Why Tourists Should Avoid Shower Curtains In Their Hotel Rooms

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While there are obvious red flags to look out for when booking a hotel, several others can slip under the radar because of how good most hotels are at presenting a clean image. First impressions matter, as do online pictures, and hotels know this better than most. Quite often, the scrumptious-looking hotel breakfast is best avoided because of how long it has been sitting out. Even when you've entered your hotel room and things look spic and span, that may not always be the case. While some parts of the room are deep-cleaned between guests, other areas may just be given a cursory check to ensure they look presentable. In practical terms, this means that you'll not see obvious signs like dust and cobwebs. However, many surfaces that may have germs are unlikely to have been wiped or disinfected because they look fine to a cursory glance. You're unlikely to closely observe the room's curtain rods or the area behind the television, so these spaces aren't cleaned as rigorously. More problematic are infrequently disinfected areas that you end up coming in close contact with.

The bathroom is rife with zones that get the cursory clean, making it home to some of the dirtiest surfaces in a hotel room. The damp environment, combined with everything a hotel bathroom is used for, makes it a hotbed for germs. The shower curtain is a perfect example of a space that's occasionally checked and rarely given a deep cleansing. A hotel chain's cleaning guide, sourced by Buzzfeed, actually found that the shower curtains were checked once a week and only cleaned once every several weeks!

There are two factors that influence how rigorously a particular spot in a hotel room is cleaned and, by extension, how grime or germ-infested it may be. The first is how visible the area is, and the second is how easy it is to reach. The bathroom in general requires close attention, since it is most susceptible to bacterial growth and is a space that you generally want to be clean. Some studies have found the bathroom counter to be the most laden with germs out of all areas in the hotel room. Fortunately, most areas of the bathroom are relatively easy, except, of course, the shower curtain.

A pack of antibacterial wet tissues, like Clorox disinfecting wipes, is useful to have on hand while traveling and can help mitigate how many potentially unclean surfaces you come in contact with. Simply wipe down parts of the bathroom that you'll come in frequent contact with, like the tap faucets, toilet seat, electrical switches, and more.

You can also use the wipes on the shower curtain, focusing on the curtain's lower half, which often collects the most grime. Alternatively, consider hotels with glass partitions instead of curtains in the shower cubicles, and generally keep a distance from the curtain. For example, if there's a bathtub and a shower curtain, try not to get too close to the curtain when using the tub. Some hotels may even give the curtains an additional scrub if you make a request.