of course, if everyone used Rojeti Travel Laundry Bags for their dirty clothes, I might be more inclined to reconsider. Have you seen these bags? They are cute zippered laundry bags that hang on clothes hangers. They come in a variety of colors and are eco-friendly since they replace the need for using disposable plastic bags. Each of the TravelingMamas has a Rojeti (thank you, Joyce!) – so feel free to ask the other Mamas what they think of theirs. I love mine!

My personal phobias don’t stop with hotel rooms. After those thousands of hours spent on aircraft I’ve also become quite squeamish about airplane ick. As you’ve read before, I stock up on hand sanitizer and taking precautions to avoid getting sick. I also bring my handy dandy (and super cute) hot pink Plane Comfort pillow/blanket combo (don’t worry, guys, there are other colors, too). The blanket is such a nice size it covers my entire body and is so soft and keeps me warm. The pillow easily blows up and you can use the carrying case as a soft pillow case. When the flight is over it all goes back into the bag and has a strap for over-the-shoulder carrying. To top it off, each pack comes with a matching handle cover for your luggage.

How do you deal with travel ick? I’d love to hear your stories.

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April 6, 2009 | Filed Under The Cookie Jar 

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10 Responses to “Avoid Hotel and Travel Ick”

  1. Topics about Travel » Avoid Hotel and Travel Ick says:
    April 6, 2009 at

    [...] Traveling Mamas put an intriguing blog post on Avoid Hotel and Travel IckHere’s a quick excerptI know you’ve seen the hidden camera investigations revealing the disgust of hotel rooms. Ugh. Those shows are enough to keep even the most non-germ-a-phob home for years. One of the first things I used to do when I was sleeping in a hotel three nights a week (after checking for creepy strangers hiding under my bed) is use sanitizing wipes on the phone, remote and door handles. (Have you seen those shows?) Now that I’m thinking about it, this is a habit I should pick up again. Another [...]

  2. Tamara Rice says:
    April 6, 2009 at

    One time I stayed somewhere so awful with my kids (ummm … the lamp shade had been burnt to a crisp, the window didn’t shut all the way and there were roaches … ‘nuf said). Well, I made my kids wear their socks the entire time. There was no going barefoot. In fact, it was small enough that we almost avoided the floor altogether by jumping from bed to bed to door to bathroom. lol I also removed the bedspreads (thank God it was summer). They were in a “no touch” zone.

    Needless to say, we got out of there the next morning and never would have stayed to begin with if it wasn’t so late at night and one of the only motels in town. Yuck!

  3. Brian says:
    April 6, 2009 at

    Hi Beth,

    I’m with you on the creepy strangers part…they may be in the hotel lobby bar too, by the way…but I leave the other travel and miscellaneous icks to my son…I think he watched too much Seinfeld.

    Best,

    Brian

  4. DesertMama says:
    April 7, 2009 at

    Tamara, that’s pretty bad. I’ve worn white socks in hotels and by the end of the stay they were totally black.

    Brian, good point about the creepy strangers. There were quite a few ick Seinfeld episodes, weren’t there – ha!

  5. Lorraine Akemann says:
    April 7, 2009 at

    Thanks for these tips, I like the sock ideas. One improvement that some hotels have made is that they’ve done away with the bedspread in exchange for the duvet covers (that I hope get washed along with the sheets!). Those old bedspreads just need to go – a friend of ours used to nickname them ‘the critters’!

  6. Carolina says:
    April 7, 2009 at

    So I never, ever thought of checking under the bed, when I first get there. I usually check on the way out, to make sure my son didn’t leave anything under there. Going to do that from now on for sure.

  7. Tracyn says:
    April 9, 2009 at

    We have made ‘towel’ lanes through a hotel room before! We always keep little sanitizer (pen-sized) spray on hand (no pun intended!), a few baby/travel wipes, and then always try to do our best NOT to make it obvious that something is really gross (the kids catch on too quickly, and then we find it gets actually more complicated). We find when we twist ‘icky’ into a game, it becomes more of a distraction than a ’situation’.

  8. Enjoying Travel With Kids says:
    April 11, 2009 at

    After having my daughter throw up because of drinking some very musty smelling water from the hotel taps, we “boil” all our water before drinking now. Sometimes that means just putting it through the coffee percolator if there’s nothing else. Other times it has meant buying a kettle in the country we’re in to take along with us and leave in the last hotel room.

    Sure, its not really going to “properly” sanitise the water, but its a lot better than not boiling and has prevented any recurrences of upset tummy…

  9. Ann Petronio says:
    April 13, 2009 at

    To the comment above (about “boiling” the water in the coffee pot) I’ll just ask whether you have ever really looked inside those hotel room coffee pots?? Yuck! I’d rather take my chances with the tap water.

  10. WorkingTravelingMom says:
    April 13, 2009 at

    I always utilize the hand towel to put my bathroom items(makeup, toothpaste, etc.) out on rather than the counter. I don’t know which is worse, the counter that may have other people’s germs on it or the possibility of the towel being dirty?! I picked this up from one of my stewardess friends who is a germ phobic from traveling so much too. It at least makes me feel that I am not putting these items I will use on a counter that was cleaned after the toilet!!

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