United Voice

A television investigation last night revealed that some of Melbourne’s luxury hotels continue to gamble with the health of guests, despite repeated warnings that their rooms could be crawling with dangerous bacteria and contain putrid toilets, mouldy bathrooms and mattresses caked with dead skin.

Channel Nine’s A Current Affair asked independent forensic expert Peter Guerin to probe several luxury hotels in Melbourne and around the country and discovered that they remain in the grip of a hygiene crisis.

But the latest report comes as no surprise to overworked room attendants – it echoes a covert inspection conducted last year by Guerin, a retired police forensic investigator of 30 years standing.

“It’s disturbing that this new investigation has found that some of our top hotel rooms are still not clean, despite being warned about the problem last year,” said Jess Walsh, Victorian Secretary of United Voice, the Hotels Union.

“We have been asking major hotel chains to take the lead on this issue and sign a pledge to fix the problems, but they’ve refused. They want to sweep it under the carpet,” Walsh said.

“However Hilton South Wharf chief Michael Bourne has asked to meet with us this Friday to discuss the pledge – we hope he finally listens to room attendants and signs.”

“Room attendants want Hilton to set an example to other Melbourne hotels, by working with staff to improve standards,” Walsh said.

Last year’s probe found that insufficient cleaning time at luxury hotels threatens the health of guests and staff and is risking Melbourne’s reputation as Australia’s events capital.

“Hotels can’t ignore the hygiene problem any longer, because eventually somebody is going to get seriously ill. Imagine the devastating effect that would have on our tourism industry, and thousands of Victorians whose jobs depend on it.”

“The results were stomach-churning – I found dirty toilets, scummy showers, mouldy bathrooms, stained mattresses riddled with pubic hairs, and even infectious bacteria,” said Guerin, the director of Bio-Clean, a company which specialises in cleaning crime scenes.

A recent survey of Melbourne’s room attendants confirmed that few are getting the time needed to adequately clean a room.

“It takes 45 minutes to clean a room to the standard guests would expect at a five-star hotel, but bosses across Melbourne are demanding the job get done in as little as 15,” Walsh said.  “Room attendants have to cut corners or face losing their jobs,” she said.

“Room attendants are very proud of the hard work they do and have been telling us for some time that pressure to hastily clean rooms is having an impact on guests,” Walsh said.

Guerin smuggled specialist equipment into rooms at seven Melbourne hotels last year. Every one registered unacceptable levels of potentially health-threatening microbes.