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Some hotel guests are turning their rooms into impromptu mini-banquet facilities, so hotels need to step up their sanitizing game, councilor says

The Boston City Council this week considers a proposal from Councilor Lydia Edwards (East Boston, North End, Charlestown) to ask Boston hotels to clean and sanitize rooms daily, even for guests who have stays longer than a night.

In a request for a hearing on the matter, Edwards writes hotels need to treat guest rooms as "common areas" that need daily sanitizing:

With bars, restaurants and other meeting areas closed, Boston hotel workers have noticed an increase in guests congregating in guest rooms
where they often invite other guests or other individuals into their rooms, and bring in materials, food, or alcohol from outside the hotel.

She notes that New Jersey recently made daily room sterilizing a requirement and that the World Health Organization recommends that hotels drop programs where guests staying more than night can ask to forego some daily housekeeping - such as not having their towels washed to save water.

The council can't order hotels to clean guest rooms daily, so Edwards's request is in the form of a proposed resolution supporting "daily
cleaning of common areas for the health safety and welfare of guests and staff during this unprecedented pandemic."

The council will take up the request at its regular Wednesday meeting, which starts at noon.

Neighborhoods: 
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PDF icon Complete Edwards request135.2 KB


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Comments

Mommy knows best.

She and the whole council and mayor need to be intensely concentrating on the street violence, shootings, murders, increase in quality of life issues.

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And in fact, city councilors have been concerned with street violence - as well as trying to reduce Covid-19 infection.

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Anonymous commenter knows best.

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Why do you need to know who I am? And why does my use of the phrase Nanny State bother you and some other people? It's perfectly valid and not extremist.

What we're experiencing is classic psychological techniques to traumatize and manipulate people into conformity and compliance. It isn't the exclusive domain of any one political party. Marketeers use such techniques all the time.

Whenever anyone plays on emotions, attempts to ostracize, bully, attack the messenger, these are big red flags; no matter who is doing it.

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Well, for starters, I don't even know if you are the same anon I replied to. I've never taken issue with the many pseudonymous people who frequent this site, at least as it pertains to identity.

I don't believe I made any comments related to your use of the phrase "nanny state" and I certainly cannot speak for how anyone else feels, so you can take your straw man elsewhere.

After all, you, whoever you are, are the one who suggested that those in city governance do not care about certain specific issues. I didn't make any sort of claim like that. I only wrote 4 words, two of which were your words first.

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Mommy knows best.

How stupid do you have to be to think this is an intelligent response to a news story about a major public health issue?

If you think private citizens are capable of making informed decisions about public health issues, just look at the Covid growth curve in the US, compared to, like, every country in Europe.

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hotel common areas have been superspreaders - like the Marriott Wharf Hotel and the Biogen conference? Heard of it? Considering people from areas out of control like FL, TX, AZ, and CA are not prevented from coming here and are only suggested to quarantine for 14 days, they are very easily a source for another outbreak. Where do they stay? Hotels. If common areas are closed to prevent infection spreading, not an impossible idea and is proven by evidence that guests are using their own rooms for those same purposes - multiple people from all over in close contact sharing food and drinks. If the rooms aren't cleaned daily like a lounge, dining area, bar should be for prevention of spread (even in the before times, there was hep C and other contagions that had be controlled), the guest in the room can pick up the virus multiple times and spread it in the motel, where they're visiting throughout the city. Plus the staff are at a higher risk. If those people cause another outbreak, they take it home but they also leave it here. I like things being under control and short of closing the borders, precautions must be taken to minimize spread and risks. And finally, Ayn Rand, it is a proposal to pass a resolution to encourage the behavior not a police state edict - hardly nanny state. It would be better if they could force things like this or proper social distancing on flights. The infection is out of control in this country, despite how well we are doing, and there is no one in charge, just ignoring it. We can easily go back to March/April infection rates if people aren't careful - and we've seen how selfish Americans have been lately.

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If people are congregating in a hotel room without masks, chances are they are all healthy or will soon all be infected. Forcing hotel employees to go in every day does nothing to reduce the spread of the virus and in fact puts those workers at higher risk by increasing the number of times they have to be exposed to those rooms.

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this is probably why they don't bother to clean operating rooms between patients. jackass

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I wouldn't have responded if you hadn't added the personal insult.

Yes, the hotel EVENTUALLY needs to decontaminate the room, as you would with an OR after surgery. COVID19 is primarily spread through the air. Sending cleaners into the fog of potentially COVID-contaminated air is hazardous. Sending people in to wipe everything down after the crowd has left is pretty safe.

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I was thinking if I had to use a hotel for some reason, I would request *not* to have any housekeeping. The goal would be to reduce my risk of catching covid from the staff, and vice versa.

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Bringing in people for a party is hardly isolation.

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Then make a rule against parties. Don't force non-partying people and all their stuff to be exposed to strangers.

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Most- if not all- hotels already have rules against guest room parties- largely amount of alcohol that can be brought in (liquor license concerns) that seem to be ignored under optimal/ non-pandemic circumstances

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