Until recently, I really loved staying in hotels.
I guess that they were deeply tied to family vacations and excitement from my early childhood days, and that feeling carried over into adulthood.
I used to be giddy at the thought of packing my stuff, checking in, and watching someone else’s TV all night. These days, I am not enthusiastic at all about hotel living. You see, at a certain age, you start to realize just how freaking gross hotels really are. We already know that the room will light up like a christmas tree if you shine a black light, but what most people don’t know to watch out for is the in-suite HVAC system. I recently read an article in Nature about the bacterial and viral cultures that were collected from large hotel chains. I tried not to gag as I read that the worst of the contaminations were collected from the indoor temperature control systems. Apparently, compared to the door handles, carpet, TV remote, and toilet seat, the air filters and air vents of the tiny temperature control systems had the largest prevalence of harmful microbial cultures! It seems that most hotels do not properly service the unit HVAC systems. Bacteria are caught up in the air handling system, and then evenly dispersed through the air as it is pushed through the front vent. Apparently, your entire room could be contaminated with billions of foreign airborne pollutants and little critters. Every surface would be coated with invisible invaders, and air intake system only works to redistribute the contamination in an endless cycle. Looking up from the article, I eyeballed the suite heating and cooling system suspiciously before gathering all of my belongings and checking out a week early.