Have you heard the latest travel news? It all revolves around the cleanliness of glasses found in hotel rooms. ABC News did an investigation that analyzed 15 different hotels across the country and 11 failed to take dirty glasses out of the room to clean and sanitize them before new guests arrived. I have to admit, I’m guilty of assuming the glasses sitting in the bathroom or next to the ice bucket are not only clean but have been sanitized.
Below is a video showing how many hotel housekeepers clean the glasses:
Disclosure:Below you will find Amazon affiliate links.
I know a drinking from a glass cleaned with a blue liquid labeled “Do Not Drink,” then dried with a used washcloth, makes me cringe. So, I’m betting many of you feel the same. Yuck!
The truth is, there is no guarantee that your room glasses and mugs aren’t simply rinsed off under the tap by the cleaning staff — or even wiped down with the same sponge that’s used to clean other parts of the bathroom.
It’s difficult to assess how truly widespread a problem the not-really-cleaned” drinking glass phenomenon might be, as it can be a regular occurrence or an occasional exception. It can take place at large chain hotels or smaller locally-owned units. It can also be a practice that housekeepers are instructed to follow by their supervisors or that they undertake on their own as a time-saving shortcut. Bottom line is when we check into our hotel room, we truly don’t know if the glasses are cleaned properly and sterilized.
If you are concerned about using possibly unclean and unsterilized drinking glasses here are some alternatives:
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Use only plastic-wrapped, single-use drinking cups. - Carry your own drinking cup (such as a collapsible cup) with you when you travel.
- Bring a glass from the hotel’s bar or restaurant up to your room (and tuck it away in a drawer when you leave your room for the day so housekeeping doesn’t remove it).
I now travel with the Silicone Collapsible Travel Cup because they are made with non-toxic silicone, they are BPA FREE, Eco-Friendly and they are collapsible and super lightweight. In between trips, I keep my travel cups in my suitcase, so I never forget them. You can find them on Amazon for only $8.99.
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Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
Alexa Meisler is the editorial director of 52 Perfect Days. Born in Paris, France she has since lived in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. She currently resides in San Diego with her husband and son where they enjoy exploring California and Mexico.
Travel has always been a part of her life; traveling to such places as Morocco, Tangiers and Spain as a young child as well as taking many road trips to Mexico with her grandparents as a young girl. Since then, she has traveled abroad to locations such as Russia, Taiwan and throughout Europe.
Prior to working at 52 Perfect Days she was a freelance travel writer; focusing on family and women’s adventure experiences.
Yeah, it’s difficult to gauge which glasses have been cleaned and which haven’t. The same thing maybe happening in restaurants as well. We travel often and try to carry our own plastic glasses to be safe, or always clean the glasses again before use. But your collapsible cups look like a great idea!
Yuck! I have to admit I never drink out of hotel glasses, just because you never know. I always either bring home a to-go cup from a restaurant to use, bring my own (if we are driving), not use a cup at all or hope they have the plastic-wrapped disposable ones!