Top 10 Dirtiest Hotel Rooms

Once at a hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona, we checked into our hotel and I immediately removed the bedspread, as I always do. Underneath was a huge pile of popcorn. That is why when Tripadvisor.com came out with their list of the 10 dirtiest hotel rooms in America, I immediately scanned the list for this place. It wasn't there, but I made note of the most offensive of offenders for future reference.


And the winners are:

1. Heritage Marina Hotel, San Francisco, California
2. Days Inn Eureka/Six Flags, Eureka, Missouri
3. Tropicana Resort Hotel, Virginia Beach, Virginia
4. Super 8 Virginia Beach/At the Ocean, Virginia Beach, Virginia
5. Quality Inn, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
6. New York Inn, New York, New York
7. Parisian Hotel & Suites, Miami Beach, Florida
8. Capistrano Seaside Inn, Capistrano Beach, California
9. Desert Lodge, Palm Springs, California
10. Continental Oceanfront Hotel South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida

What are the dirtiest things most people encounter in their hotels, and how do we sort of “sterilize” the rooms to protect ourselves?


This is what you do, in order, from the moment you enter your hotel room



CLEAN THE TV REMOTE AND PHONE: You may not realize what the SINGLE DIRTIEST item in your hotel room is but — go directly to the one item in the bedroom that has the highest levels of bacteria, the TV remote control unit. Wipe it off thoroughly. Next up, the telephone handset, especially the mouthpiece.


CHUCK THE BEDSPREAD: Walk over to the bedspread, lift it off the bed, throw it in the corner, never touch it again. Many hotels still only clean those bedspreads intermittently.


RINSE OUT THE GLASSES: Go into the bathroom — and the culprit here is not what you think. It’s not the sink, or the toilet or the bathtub. It’s the — water glasses! Here’s how this is a problem: Most hotel maids are tasked with cleaning up to 15 or 16 rooms in any given eight-hour shift. That’s a lot of rooms. And usually, by the time they get to the 12th room, they’re short on time and some of them start cutting corners. And what happens? They get to those glasses and don’t replace them. Instead, they quickly run them under cold water and replace them. Can you say eeeeeeeeeesh? My solution? Simple: Without hesitation, whenever you walk into a hotel bathroom, the first thing you do is take the water glasses and run them under hot water for two minutes, and you’ll be OK


CHECK THE MATTRESS: Lift up the mattress and search between the mattress and the box spring. If you see little brown streaks, that means there are – bed bugs. Move.



Bed bugs? Bacteria? Mold? These hotels are in the USA. You never know what will be waiting for you overseas.


A Travel Medical policy from Insurance Services of America is peace of mind you can depend on when you are outside your home country. We can insure against a dirty hotel room, but we can sure help you out if it makes you sick!

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Do you have a yucky hotel room story? Leave us a comment!