Hotel room coffee makers are actually really gross

THAT Nespresso machine in your hotel room might be convenient. But you are better off going out and buying your morning coffee.

Before you pour yourself a free cup of joe from that hotel room coffee maker, ask yourself: does it come with a side of germs?

The good news is your hotel room coffee maker probably isn’t any dirtier than the one at your office. The bad news is, that one is pretty germy, too.

You’re probably better off sampling the local coffee shop instead of getting your caffeine fix from the coffee maker stocked with free Nespresso pods in your hotel room.

South Nassau Communities Hospital‘s Department of Medicine chairman Aaron Glatt said all food-related appliances carried health risks.

“Any food-related item could potentially be a source of contamination, but as the coffee is brewed or boiled, this is less likely to be a common source of infection transmission. In any event, these items should be regularly cleaned as per the manufacturer’s recommendations,” Dr Glatt said.

It’s the “regular cleaning part” that’s the issue here. In order to prevent mould and bacteria from growing inside of coffee makers, they need to be cleaned every few months with vinegar. Hot water alone won’t kill the mould, so don’t think a quick rinse in the sink will cleanse your communal coffee maker.

Hotel room coffee machines are probably not cleaned properly or regularly.

But how often do you think hotels are doing this to in-room coffee makers?

A study by the University of Valencia tested nine different Nespresso machines that had been in use for at least one year. The report states: “All the machines revealed a significant bacterial diversity, with the total number of identified genera ranging from 35 to 67,” meaning a “moderately to highly abundant” quantity.

And it’s not just the inside of the hotel room coffee maker that you have to worry about.

“An interesting thing about germs in hotel rooms is that they aren’t solely due to the people staying in those rooms,” Dr Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology and environmental sciences at the University of Arizona, warns.

“In fact, we’ve done virus tracer studies where we found that maids move the viruses from room to room during cleaning.”

Think the coffee pot in the hotel lobby might be a better choice? Dr Gerba has studied communal coffee machines in office break rooms, too.

“In studying the spread of a tracer virus, we found that the coffee pot handle in the break room was one of the first contaminated articles with the virus,” he says.

“So, my suggestion is to always get your coffee first in the morning.”

This article originally appeared in SmarterTravel and was reproduced with permission.