There’s a disgustingly high chance your hotel is full of vermin

THERE’s a high chance you won’t be able to book your next holiday without thinking about this. No, seriously, it’s gross.

WE DON’T mean to ruin your next holiday but there could be something lurking in your hotel room.

Apparently vermin love staying in hotels too. That’s right, we’re talking mice scurrying down the halls, roaches snacking at the continental breakfast and ants climbing on the kitchenette.

According to a study conducted by Amerisleep, which looked at 8,000 reports from inspectors from over 3,400 hotels, motels and inns in Florida in 2015 and 2016, more than one in ten (12 per cent) of hotels, motels, and inns have had a vermin problem, the New York Post reports.

Vermin violations make up seven per cent of all of the health and safety violations that inspectors found at these properties.

Insects like ants and roaches are common complaints but rodent issues also occur. Sometimes inspectors didn’t actually see the creatures but did see things like chewed food and packaging or droppings from a creature.

More than one in ten hotels, motels, and inns included in the study have had a vermin problem.

The study may only be limited to Florida hotels, but it still makes an apt point which could highlight a much larger, disturbing trend.

“While this study is limited only to minor infractions and covers just one region, we take this issue very seriously,” Rosanna Maietta, a spokesperson for the American Hotel & Lodging Association said.

She added that the hotel industry “places the utmost importance on a safe and clean environment for its guests” and “has proactive measures and services in place, including regular inspections and monitoring.”

But thankfully, vermin aren’t the number one complaint at hotels. At one- and two-star hotels, the number one complaint goes to buildings in need of repair, while at mid-range hotels, that ranking goes to garbage violations.

The good news is that most violations — vermin and otherwise — in hotels don’t tend to be that threatening to guests’ health and safety. And many are things you wouldn’t even notice yourself.

Still, no one wants to risk sharing the sheets with a six- or eight-legged creature — or even drinking from an unclean cup.

A version of this article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced here with permission.