B&B: Bed and bacteria

Some rooms in Britain's hotels are so filthy they could make you ill, says a survey.

Among the disgusting finds were soiled mattresses, toenail clippings, dead flies and bacteria.

Consumer group Which? checked 20 hotels in Blackpool and London - some costing £80 a night - and 14 failed at least one key hygiene test, while none got a 100 per cent pass.

Which? said: 'It is disturbing to think that a night spent in a hotel could make you ill. Surely a room, no matter how much or little it costs, should be safe and hygienic even if it is not visually spotless?'

A team from the magazine Holiday Which?, accompanied by an independent microbiologist, visited the hotels last August to take swabs and inspect general cleanliness.

Samples taken from rooms tested positive for a range of bacteria, including faecal coliforms, which can indicate faecal contamination.

It turned up on taps and sinks, and even on a glass and a coffee mug. Which? said: 'The Lonsdale Hotel in London's Bloomsbury was especially grim, with less than a quarter of the samples passing.

'When we carried out our inspection, water was pouring through the roof outside our room - bacteria like to live where it is damp. In Blackpool, twothirds of swabs taken at the Astoria failed.

'We saw straight away there were hairs and grit on the bedsheets. The headboard showed very high levels of bacteria.'

Chain hotels visited included an Ibis, a Comfort Inn, a Holiday Inn, a Travel Inn - now known as Premier Travel Inn - a Thistle and a Hilton.

Four of ten Blackpool hotels had 'unacceptable' bed linen, although all of those tested in London were clean. Which? said: 'A column of ants marched across one of the rooms while we were inspecting it, but we didn't spot any evidence of biting nasties like bedbugs.'

Some of the dirty hotels were two- star and even four- star. Which? says current hotel gradings cannot be believed and is calling for a Governmentbacked system to help get of some of the worst offenders.

Holiday Which? editor Neil Fazakerley, said: 'Hotel kitchens are quite rightly bound by all manner of hygiene regulations, but far too little attention is being paid to standards of hygiene elsewhere.'

But British Hospitality Association chief executive Bob Cotton said hotel standards are ' infinitely better' than 20 years ago.

He added: 'Holiday Which? said some microbes were found in rooms. You could do that with any industry, workplace or domestic home and come up with the same thing.

'There are probably 30,000 hotels across the country and there are going to be some that could be better.

'But things are continuing to get better thanks to a great deal of investment in the industry.'

Holiday Inn said: 'We have very rigorous housekeeping standards and are surprised by the result of the one hotel tested.'