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New Hotel Rooms Promise To Keep Bacteria In Check

POSTED: 2:54 pm PDT July 9, 2007
UPDATED: 4:03 pm PDT July 9, 2007

Experts said every time you check into a hotel room, you leave a little piece of yourself behind.

Two companies are converting hotel rooms across the country into allergy free, germ-free environments, promising to reduce over 90 percent of the bacteria and viruses in a room.

Tim Dagit is allergic to pollen, mold, cats and spinach.

“I take Clarinex every day and I have a nasal spray as well,” said Dagit.

When it’s time for Dagit to head to a hotel, his pre-travel routine is nothing to sneeze at.

“I add the Sudafed and the eardrops. I call ahead and I ask them to remove the feathers from the room,” said Dagit.

Feathers in down comforters and pillows that potentially harbor dust mites live in many hotel rooms, experts said.

When Dagit heard about a new hypo-allergenic hotel room, it sounded too good to be true.

“Basically, laughed about the concept,” said Dagit.

He wasn’t laughing after spending the night in a so-called “pure room,” created by Pure Solutions. The company has converted rooms in over 30 hotels nationwide.

“We take a seven-step process that converts an existing hotel room as you see it into a very healthy, allergy-friendly environment,” said Brian Brault of Pure Solutions.

Pure Solutions’ process promised to cut down on things like bacteria, pollen and dust.

“The very first thing we do is to clean and sanitize the air handling system. We then install a tea tree oil cartridge,” said Brault.

The company claims the cartridge is a natural disinfectant.

The room is then shocked with a four-hour ozone treatment that Pure Solutions said kills any remaining odor and bacteria.

“I was shocked at how effective it was,” said Dagit.

A special mist is also applied to all surfaces as a bacterial shield.

Brault said, “The bacteria cannot adhere itself to any surfaces and, therefore, it can't get to a food source and dies."

Another company, Environmental Technology Solutions, takes a different approach with its “enviro-rooms.”

“We actually went from the beginning and completely gutted the room,” said Nick Nardella of Environmental Technology Solutions.

The company replaces rugs with hardwood floors and window treatments with wooden panels and blinds.

“So the person that checked out before you, the hair spray, the deodorant, the cologne, is not going to be absorbed in the carpet, not going to be absorbed in the drapes," said Nardella.

Whatever room you check into, you will also find allergy friendly bedding and air purification systems.

But can these treatments really stifle those sneezes? Allergist Dr. Robert Hamilton said some of the methods are tried and true.

“That they've washed the bedding effectively, removing upholstered furniture, removing curtains,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton said, in theory, ozone can kill bacteria and mold.

“But in practice, whether it's beneficial in this particular room, I think the verdict is still out,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton said he was not entirely convinced the tea tree oil and anti-bacterial mist could get the job done.

“I think a lot more work needs to be done to show the utility or validity of these types of treatments,” said Hamilton.

Pure Solutions and Environmental Technology Solutions said they have research that shows a benefit to their techniques.

Dagit said, “It works great. I didn't have any of the usual symptoms I have when sleeping in a hotel room."

Staying in a hypo-allergenic hotel room costs typically $10 to $15 extra per night.

Right now, enviro-rooms are only available at the Hilton O’Hare in Chicago, but the company will be expanding to more hotels, as well as hospitals, within the next year.

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