Inside Out

Dirty Hotels

London's iconic Marble Arch, is one of the most recognised landmarks we have and helps draw over 26 million tourists to London every year. These tourists all have to sleep somewhere and they choose from the huge selection of hotels, from budget to luxury, that the Capital has to offer.

The problem is, these hotels are on average, the most expensive hotels in the world (aside from Tokyo) yet there is a problem with an ever-increasing volume of complaints about basic hygiene in the rooms. It is not cheap to stay in London and it seems it may not be clean either.

Hotel shower getting swabbed

Mould in the showers, bed bugs, pubic hairs on mattresses. Blood and urine stains. The list of gruesome finds in London's hotels would shock those of the strongest constitution. So is it really as bad as all that?

We sent reporter David Akinsanya to investigate what was on offer in terms of accommodation in London hotels. He started his research on the Internet, as many an overseas visitor would probably do. With a budget of between £50 to £200 he was to play the tourist and book into a variety of hotels. With the high cost of the rooms, his budget was stretched to breaking point, but this high expenditure should surely guarantee a high level of comfort and hygiene.

Before setting off David contacted Adam Rafael from the Good Hotel Guide who's been monitoring hotels independently for 20 years.
"Frankly Americans come here and they are appalled as they would pay half what they pay in the US and the standards are not really good. So I think there's a real problem in London." He said.  

David books three different hotels in London; one for £50.00, one for £130.00 and the final one for £200.00.

At the budget end is The Lonsdale Hotel in Bloomsbury. On the Internet it looked great. The room is not exactly a palace but then it's at the bottom of the price range, and is not bad for £50.00.

Microbiologist Jim Francis

David however is no expert on cleanliness so he asked a professional to come in and check out the hotel. Jim Francis runs one of the countries leading microbiology labs. He can spot the kind of dirt in a room that you'd rather not know about.

Within a few minutes Jim and David don white disposable gowns to avoid cross-contamination with the objects they intend to inspect around the room.

Jim gets straight to work swabbing key areas in the bedroom such as the door handles, cups, saucers and spoons. Anywhere where you would come into contact with germs by touch. The telephone handset is one such area that can harbour germs if not kept clean. People touch it with their face and may also cough into it and these areas can direct transfer bacteria to the next user. Jim takes swabs from the receiver and puts them into containers with special gel that preserves the bacteria until he gets back to the lab to take the tests.

"What I'm looking for is nasty bacteria that will cause illness", he tells David.
Jim then tests the bathroom, in particular the toilet area, paying special attention again to the areas that you would touch by hand, such as the toilet lid and seat. He then gets a real shock. He spies some brown matter on the bathroom ceiling, "Oh no what's that? Well I know what it looks like. We'll take a sample of it and find out. It looks like poo. It's really gross"…

Sarah Johnston of the Lonely Planet Guides

The tests over and they check out. The analysis reveals Staphylococcus a. bacteria on the cups spoons and handset of the phone. That's a bug that can make you quite ill. And as for the brown material on the ceiling? Well yes it was poo. A definite fail in Jim's book.

They find out how London hotels have sunk so low David meets up with Sarah Johnston of the Lonely Planet Guides. She says: "In London hotels the inspection regime is entirely voluntary. If an inspector finds something wrong, they only tell the hotelier and not the authorities. In Continental Europe, by contrast, the schemes are statutory and heavily policed".

A bathroom under a UV light

Second stop is the Comfort Inn at Kings Cross, a middle of the road hotel where a family may stop. It costs £100.00 for the room. David meets up with Jim in the bathroom.

'Put these goggles on. The ultraviolet lamp will check for things we can't usually see…' Jim explains that any urine will show up brightly under the UV lamp. Sure enough, there were runs of unwashed urine all around the bottom of the pedestal. The toilet area hasn't been cleaned effectively.

'this is awful…. really disgusting" says Jim. He takes a piece of tissue and wets it to show how easy it is to clean the area properly and sure enough the cleaned patch shows up under UV. It didn't take much effort at all.

Lab tests reveal the presence of E. Coli bacteria in the bathroom - obviously a nasty bug that can cause stomach upsets. Jim also gives this hotel a fail.

Finally David splashed out £200 on the Thistle Hotel Bloomsbury… for that he should really be able to eat off the floor. Jim gives it the general thumbs up but then spots a problem with the showerhead.

There's a pink ring around the shower head. "'This pink staining is a bacteria.. you're effectively taking a shower in bacteria'.

David Akinsanya

The presence of Pseudomonas was confirmed back at Jim's lab.... it's a type of bacteria associated with skin rashes and even eye infections …Jim passes the room but fails the shower head.

Sadly what David's seen isn't uncommon - and it seems the rest of the world has a very jaded view of London's hotels. Customers it seems are powerless. One of the things about London hotels is that the inspection regime is entirely voluntary... so an inspector can come in and find something wrong but they're only going to tell the hotel they're not going to tell the authorities… in continental Europe in contrast, the schemes are statutory and very strictly policed.

Jim's view is simple, "It's not rocket science. We're just asking them to clean and clean properly. Use cleaning agents and let the cleaners have enough time to do it."
We asked the Hotels visited for their reaction to what we found. 

The Comfort Inn said: 'Cleaning and hygiene are a very important part of our daily housekeeping and we're disappointed that this room fell through the net - every room in the hotel has subsequently been checked and we're introducing a regular independent review to ensure this doesn't happen again'

The Thistle hotel said: 'we take Health and safety very seriously at Thistle Hotels.. and regularly inspect and treat our showerheads so were surprised to hear that the bacterium pseudomonas was present. Following this report, however, our existing precautions will be intensified'

There was no response from the Lonsdale.