The hottest hotel amenity? Virus-scrubbed air
When the coronavirus first hit, hotels quickly adopted enhanced cleaning polices, including germkilling electrostatic spraying and ultraviolet light exposure in guest rooms and public areas.
But as research on virus spread has shifted focus fromsurface contact to airborne transmission, some hotels and cruise ships are scrubbing the very air travelers breathe with a variety of air filtration and treatment systems.
“The best amenity that any hotel could provide under those circumstances is safety, especially in the air,” said Carlos Sarmiento, the generalmanager of the Hotel Paso del Norte in El Paso. The 1912 vintage hotel recently reopened after a four-year renovation that included installing a new air purification system called Plasma Air that emits charged ions intended to neutralize the virus and make particles easier to filter out.
With the new air-scrubbing campaigns, hotels are following airlines, many of which have hospital-grade, high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters that are said to be over 99 percent effective in capturing tiny virus particles, including the coronavirus.
Hotels and cruise ships can more easily ensure social distancing than airplanes, but, given the recent research on the importance of enhanced air filtration, some are adding air-cleaning dimensions to their heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, which already aim to remove dust, smoke, odors and allergens.
How air is purified
Researchers, including those at Tulane University, have found that the tiny aerosol particles of SARS-CoV-2 that are emitted when someone with the virus speaks or breathes can remain in the air for up to 16 hours. Along with social distancing, mask wearing is the first line of defense against breathing contaminated air indoors, said Dr. Philip M. Tierno Jr., a professor of microbiology and pathology at New York University School of Medicine, who has consulted with HVAC companies.
“HVAC systems are of great significance in reducing the amount of airborne particles since this virus can be spread in an airborne fashion,” he added, calling the tiniest aerosols “the most dangerous.”
There are several ways to remove these particles, he explained, including fresh-air ventilation, which dilutes the pathogens.
Air cleaning technologies include bipolar ionization systems, which, according to their manufacturers,
send charged ions out on air currents that damage the surface of the virus and inactivate it. Theymay also bind with the virus aerosols, causing them to fall or be more easily filtered out.
Some antiviral HVAC systems feature germicidal ultraviolet light in the ductwork (the Food and Drug Administration states that ultraviolet-C lamps have been shown to inactivate the virus).
Systems often use a combination of these technologies with efficient air filters that remove contaminants. Filters with MinimumEfficiency Reporting Values (MERV) of 13 or higher are best at capturing the coronavirus, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“In a transient environment, like a hotel, motel or dormitory, you don’t know who was there before you and what their health was,” saidWes Davis, the director of technical services with the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, a trade association, adding that good housekeeping is a top priority in such places. “As for the other items like ultraviolet exposure or ionization, every little bit helps, but I’m not quite sure any of them is the perfect solution. It’smore like a concert.”
From property-wide to portable
Throughout the summer, the Madison Beach Hotel, part of Hilton’s Curio Collection of hotels, in Madison, Conn., used its outdoor spaces for dining and even holding meetings in tents. But with the approach of cold weather, HVAC contractors installed an air purification system that uses UV light and ionized hydrogen peroxide in most public areas of the hotel, including the indoor restaurant andmeeting rooms. Spa treatment rooms each have their own portable air purification systems.
Butmany hotels are bringing units into the guest rooms for extra assurance. In Rhode Island, rooms at theWeekapaug Inn and Ocean House hotel, both run by Ocean House Management, have Molekule air purifiers that destroy pollutants and viruses at a rate above 99 percent, according to the independent testing group Aerosol Research and Engineering Laboratories.
Larger units were recently added to restaurants and public spaces, and the portable units have become a top seller, starting at around $500, in Ocean House’s gift shop.
Attempting to breathe easy on cruise ships
Some health experts think that upgraded air filtration could help the challenges faced by the cruise industry. Adopting systems that are “aimed at reducing occupant exposure to infectious droplets/ aerosols,” and upgrading HVAC systems with MERV 13 filters were among 74 critical recommendations to ship lines made by the Healthy Sail Panel, a group of public health experts assembled by Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings in September.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that ships remain vulnerable to spreading infection based on population density and the inability of crew in particular to maintain social distance in their workspaces and living quarters. Still, cruising is expected to resume in U.S. waters for ships carrying 250 or more passengers and crew in the first half of 2021, pending certification under the CDC’s Framework for Conditional Sailing Order.