Specific risks in hotels
There is a higher risk of transmission within hotels, hostels and guest houses which can be improved upon for compliance and for high levels of Pandemic Resilience. The main issues are:
Extended stays
Hotel guests occupy rooms for prolonged periods and handle a wide range of surfaces.
Common areas
Guests access and visit common areas such as corridors, restaurants, bars, business lounges, meeting rooms, lobbies, foyers, and elevators, leading to close interaction and extended dwell times in the hospitality and reception areas.
Poor ventilation
Many hotels have areas of poor air distribution and low ventilation rates.
Recirculated air
Indeed, these types of ventilation for interior spaces may accelerate infection because of their air recycling arrangements, irrespective of following Covid-Secure Guidelines about everything else to the letter. Common HVAC systems for heating and cooling: recirculated air/ceiling cassette systems or low-level heating or floor grill systems spread contaminated air.
Common, shared ventilation systems
Not only do most modern hotels have recirculated air ventilation systems, they rarely have dedicated systems for each room. There is a standard, shared ventilation system for all of the rooms at each or for all levels is the normal configuration. This allows the risk of redistributing contaminated air from room to room which has been the issue with so-called “Quarantine Hotels”.
Risk to cleaners
Laundry rooms are potentially high risk, such as changing the bed laundry or cleaning hotel room bathrooms.
How to achieve better biosafety in hotels
The interior air quality has to be the priority, given the nature of the airborne bio-hazard, so inside environments now will need to reassess potential:
- Ventilation system types
- Airflow rates
- Air Distribution
- Directional Flows and internal pressure differentials
- Ventilation system filters
- The reliable supply of uncontaminated, clean air
- Compliance with the need for the greater of 6ACH or 10 litres/person/second ventilation rate for infection control of clean air.
- Risk of exposure to bioaerosols
Our solutions
As professional engineers, scientists and medics, we know how to target infection risks intimately by designing targeted risk reduction solutions, combining established and proven engineering and health technologies to take your biosafety to a new level.
We assess your building configuration, engineering infrastructure, occupancy use and risks. We then will model and engineer a bespoke solution to suit your asset risks and user requirements through the use of:
- Better ventilation air flows, distribution and filtration.
- In-duct GUV devices in HVAC systems – One way to counteract the spreading of disease is with efficient air circulation systems, which will be fitted with UV-C devices which inactivate and destroy any airborne microbes while the air is recirculated through it. This retains existing infrastructure and so is economical and energy-efficient.
- Upper Room GUV systems – these can be put in place to reduce the localised infection risk in key locations. These systems, when correctly specified, will be able to reduce the transmission rate of pathogens such as coronavirus and all the previous common SBS microbes. Pre-Covid.
