Clean Air and Air Purifiers For Guest Relief?

You may wonder what issues conspire to make for poor indoor air quality.

• dust
• skin mites
• molds and mildews
• germs, aka viruses and bacteria
• VOCs from things like:
  • finishes on fabric, floor, wall paper, etc
  • paint and varnishes
  • glues
  • plastics
  • cleaning supplies
  • air fresheners
• pet dander
• pollution
• herbicides and pesticides

It's the "intentional" room pollutants that bother me most. Not that they are any more dangerous, but that they aren't carefully avoided. I hate to see policies that intentionally make it worse for guests with allergy and breathing problems. Are you doing that?

Does housekeeping spritz rooms with either cleaning products or air fresheners, or "signature scents"? Perhaps you choose sweet smelling soap or shampoo for your guests. By all means "clean smelling" linens are critical, at least according to marketers. All of this is your best intention for your guests' staying pleasure. All that intended pleasure is torture for many people.

Why isn't clean a clean enough smell? Why don't you worry about what you take the minimalist approach and let nothing, no smell, be the treat you give to your guests? The best part is that it's good for everyone when that minimalist attitude and action is adopted.

Ok, so now you have a different angle on avoiding scent. Can you extrapolate that to the irritants that can't be smelled? Skin mites and dander, for example? Or things that can be smelled but you didn't make a policy about using them, the smells just happened without planning or thought; can you extrapolate to them? I like this minimalist approach, I think it should be used everywhere in your property.

Let's say you are on board with me that you don't want to irritate your guests, not a one, or make them sick. But, you say, I have an old building and it's filled with dust, dander, fumes, and the like. What am I going to do?

Excellent question. Excellent! You can do a thorough cleaning to reduce those pollutants. You can add filters to clean air before it's pulled into the building. And you can clean air once it's in the building.

One such company that handles making guestrooms clean, guest-friendly and hypoallergenic, is Pure Solutions. My reaction to Pure Solutions has been a bit of a roller coaster.

Initially I was thrilled that a company was doing all the right things to make good indoor air quality for hotel and conference guests. They thoroughly clean a room, then coat the clean surfaces so they can continue to repel the things that tend to stick to them, letting those things get sucked into the system's air purifier, where they are captured and later removed from. Mattresses and pillows are encased in hypoallergenic casings to keep guests sleeping well. And the air purifier, which runs 24x7, at least in occupied rooms, has tea tree oil to kill the germs that escape all the efforts to capture them.

During a hotel inspection I was shown to a Pure retrofitted room that wasn't guest-ready and was dismayed to smell something. Remember, I like the minimalist approach and don't want to smell anything. So I inspected, with the company, what it was I was smelling. Was it the tea tree oil I was smelling, or the dispersant? Brian, the big guy at Pure Solutions, did his best to answer my questions and dig deeper for me, but to no avail. So I stayed skeptical.

Later, during another hotel inspection, I was checked into a Pure room because they understood I'm at least scent sensitive, if not chemically sensitive. Other than the roar of the air filter, too close to my bed, that was the best night's sleep I've had in a long time.

I have become a convert, with the caveat that the air purifiers be moved further away from the bed, because even the quiet mode is too noisy when the world is asleep and quiet. I now understand and appreciate the value of a Pure room and highly recommend for hotels wanting to give their guests a truly quality experience.

But, whatever you do to create a quality guest experience, be sure to not intentionally add scents, or accidentally add dust, mold, or fumes to your indoor air. Treat your guests (staff and vendors too) to clean air and a healthy experience. I believe you'll have a more successful property that way, and be happier too.