Coming Soon: Antiviral Hotel Beds To Block The Spread Of COVID-19
Among the concerns travelers have now when they check into hotels amid the COVID-19 pandemic is whether the surfaces and touchpoints have been cleaned and disinfected. Most hotels have increased their cleaning measures including removing extraneous fabric accessories to which the virus might cling. But mattresses generally haven't been addressed-until now. Serta Simmons Bedding, the company that provides the majority of mattresses to the hospitality industry, just announced a partnership with the HeiQ Group, a leader in textile innovation, to create the U.S. market's first antiviral mattress.
"We know that our partners in the hospitality and healthcare industries are doing everything they can to help provide the cleanest environment and reassure their guests," said David Swift, chairman and CEO of Serta Simmons Bedding. "Anti-viral and anti-bacterial mattresses will be an enormous asset in that effort."
The technology to be used, HeiQ ViroBlock™, has previously been approved by the European Medical Device Directive for antiviral use in medical personal protective equipment and registered as an antiviral active by the German EPA. The technology was also recently independently tested as 99.99% effective in 30 minutes against SARS-CoV-2 by the Peter Doherty Institut e, a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Pending approvals by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency for marketing purposes, the company will roll out the lines named Serta and Beautyrest HeiQ ViroBlock. Aimbridge Hospitality, which operates a wide portfolio of hotels in the U.S. and the Caribbean including Aloft and Hyatt Place brands, has already expressed interest as have several global companies that given the premature nature of the discussions prefer not to be named.
