What you should check-out before you check-in

How clean is that bedspread in the posh hotel you're staying in while on vacation? Should you be drinking from the courtesy glass? "Today" travel editor Peter Greenberg answers those questions and more from his latest book, "Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective." Here's an excerpt:

You can — and should — control the cleanliness of certain areas of your hotel room.

• Bedspreads. In the first Travel Detective book, I advised that you take off the bedspread immediately upon checking in. That advice still holds. Hotels hardly ever clean bedspreads — it’s as simple as that. So remove it.

• TVs and telephones. I now also advise bringing some Handi Wipes with you to concentrate on two specific areas that maids do not clean: TV remote control units, which consistently carry high levels of bacteria, and telephone handsets, many of which need thorough cleaning of the ear -- and mouthpieces.

• Pillows. Ask the housekeeping department to send up three additional pillows. Take the existing pillows off the bed and put them in the closet. As for the pillow that’s already in the closet, there’s an excellent chance that it’s cleaner than the original pillows on the bed, so you can actually use that one as a fourth pillow. In my experience, unless you travel with your own pillows, you can never have enough.

• Beds. Sometimes it’s actually how the bed is made that can make a huge difference in the quality of the sleep you get during your hotel experience. For example, the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong uses a special method of folding the sheets on the beds, which has been nicknamed “the Bangkok Fold.” The practice was started at the legendary Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, and it’s really quite simple: the maid puts an extra fold in the sheet at the base of the bed, which allows for free movement of the feet. It’s amazing the difference that makes.

• Ice buckets. Never use ice directly from the ice bucket; always use the plastic liner.They never clean the ice buckets.

• Coffeepots. Generally speaking, most hotels do not wash the in-room coffeepots and cups, they merely rinse and wipe them out.

• Towels. I remember staying at the Hilton Hotel in Springfield, Illinois, where the towels in the bathroom were the size of loincloths. To add insult to injury, there was a plastic tent card placed on the sink announcing that if you took the towel, you’d be charged $7. I couldn’t stop laughing. The towels were unusable to begin with! So I stopped a maid in the hall as she completed her rounds and asked her how many people stole those towels. She laughed, “No one.” I told her I couldn’t believe they even called them towels. She smiled and said she could solve my problem. In some of the suites, the hotel provided bath sheets, and she got me two, so I tipped her. And this is good advice. Indeed, many hotels provision their suites with nicer towels than are provided in rooms. Often they also supply bathrobes. Ask the maid nicely, tip her, and she will take care of you.

• Dusty surfaces. If you’re allergic to animals, make sure to ask whether there were pets in your room anytime in the past thirty days (see the section in Chapter 13 on pet-friendly hotels). Most maids do not dust above armoires or other high furniture and objects — in many cases, they don’t even look up there. You’d be surprised by what some people leave on the top of armoires — everything from used condoms (don’t even ask how they got up there) to beer bottles and the telltale ashtray with cigarette butts the previous guest tried to hide.

• Carpets. Do not walk around barefoot. Remember what I said about hotels intentionally installing heavily patterned carpets to mask dirt and stains? Either bring a pair of your own slippers or, if the hotel provides them, wear a pair of theirs.

The next stop is the bathroom. Now it’s going to get truly ugly.

• Drinking Glasses. Hotel-supplied drinking glasses may look clean, but there’s a good chance the maid didn’t replace them after the last guest checked out. More likely, she gave them a cursory rinse in the sink, wiped them dry, and returned them to the bathroom.

• Bathtubs. If a maid is running late, she may not clean the bathtub at all. Instead, she’s likely to grab a towel, wet it, and do one quick wipe or “pat down.” That’s it. Although it may waste water, as a precaution before taking a bath, fill the tub to see what’s floating around, then drain it, and wipe it out yourself.

• Shower curtains. This is another breeding ground for bacteria and mold. In some bathrooms, hotels use vinyl liners with overlay shower curtains. The curtains themselves are hardly ever cleaned, and if the vinyl liners aren’t cleaned, mold grows.

Excerpted from “Hotel Secret from The Travel Detective” by Peter Greenberg. Copyright © 2004 by Peter Greenberg. Excerpted by permission of Villard, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.