When you’re away from home there’s nothing you want more than a place of comfort to spend the night in. But then you walk in and the room is nothing like the pictures. Worse, you’re greeted by a distinct musty odor, difficult to describe, but almost associated with mold. Even in nicer hotels, some rooms may have mold. If you think there may be mold, you need to know what to be on the lookout for and what to do next.
What is Mold?
Mold is a type of fungus that grows and spreads year round both indoors and outdoors. Also referred to as mildew.
It requires moisture and a food source to survive. Outdoors this food source can come from decaying organic matter. Indoors however, mold grows from building materials containing carbon, even dust. It spreads by releasing spores into the air which travel dormant until they find another area suitable for growth.
While we may think of mold as disgusting, its everywhere, and there will never be an area that is completely devoid of mold. Luckily most molds and their spores are completely harmless.
They are some however, like what is commonly referred to as black mold, that are not healthy for human exposure. These need to be avoided or dealt with. If you think this may be in your hotel room, keep reading.
What are Signs of Mold in the Room
Hotel Room Smells Musty
A musty odor in the room is a telltale sign of mold and mildew.
I sometimes find it hard to think of what a musty smell actually smells like. It is not easy to describe. You kind of know it when you smell it. The room will smell stale and damp. It’s comparable to a wet sock or an old box of blankets that you’ve just unpacked from your attic.
This should be in contrast to the hotel. Most hotels will generally be fresh and are cleaned regularly. They’re meant to be nice. Its part of the experience they’re offering. So there should be a stark difference with a musty odor and this should stand out to you pretty easily.
Physical Reactions
Another telltale sign to look for is if you or someone in your family begins to have a physical reaction after spending time in the room.
These usually come in the form of respiratory symptoms. Some of the first things that could appear include:
- Eye irratation
- Sneezing
- Headaches
- Itchy Skin
- Wheezing, coughing, and postnasal drip
- Sinus congestion
- Shortness of breath
If someone in your family has these one or multiple of these symptoms, it could be mold. It could also be a reaction to half a dozen other things. Including cleaning products the maid might have used. It could also be air freshener or the bedding. No way to know for sure.
But if this occurs in conjunction with a musty odor, odds are very high you have mold. Even without the smell, might be time to do some sleuthing around the hotel room.
Where to look for Mold
As we mentioned in the beginning mold requires moisture and food for growth.
The moisture needs to be excessive. Unless the hotel room is very humid, this rules out a lot of locations.
For that reason you probably won’t find mold on the bed or any other furniture in the room. The most likely locations are areas where water could have collected.
Check the Bathroom
Obviously the bathroom is your first guess. Mold growth could be happening anywhere in here, including within the shower itself.
If the bathroom has poor air circulation, there would be perpetual humidity inside and mold would flourish. If the bathroom has no fan, that could be contributing.
Mold can be found in grout, or under loose tiling, as well as behind the sink or toilet.
Inside the Rooms
Mold is also found in or under carpets. The dust that collects provides ample food. And excessive or improper cleaning can leave moisture behind that gives mold the required environment for growth.
Perhaps the least expected but most common places to find mold in hotel rooms is behind wallpaper and baseboards. These are areas you don’t come into contact with or notice, but could be causing your problem.
The entire plumbing and piping system of the building is contained within the walls of the hotel.
If there are leaks several things happen.
First, if they are minor they would take a very long time for the hotel to notice. For most localized leaks, hotel management won’t know that a leak is present until visible signs occur, either damage to the wall and flooring or in some cases the presence of mold.
Second, this water gets trapped in the wall and behind the wallpaper or runs down and collects behind the baseboard. The baseboard is the slightly protruding area where the wall meets the floor.
Water will just sit there with no where else to go, and little air flow means it will not evaporate quickly. The area is perpetually damp from water and mold begins to grow.
What to do if Hotel Room has Mold?
If the hotel room has mold, especially black mold, it’s best to contact hotel management immediately. Even if you only suspect it won’t hurt to run your concerns by the manager.
Change Rooms
Check to see with the on duty manager if there are other available rooms that you and those with you could move into. Odds are good this is just a localized issue, depending on the quality of the hotel.
Always remember to be courteous and kind to the staff. They are there to give you a good place to stay for the duration of you trip. They want to help, but won’t reward rudeness.
There is a possibility that the issue is not contained to just one room, and is present throughout the building. In motels and smaller hotels, this could be the case.
There’s really no other solution in this case other than to change where you stay. Hopefully its a popular travel area, and there are a number of options nearby.
I have been with folks who simply won’t accept the state of the hotel and immediately google for a new place to stay. You can try to get your money back, but it’s not guaranteed. Sometimes it ends up worth it just paying for a new location.
Is Mold in a Hotel Room Dangerous?
Some people do get physical symptoms listed earlier in response to mold exposure. Early on it presents itself very similar to an allergy.
But prolonged exposure over several days is discouraged. Around half of those who live in moldy homes develop asthma or other respiratory problems. In fact 20% of asthma cases are due to mold.
The also extends to sinus infections. The majority of chronic sinus infections are due to mold exposure.
Over continued exposure, you will develop other symptoms like fatigue, chronic headaches, weight loss, muscle and joint pain, and chronic bronchitis.
Luckily these only come as a result of living in an environment with toxic mold for an extended period of time. A few days in a hotel room will not have any long term health effects most likely, although I’m no doctor.
Lawsuits for Mold in Hotel Rooms
There can be legal repercussions for motels and hotels with a mold problem that harms their guests.
Go on google and search “mold lawsuit hotel” and it should return several results for recent class action lawsuits against hotels with mold that harmed guests.
This includes one case of dozens who were harmed at a dinner party due to ingesting mold from contaminated kitchens, causing sickness for almost all in attendance.
Whether you would have a case or not I really have no idea. Unless there were permanent damages to you or your loved ones, and you have proof that the mold caused it and that mold was present, it would be very difficult. At the end of the day probably not something worth suing over.
How to Avoid Hotels with Mold Growth
Your first warning signs of a mold infestation are there before you even step foot in the door.
Most companies have a certain level of quality you can come to expect from each location. These are brand names you probably know well. But there are some that are more risky than others. As you might expect, the further down you go on price the further out on the risk curve they go.
While a hotel website will never give you an idea of what they actually look like, google will.
I was staying at a hotel in panama city that someone else booked. Didn’t even know the name of the place until the week of. A couple days before the trip I looked at the place on google. These were the reviews:
While I survived my two nights there, it was something that could easily be avoided. Make sure before you book your next vacation, you do a little due diligence first into the reputation of the location in question, not just the name on the building.