The First Thing To Do Before Using A Hotel Coffee Maker

"Save me, hotel coffee maker. Hotel coffee maker, save me." These are words familiar to any weary traveler (did airports get worse this year?), and even if you didn't book a suite, chances are that your hotel room probably still has a mini fridge and a coffee maker. Ahh, modern luxury. Whether you've arrived well-rested in the afternoon or red-eyed in the wee hours of morning, your own personal coffee maker is there waiting for you before you crash.

Still, as private as the comfort of your own room might seem, with communal living spaces comes communal germs ... and the duvet cover can be bleached. How often does that hotel coffee maker get cleaned between guests? Rather than find out, it's better to just give the coffee maker a good scrub before making a fresh pot.

When a coffee machine doesn't get regularly cleaned, residue, limescale, dust, dirt, and bacteria can build up inside the tank – which is gross for both the taste of your brew and the quality of the liquid you're drinking. Worse, that machine might be harboring something more insidious than coffee oils and hard water minerals. Cleaning your hotel's coffee maker can also lower your risk of illness, steering clear of potential buildups like mold, yeast, staphylococcus, or E. Coli. If you're painfully aware of the fact that you might be neglecting your machine at home, then think about how carefully the one in your hotel room is being maintained.

It's worth noting that hotel coffee makers can range significantly depending on the hotel you're staying in. Your room could have a standard drip coffee pot, or it might have a single-serve Keurig-style machine or a Nespresso coffee maker. Cleaning product brands like Poesie make individually-wrapped coffee maker cleaning tablets, which work with virtually any style of machine. Simply pop the tablet into the water reservoir, then run a large batch of plain water through the machine using the normal brewing settings, rinsing afterward. If you don't have a tablet like this stashed in your luggage, then determining how best to clean the machine depends on what type of coffee maker it is.

Drip coffee machines are typically wide enough to accommodate a hot soapy sponge in both the water reservoir and the carafe. If your hotel room has a Keurig-style single-serve coffee maker, the individual parts (water reservoir, lid, drip tray and K-cup holder) can be disassembled and hand-scrubbed separately. Stash a small bottle of dish soap in your luggage if you plan on sipping java in your hotel room.

Some coffee makers like Nespresso machines are tougher to disassemble and clean. Luckily, Nespresso sells individual packets of descaling solution, which take up almost zero real estate in your luggage for keeping on-hand in case your room has a Nespresso machine (We have a few more tips for cleaning a Nespresso machine, by the way). It's an extra step that can make a big difference.