Slowly, ever so slowly, American hotels are recognising that travellers who suffer from severe asthma and allergies triggered by dust mites, mould, smoke, pollen, chemicals and animal hairs might like to stay in hypoallergenic rooms - for a price.
With as many as one in four travellers coughing, sneezing and wheezing their way through the day, or night, the thought crossed a few minds to develop hotel rooms that are free of all the nasty stuff that causes guests to feel as if their airways are clogging. Not that many didn’t feel that way before checking in. But to find relief in a hotel room, what a surprise. Whether the environmentally friendly rooms become as prevalent as non-smoking rooms and floors in lodging establishments is another matter. Any relief from bad air and bacteria-ridden rooms is a Godsend to travellers with serious asthmatic conditions. “Allergy patients suffer a lot whether it’s sneezing, nasal congestion or a runny nose, but more severe patients could have an asthma exacerbation and that could be life threatening,” said Dr Kris McGrath, an allergist and associate professor of clinical medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Pure Rooms, which can be found in 34 hotels nationwide with a total of 400 treated rooms, is the brand of Pure Solutions NA, a firm located near Buffalo. “At this point, we’re handling individual hotels,” said Brian Brault, the firm’s president, CEO and founder, who described his venture as a new industry. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which has tested a full floor of Pure Rooms in Chicago-suburban Lisle, and in its Miami Airport and Peachtree City, Georgia properties, plans to have a number of Pure Rooms installed in its 20 company-managed hotels in 2008, and then in 200 franchised hostelries in 2009. The Sydney Morning Herald, January 7.
