Oh please...

...do you clean the lightswitches in the office? Avoid touching the doorhandles while out shopping? Use a tissue to cover the keys while using the ATM?

um... wow. are we really that afraid of germs or catching a cold?

This is AT, OCD edition.

Sorry to dissagree with you other posters. But I think awareness of this nature is important. I have noticed a difference in the number of colds I catch , if any throught a yr. now that I carry hand sanitisor with me and am more aware of where germs lurk.

Thanks for the advice.

Keep in mind the popularity of porn in hotels the next time you use the remote.

I think we've found AT:s Mr. Monk!
And since when have anyone caught a cold through their feet? This has to be a joke, right?

Hand sanitizer (from Whole Foods) is totally where it's at. Between that, washing my hands, and being conscious of cleaning up after touching germy things, I never (knock on wood) get sick anymore.

I have to agree with AT. I am paranoid in hotels. I get disgusted thinking about what's gone on in there. Unless it's a nicer hotel, then I am less paranoid for some reason. But, I try to be as clean as possible...washing my hands a lot and just try not to think about it. Mr. Monk? Yes.

Sorry, I'm with AT on this one. When I saw the remote, I was thinking the same thing as you Erika. Hotel rooms gross me out. I think the light switch and faucet are both unavoidable. But I will wear slippers and I try not to touch bedspread or sofa.
Another thing is don't drink the coffee or use the cups/ mugs in the room. I saw a special on tv where maids were not washing out cups properly and just wiping them out with dirty towels on the floor and putting them back!!! YUCK!!!!
I'm sure not all hotels are like that... but still.

basically wrap yourself in plastic bags and youll be safe

It doesn't matter if I'm staying Caesar's Place or a Best Western... it still grosses me out.

Plastic bags may be the only way to go!

I gotta say that I'm with AT on this one! The hotel remote ALWAYS has a ton of grime and oily residue on it (ha, i laughed at erickainseattle's comment) and it seriously grosses me out.

Ever since I started washing my hands every time I re-entered my house or touched things that were foreign to my house, I haven't gotten sick or gotten a cold as much as I used to.

I have turned into a germ freak. I put a zip lock bag on the remote in a hotel room, and I use Clorox wipes on handles, knobs, everything, including my hands. I wrap the bedspread (and sometimes the blankets) inside out and put them in the closet. I don't touch anything that hasn't been wiped down. I sound like a freak I know, but I don't get colds anymore.

Yikes on all of the above...including glassware too. I knew someone who used to work in housekeeping for a hotel and from that experience she brings her own blanket and doesn't use the glasses. The hotel she worked for? The Ritz! So, yeah, I'm skivvy on all this.

uh, I mean skeevy not skivvy.

The first thing I do in a hotel is tie up the remote in the plastic bag meant to line the ice bucket. The remote works through the plastic and I don't have to think about all the nose pickers and coughers who have touched it before.

I agree with Erika. Whenever I am sleeping in a hotel bed, I can't help but remember that during the Mike Tyson rape case the police tested the bed spread and found not only Mike's "DNA" but also that of a number of other, previous hotel guests -- and that was at a very posh hotel. Yuck.

In the so called Good-Old-Days I was not so up tight about germs---but with all the new (no cure) stuff floating around it pays to take more care now a days.
Don't be to careful though---everyone needs some germs to enter their bodies on a daily basis to help build up antibodies---this is how our bodies are set up to work so that one simple germ does not kill us. Wish I really knew more about how all of it works.

Where is this list from? Is there some kind of documentation for this?

So rather than stay in a hotel, why not stay at Mom and Dad's house?

Oh Wait - They had sex there too!!!

(We'll just pretend Dad doesn't scratch his ba**s while watching football either...
...or neglect to wash his hands after using the restroom...
...and I sure hope you don't read the newspaper without elbow-length rubber gloves after he's done with it...)

NEVER use the water glasses!
While traveling in asia one hotel maid cleaned my room (while I was in it) and used the same rag on toilet and then on the water glasses - she them placed the water glasses in the "sterile for your protection" plastic baggies.

Bepsf and all the other doubters:

Its not the fact that people make things dirty - yes there are germs everywhere but we build up a resistance to germs we come into contact with regularly

Its the number and diversity of people in a hotel which makes it a hot-bed for nasties

A hotel room has the germs from literally hundreds of people from hundreds of different countries where the germs are different - if you've never visited their country you have no resistance to their germs so you are more likely to be ill from their dirt than you are from "local" dirt

And what about getting TO your hotel room - good friend of mine is a flight attendant, and warned me NEVER to use the blankets on planes. True story: she was working in 1st class recently, and a very high powered female exec traveller showed her the scars on her legs from european BEDBUGS caught from an airline blanket. This gal actually had to have surgery to have the burrowing beasts removed.
EEEEUW!!!!

everydaydiva - so true about the plane blankets. They are rarely cleaned. I won't touch the plane pillows either as they are not changed either. From seeing people use them as slippers to walk around the plane to sitting on them as a booster seat to breathing and drooling on them while they sleep, the first thing I do is chuck it into another empty row if there is one in my seat when I board.

i haven't thought about the airline blankets and pillows before!! AGHHH!!! Need to invest in a lightweight wrap to bring with me next time... yikes!

Anyone see the recent Post Secret card where a hotel staff person admitted using the same rag to clean EVERYTHING in the hotel room? Toilet, glasses, etc?

yuck.. the bedspread doesnt get washed between every guest. thats gross. oh and the fact that on my local news they went to several different hotels and all but one had maids who used one rag to clean everything. toilets to cups.. so horrible. how on earth is it that much more time consuming to use a CLEAN rag for things that deserve it? needless to say those women caught were fired..

When people who live in antiseptic environments eventually do get exposed to a virus, they catch it more easily because their immune systems have slacked off.

Also, excessive use of sanitizers causes microbes to evolve resistance.

Team Decor, that actually sounds like OCD to me (and I have the disorder). That is a lot of length to go through just to feel "safe" in a hotel room.

And... do any of you take the subway?

This germ phobia is getting out of control. Germs challenge our immune systems. One theory about the rise in childhood asthma is that kids are raised in environments that are too clean. And there have been several studies showing that people with IBS got BETTER when they ingested parasites.

You get colds when you travel because you're exposed to different VIRUSES than the ones at home. You don't have resistance to them. Planes save money by not recirculating air often enough. And, if you travel in the developing world, the generally horrible air quality carries all sorts of things along free, deep into your lungs.

And no, I don't love beadspreads in hotels either. But lightswitches. Hello...

Yes, indeedy, mrsemerald - I take 2 cheap pashminas ($5 on every street corner in NY in winter), 1 for me and 1 for my little doggy. No icky germs for Princess Lotus Blossom, thank you very much!

Funny, I've never worried about this stuff, travel in India and Africa and never get colds. Coincidence?

Do we need to bring the blue light too?

The best thing you can do to prevent getting sick is to wash your hands frequently with normal soap, and don't touch your mouth unless you've washed your hands. After reading this I will probably wash my hotel cups, too. But beyond that... I'll take my chances. I mean, what are the odds I get sick from the germs in the carpet because my bare feet touched it? I think a little common sense will go further than excessive paranoia, and there's a point to which we need to use our immune systems.

If you are that scared of germs it might be better to stay home.

I don't think it's about being scared of germs... for me it's about being grossed out. Maids using the same rag to clean toilets and drinking glasses, bodily fluids on remotes and the bed covers, sleeping on an airline pillow that someone has used as slippers or drooled on... all gross! Yuck. If you want to drink out of a cup that has could have microbes of waste, go for it... I will pass.