Luxury hotels in Beijing accused of sanitary lapses

The Beijing Tourism Association said on Sina Weibo Tuesday that it takes the quality of service at its member hotels very seriously and it summoned five luxury hotels which were accused of not changing bed sheets and cleaning toilets to a meeting.

The five hotels are JM Marriott, Shangri La Hotel, Hilton, Intercontinental, and W Beijing. A video showing employees from Better Choice, Better Life, an independent assessment organization, checking five luxury Beijing hotels posing as guests drew massive attention. They found the hotels failed to change and clean beddings and toiletries before the arrival of new tenants.

The organization posted the video on Sina Weibo on Monday. Using “invisible” paint which can only be detected by UV light, the organization’s employees sprayed several stamps on sheets, toilets and toiletries. When they returned to the same room as new guests, the stamps were still there. The video shows that an employee even found a used condom under a bed in JM Marriott.

“I used to spend more money to stay at these luxury hotels believing that they’re cleaner than cheaper hotels. Now, I am torn between the hotels,” a Shanghai-based journalist surnamed Wu, told the Global Times. The prices of five-star hotels are normally above 1,000 yuan ($153) per night.

“Our hotel has strict rules on sanitation, so currently we are looking into this situation and conducting an examination of all our guest rooms,” the head of Shangri La Hotel’s marketing and communication department who required anonymity told the Global Times.

National Health and Family Planning Commission and Ministry of Commerce jointly issued a document in 2007 that requires hotels to change bedding and consumable items and clean the toilet before a new customer arrives. For the long-staying guests, the rooms should be disinfected on a daily basis.

“Stringent punishment should be handed to the hotels, and the authorities should publish the names of the hotels where sanitary deficiencies are found,” Su Haopeng, vice dean of the Law School at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told the Global Times.