Hotel rooms are full of amenities that are meant to make your stay more convenient. But for all of the helpful items that you’re likely to find, there’s one hotel room amenity that you should probably never use. While it may seem to be a convenient option, this common appliance is likely one of the dirtiest things you’ll find in any hotel room. Here’s why you should think twice about using the hotel room coffee maker — and how to safely get your caffeine fix on your next getaway.
Coffee Makers Are Full of Germs
Even if the coffee machine in your hotel room looks clean to the naked eye, microscopic germs and bacteria are likely lurking inside. That’s because bacteria thrives in dark, moist environments, making the coffee machine a hospitable environment for it to grow. And it’s unlikely that each coffee machine in a hotel filled with hundreds of rooms is cleaned as thoroughly and often as it should be.
Research has shown that communal coffee machines can contain dozens of individual strains of potentially harmful bacteria, some of which have been linked to medical conditions such as pneumonia and urinary tract infections. They can also contain mold, yeast, and staph, none of which should be going into your body. Some studies have shown that the average coffee maker may even be dirtier than a toilet seat. Plus, you never know what other hotel guests might have used the machine for previously.
The Machines Don’t Get Hot Enough
You may think that boiling water would kill off all of the germs and make the coffee safe to drink. That would be true… if the typical hotel coffee maker got hot enough. Unfortunately, single-use coffee machines usually fall short of the temperature necessary (212 degrees Fahrenheit) to make water boil — they cap out at about 20 degrees cooler. While this is high enough to kill most bacteria, it isn’t quite enough to kill all the germs you may find in there, especially some particularly harmful strains. And if you like your morning joe to be piping hot, this lower temperature also means your cup of coffee will get colder quicker.
How To Clean the Coffee Machine
If you do want to use the coffee machine in your room, the good news is that there are ways to clean it to kill off most, if not all of the bacteria. Before using the machine to brew any coffee, run a few cycles with tap water to flush out old coffee grounds and some of the bacteria that may have formed. You can also purchase individual coffee cleaning tablets and pack them with you. If you don’t have those on hand, it might be worth heading over to a local convenience store to buy some distilled white vinegar. Run the vinegar through the machine two or three times, and the machine should be clean enough to safely brew coffee. For more tips on how to clean the coffee maker and other dirty areas in your hotel room, check out this helpful article.
What To Drink Instead
Can’t go without your morning cup of joe? The simplest work-around is to venture out into the lobby and pour yourself some coffee from the communal urn (if your hotel has one), order room service, or head to the nearest coffee shop. Hotels clean the urns used for room service and complimentary lobby coffee far more regularly and thoroughly than the ones in each individual room. That being said, the one thing to be mindful of is how dirty the handle gets. The more people who touch the urn, the more likely those germs will spread onto your hands.
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