Travellers have been advised to remove the bed runner from their hotel bed as soon as they enter the room, over concerns that the decorative strip may be carrying dirt and bacteria from previous guests.
The bed runner is a strip of thick, coloured material that runs across the bottom of the bed. In a post on his YouTube channel, sblga, who has 61,000 subscribers, explained why the item is placed on hotel beds and why seasoned travellers take it off as soon as they arrive.
Why hotels use bed runners
On the purpose of the bed runner, sblga said: “That strip of cloth across your hotel bed. Is it just for looks? Mostly, yeah, but not only.
“It is there because hotel beds are white, all of them. White can be washed really hot and bleached, and you can see the stain right way. But a plain white bed looks boring. Bed runner adds colour. Change one strip of clothe and the whole room looks different.”
The bed runner is therefore there in large part because it helps the room look more aesthetically pleasing, with a bright colour such as red or blue standing out against the white sheets.
Dirt and bacteria concerns
However, sblga suggested there was another reason for caution. He added: “Think what you do when you walk into a hotel room. You throw your bag on the bed, you sit down to relax a little bit, still have your shoes on, and all of that happens at the bottom end. The runner is still there.
“It takes dirt so the white colour doesn’t. Okay, now think about that. Sheets get changed for every guest. The runner usually doesn’t. A lot of hotels wash them now and then. That’s why people who travel a lot take it off the bed first thing.”
The implication is that because the bed runner is not washed as often as the sheets, it is more likely to accumulate dirt and bacteria from other people's suitcases and belongings.
Housekeeping manager backs the advice
sblga is not the only person to have discussed removing the bed runner, as a housekeeping manager has also recommended taking it off as soon as you enter the room.
On TikTok, Margarita Sidiroglou, who posts under the handle @margaritasd98, shared a video in which two women removed the bed runner and placed it on the luggage stand, with one of them grimacing as she did so.
The clip subsequently went viral, with people commenting that they were surprised bed runners weren't cleaned regularly and suggesting they should perhaps be removed from hotel rooms altogether.
One person said: “If it's a hassle to clean or replace, they just shouldn't have them in the rooms. I don't need decorative pillows or bed runners.”
