Keyless entry? Forget it. Mobile check-in? No thanks. Free Wi-Fi? Don’t bother. That’s if the most important hotel amenity of all is neglected—a clean guest room. A survey released this week from household cleaning product company Calcium, Lime & Rust (CLR) names cleanliness as one of the top deciding factors when it comes to choosing a place to stay. Out of nearly 1,500 respondents, 86 percent said they scan hotel and vacation rental reviews online to determine if rooms were up to par. And eight out of 10 claimed that they would rather be without Internet access than stay in dirty accommodations.
Alison Gutterman, president of Jelmar LLC, which owns CLR, believes that travelers feel strongly about sanitation because the lack of it can ruin a relaxing experience. “The feeling of a perfectly clean hotel or vacation rental can provide a sense of calm and contentment; however, a dirty room can ruin a vacation experience by making it impossible to let go and relax,” she said. “The cleanliness of our environment is clearly top of mind and of the utmost importance to travelers no matter where they’re staying, be it a vacation rental or hotel.”
While a clean room remained paramount among different types of properties, the survey revealed a divergence in perception between vacation rentals and hotels.
-49 percent looked to online reviews before choosing accommodations.
-54 percent would pay an extra cleaning fee to before staying at a rental property.
-31 percent admitted to cleaning their hotel room or vacation rental upon arrival.
-84 percent said a dirty toilet is the worst thing to see in a hotel or rental.
-55 percent believed hotels were cleaner than vacation rentals, while 45 percent reported the opposite.
-35 percent think it’s acceptable to leave hotel rooms messier than vacation rentals.
