Disturbing investigation reveals how dirty five-star hotels really are

DISTURBING investigation reveals you might not get what you pay for when it comes to expensive hotel rooms.

IF YOU’RE forking out hundreds of dollars a night to stay in a top international five-star hotel, you’d expect it to be clean, right? You might not want to read this.

A damning investigation by an independent Chinese testing team, Lanmei Test, has uncovered that top-tier hotel chains have pretty dodgy hygiene standards.

The group tested the Intercontinental, Hilton, Shangri-La, and JW Marriott and its subsidiary W Hotels in Beijing. It released a six-minute video of its results, with English subtitles, showing concerning conditions.

The video went viral on China’s social media, such as WeChat and Weibo, within hours of its release, and people were not happy.

The team recorded checking in to hotel rooms and stamping sheets, quilt covers, pillows, bathtubs, toilets and glasses with a fluorescent stamp that is invisible under normal lighting. In the video, they show how easily the stamp can be removed with just water or wiping. They then mess up the room to make it look like it has been used and then check-out.

The next day, the team returns with a UV light to examine the stamps. You can see the stamp intact on almost everything in the room.

The video mainly shows the examination of the room at the Hilton, but the team says that the results of all five hotels were shocking.

“We are stunned by their performance. The bed linen in these five hotels haven’t been changed after we checked out,” one investigator said.

The team marked the linen and bathrooms with a fluorescent stamp that is invisible under normal lighting.

The bathrooms in all five hotels didn’t pass the test either, with bathtubs and toilets not properly cleaned.

It is unclear when the video was shot but according to Quartz, Lanmei said the investigation was a follow-up of another exposé in September last year, when investigators from Inside Edition, a US-based media outlet found that nine hotel rooms in New York didn’t change their bedsheets using the same technique.

Meanwhile, Intercontinental Beijing launched an investigation to verify the video. It told Quartz in a statement that “sampled records showed that the number of changed bed linens matched the number of cleaned hotel rooms everyday.”

The team said they were “stunned” with the results.

The JW Marriott is also conducting an internal investigation and are “requiring all housekeeping associates” to complete a refresher training course on room cleaning procedures.

Shangri-La told the publication that the video did not reflect the hotel’s “high standards” but it will conduct its own investigation.

Hilton didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments from Quartz.