Hotel owners and housekeepers know that hotel rooms are often cleaner than guests' own homes. But that doesn't help allay the fears of guests who have seen one too many TV exposés on dirty hotel rooms.
In response, hotels are adopting extreme measures to calm guests' fears. In 2012, Best Western International rolled out a new cleaning program in which housekeepers use black lights to find invisible biological matter and UV-light wands to disinfect things like remotes. The new policy works, Best Western says: guest satisfaction for room cleanliness rose 12 percent. What else can a hotel do to reassure guests its rooms are clean?