Final Word: The lighter side of travel

The final word

Dirt alert: please do not touch

Hand sanitisers have

become a familiar sight in hotel lobbies across the world since the start of the Covid pandemic. You can't go for your buffet breakfast or get in or out of a hotel lift without being confronted by a bottle of something with a sign inviting you to have a pump.

But if you're starting to become a bit blasé about your hand hygiene, read on.

Research by Chicopee, an international brand of professional cleaning materials, has revealed the worst germ hotspots in Britain’s hotel rooms by swabbing the main touch points to test for high levels of viable bacteria and fungal cells.

If you think that sounds disgusting, you should have seen the photos that came with the press release. (We decided not to share them with you, in case you're reading this while eating your breakfast/lunch/ dinner).

All we're going to tell you is that if you want to avoid coming into close contact with the grubbiest places in a hotel room, don't switch on the lights, don't use the bathroom sink, and don't put anything on your bedside table. Oh, and always take the stairs.

Alternatively, keep on pumping that hand sanitiser.

Festive Faves

Demand for Christmas parties is soaring after last year's lockdowns, according to Lake District Hotels, the owners of six hotels in Cumbria, which decided to take to social media to find the UK's favourite Christmas songs. Here goes:

1 The Pogues - Fairytale of

New York 2 Wham! - Last Christmas 3 Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You 4 Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone 5 Classic Carol - O Holy Night

Research by Lake District Hotels

Jurassic robotics

Travellers arriving at New York's new Henn Na Hotel might be forgiven for thinking they've come to the wrong place. The Japanese hotel group, known for its quirkiness (it's name translates to Strange Hotel, what more can we say?) has positioned a fivefoot animatronic T-Rex in the lobby to greet guests. Luckily, the robotics stop there. When it opened its first hotel in Nagasaki, Henn Na tried to replace staff with robots, but failed dismally. Robot room assistants, for example, mistook snoring for commands and would often wake up sleeping guests.

Mint Choc Chip, Tutti Frutti or Very Berry? Personally we prefer plain old Vanilla but sadly that's not an option at the new ice cream-themed ibis Styles Bournemouth, where the 76 bedrooms are decorated with a "bold palette of ice cream shades" to take us back to our childhood seaside holidays. With walls coloured like sundae swirls and carpets dotted with hundreds-and-thousands, it's likely you'll soon be getting cornet cravings, so thank goodness the hotel has an ice cream station - with vanilla too we hope.