ACCOR and MICHELIN this is about you again

By William H Harriss. 11/28/2024. [email protected]

This article is really about the whole hotel and lodging industry. Accor and Michelin just happen to be in the story because they chose to be, by trying to ignore me and in doing so parading disrespect and lack of transparency.

Pneumonia is inflammation and fluid in your lungs caused by a bacterial, viral, fungal infection, even a chemical reaction. The inflammation and ensuing congestion makes it difficult to breathe and can cause a fever and cough with yellow, green or bloody mucus. The flu, COVID-19 and pneumococcal disease are common causes of pneumonia. Treatment depends on the cause and severity of pneumonia.

Pneumonia is not something you can catch it is not the actual diseases it it the symptom of an infection or exposure to certain substances and pathogens.

There are many ways a person can contract pneumonia. The most common cause of bacterial pneumonia in the U.S. is Streptococcus pneumoniae. Mycoplasma pneumoniae can also cause pneumonia.

Fungi are the most common cause of pneumonia in people with chronic health problems or weakened immune systems, and in people who have inhaled large doses of the organisms. Viruses, including COVID-19, can also cause pneumonia. Black fungi spore is a pretty common phenomenon in hotel rooms, in the air conditioners and in pillows, I have even seen it on walls in hotel rooms and bathrooms.

The reason that I bring you this article is to demonstrate just one of the reasons that I have devoted many years exposing the hotel and lodging industry in their failure to protect their clients by failing to introduce sterilization of pillows and certain bedding items. I have even been accused of being obsessed with the subject. But if my prolific writing and talking on the subject can save just one life it it has well been worth my time.

There is scientific and medical evidence that people can, and do, catch contagions from pillows. There are hundreds, thousands and beyond even, things that you can catch from an unsterilized pillow.

No, you cannot catch pneumonia from a pillow, because it is a symptom of some other infection or chemical exposure. But, it is 100% certain you can catch something from an unsterilized pillow that will cause you to have pneumonia. You can catch infections from a pillow that someone has used before you, in many cases only a few hours prior to you using the same pillow.

You will be asking how that works. Well it is no longer a secret that the majority of hotels never sterilize the pillow in their hotel bedrooms during the pillows lifetime. They launder the pillow case/cover, and the unwashed and unsterilized pillow is reused with a freshly laundered pillow case/cover. A dirty germ ridden pillow with a fresh covering, hiding the truth, and masking the dangers.

Lets establish early on, washing a pillow or anything else is not sterilizing it. Bedding items can be sterilized during laundering by using powerful chemicals such as bleach. The same bedding can also be sterilized by laundering it at temperatures exceeding 90c or 194f for twenty minutes or more. That reveals another problem, silks, wool’s and delicate bedding fabrics can never be subjected to such temperatures because they will be instantly destroyed, so they can never be sterilized, you cannot use bleach on them either.

There are many reasons hotels do not wash or launder pillows and never sterilize them by any known method either. Pillows and certain items of bedding cannot withstand the hot wash for much more than four such treatments before they are destroyed. Pillows cannot be subject to chemical sterilization because chemical residues can kill people with allergies using pillows treated in this way. The same applies to dry cleaning pillows and bedding, dangerous chemical residues are a certain life threatening hazards for allergic reactions by clients.

The hotels and hotel groups have tried to bury the problem, to hide the fact that clients using the same pillow as the person the night before used, is at serious risk of illness and even death.

When someone puts their head on a pillow, during their time of sleeping they may breath into the pillow, cough, sneeze, snore, dribble, and empty the viral and bacterial content of their lungs into the pillow. They are not necessarily ill with the germs they leave behind, their immune system may be attuned to those germs to be able to keep any illness at bay. But the next person using the same pillow in an unsterilized state will be at serious risk because they will not have the immunity from those germs. The very same germs that did not affect client number one, may well make client number two very ill, even resulting in death.

Most infections become obvious several days after exposure, by which time the hotel client has moved on, and the problem of illness takes place somewhere else other than at the hotel where they were contaminated. That is what the hotels rely on, there is no way of proving they cause the illness or death of a client by not protecting them from contaminated pillows that they could have sterilized.

Hotel pillows have been found to contain bacteria, virus, fungal spore, bed bug and mite litter and excretions.

A pillow is like a lung, it breaths out when you put your head on it, whereby your head and nose is surrounded by a great cloud of unseen infectious germs and substances left behind by not just the previous nights sleeper, but all those who used the same pillow last week and last month even. A cocktail of very nasty infectious creatures and substances silently and unseen envelope your head and contaminate your lungs. Then when you take your head off the pillow to arise in the morning the pillow breathes in and draws into it all the contaminates that your head and lungs have expended. The evil circle continues, now the pillow is reloaded and recharged with your germs mixed with those of previous clients and awaits the new client tonight to continue the process of possible illness and deadly infections.

I am not a genius, and do not need to be, to understand the simple theory of hotels contaminating their clients due to financial reasons or just plain evil neglect to care about a problem that is a takeaway service without repercussions to them or their hotel. It is not guesswork on my part. I know from professional experience that the majority of hotels do not sterilize their pillows between clients leaving and the new ones arriving.

That is why when I travel I want hotels to tell me what they have done in my hotel room prior to me taking occupancy. I want to know if the pillow and other bedding items have been sterilized, and if they have, what procedure was used. I want to know what cleaning materials were used and what chemicals were used or contained in the cleaning fluids etc. My health and safety at the end of the day is my responsibility, it is my life and I want to protect it. Surely it is not unreasonable to ask the questions I ask and to reasonably expect to have an instant, honest, and transparent answer.

There are people who do not care what has happened in their hotel room before they arrived, they put their trust in the hotel. I do not want to put my trust in anyone else when I can make my own judgments and choices. I know that hotels fail abysmally when it come to sterilization, most do not have such intentions and most do not sterilize anything in any bedroom ever. So I ask the question and if I do not like the answer I will travel with my own pillow or demand a new pillow from a sealed package on taking occupancy.

Now my dispute with Accor is that neither they or their hotels or numerous franchised brands will answer questions about sterilization or if the pillows are sterilized. They have decided to make it a secret, and say they do not make their procedures public. That makes me believe they do not sterilize their pillows, if they do they have had plenty of chance to tell me they do and what the sterilization procedure is. But they chose to ignore me instead, hoping I would eventually give up and stop asking questions. Sorry, but that is not about to happen, I will keep writing and keep asking the questions.

But to cap it all, the famous and admired Michelin have been making awards to hotels under a scheme called Michelin Keys. Hotels can be rated as one key (a special place to stay), two keys (an exceptional stay), or three keys (an extraordinary stay). I asked Michelin if they ask the hotels they make the awards to if they sterilize their pillows or bedding. I asked if Michelin take into account the safety and possible risks the traveling public are put in by the hotels not sterilizing pillows and bedding. After me asking the questions Michelin stopped talking to me and have chosen to ignore me hoping that I will get fed up and leave them alone.

What appears to me to be the most important thing for Michelin is that the hotels they bring into the scheme pay them for their judgment of the hotel and them then making an award [or not]. It is in Michelin’s favor to make as many awards as possible because they are coining in multi millions from this scheme. Michelin’s award system is a great idea if it is all inclusive and far reaching in achieving excellence. I want to know Michelin’s demands [other than financial] and information required from a hotel to gain an award. Now Michelin is faced with me coming and looking over their shoulder, highlighting a serious problem that throws a spanner in the works and threatens their new found money stream. If the media pick up my questioning it may actually destroy the name of Michelin in identifying excellence.

But I believe the most important matter in all of this is the hotel and lodging clients who are being exposed to serious dangers, that hoteliers are camouflaging and trying to make the problem invisible to the public, to the world in fact. I am demanding, truth, openness, transparency, and the repair of a broken compliance system in the Hospitality arena.

There are some antibacterial procedures that innovative pillow makers are touting but most of them can cause damage to the environment, and can also cause health problems to the users.

There are ways of sterilizing pillows and certain bedding items and I am open to consultation on methods and equipment. I am willing to help and eradicate your current problems.

Regards

William