But I do think the hotel and lodging organizations are more aware today of these bio-security issues. The agency that enforces the hotel sanitation section of the Iowa Code is the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, which conducts an inspection once every two years unless there is a complaint. Judy Harrison, bureau chief of the department's Food and Consumer Safety division, says bedspreads haven't been a problem during inspections. The largest number of complaints on hotel rooms are for hair in the she says. In the past five years, she remembers no complaints about bedspreads.
Hotels defend their cleaning practices and dispute the sensational results of laboratory tests.
Industry guidelines set by the Education Institute of the American Hotel and Lodging Association recommend changing and cleaning the bedspreads monthly. A check of Des Moines area hotels show that often isn't the case. At the West Des Moines Marriott, management says the bedspreads are changed every six weeks. The University Park Holiday Inn, site of the inspected bedspread in the Piper trial, management refused to divulge their cleaning policies. It's like any industry.