As the travel and hospitality industries grow to meet the needs of a more and more diverse clientele, you might notice how they are becoming more accommodating to travelers with allergies and chemical sensitivities. Earlier I wrote a blog about Swiss Airlines creating a plane just for individuals with allergies and MCS. Now allergy relief can be found at a variety of hotels, most recently Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, who have teamed up with PURE to create allergy friendly hotel rooms, in the hopes of making travel easier for everyone.

Using a seven step purification process called the Pure Process, PURE Rooms are cleaned, sanitized and freed from the common pollutants that may irritate individuals. This process includes:

• Deep Clean Air-Handling Unit – This heat and a/c unit includes air filters and an enzyme based drip pan tablet to eliminate allergens.
• PURE Tea Tree Oil Cartridge – Installed in the air handling unit to maintain sanitized conditions with its antimicrobial properties.
• Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning – Patented PURE clean solution is used to remove debris and allergens from carpets and upholstery.
• One Time Shock Treatment – This consists of a four hour ozone shock treatment which destroys nearly all of the mold and bacteria, as well as odors, in every nook and cranny of the room, leaving the room fresh.
• PURE Shield – A bacteriostatic barrier is applied to all room surfaces to deter bacterial growth and pathogens from inhabiting the room.
• Air Purification System – a 24-hour defense against allergens. Proven by the FDA to kill 98%-100% of bacteria and viruses.
• Allergy Friendly Bedding- PURE uses only micro-fiber, monofilament mattress and pillow encasements for allergy barrier bedding.

There are over 250 Pure Rooms in U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, so to many places you travel, you can enjoy a vacation without worrying about sleeping with allergens, chemicals, mold, or who knows what else the last occupant brought along with them! PURE Rooms can be found in Doubletrees, Hiltons, Hyatts, and Mariotts across the U.S. I easily found four hotels with PURE Rooms in Buckhead, Midtown and even at the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport here in Atlanta. Even if you don't have allergies or chemical sensitivities to cater to, you can relax and enjoy a room that is clean and irritant free.

As a couple final notes, if those hotels are in your budget, then chances are a PURE Room will be too. After checking a few, I found the nightly rate wasn't that much higher than a standard room. The ozone shock treatment is going to be particularly off-putting for many people. Ozone is a powerful lung irritant, particularly for those dealing with asthma, chronic bronchitis or COPD. While it is recommended by no one (except those who sell or produce ozone generators) to use ozone generating devices in occupied rooms, there is considerable debate over their use in unoccupied rooms, as in the instance with PURE Rooms.

Ozone is billed as a way to remove odors, mold and pathogens, but the efficacy of this type of treatment for mold and pathogens is still a source of contention. Ozone shock treatments are used in everything from remediation jobs of homes that have been damaged by flood or fire and even in vehicles. As a space is properly aired out, the level of ozone dissipates over a number of hours. I would venture to say that risk of ozone exposure is going to be low in PURE Rooms, but it never hurts to ask before you book. It is also worth noting that the ozone shock treatment isn't mentioned directly on the list of the seven steps of the PURE Room website, but is listed on a couple of the hotel's sites in their descriptions of the process. Lastly, if a PURE Room is perhaps a bit of overkill for you, bringing along a couple pillow covers and keeping an alcohol-based hand sanitizer in your pocket never hurts.

For more information on PURE Rooms or the PURE Room process, visit pureroom.com.

Author: R. Power