Indoor Environmental Quality, or simply the quality of the air, plays a huge role in determining if the guest is satisfied with a guestroom. Smells a guest may encounter need not be overpowering: Maybe the room just smells stale. This can originate from poor ventilation, indoor pollutants, strong masking deodorizers or, more likely, from inadequate cleaning.

Over the last few decades, IEQ has emerged as a major concern for the lodging industry. Guests expect clean, healthy, comfortable rooms. The green movement accelerates this demand.

The answer to this demand is to view the hotel from a holistic viewpoint, paying attention to the role of cleaning. A color-coded maintenance program should be developed. This program should be broken into four components:

Preventative maintenance starts in the parking lot. More than 80 percent of soil in a building is tracked in from the outside. Interior and exterior mats can trap the soil before it spreads through the building. The longer the matting, the more soil it traps. Ideally the mat should be long enough to capture four to six footsteps. These mats need regular maintenance or they can become sources of soil. In addition to entrance mats, other areas such as the restaurant, vending machines or laundry can benefit from matting.

Daily cleaning includes vacuuming and spotting. Nearly 80 percent of all soil is insoluble material, including sand, hair, skin cells and dust. This type of soil is damaging in two ways. First, most soil is small enough to be respirable, causing breathing issues. Second, the abrasiveness can cause irreversible damage to the carpet, requiring premature replacement.

Proper spotting removes the oily spots, including makeup, gum, tar, grease and water-based spots such as food, drinks and bodily fluids. The key to spotting is fast response using minimal solutions and thorough flushing.

Interim cleaning using low-moisture methods, such as encapsulation, can improve appearance and have a room ready for guests almost immediately. Following three to four interim cleanings a restorative method such as hot-water extraction should be used.

Restorative cleaning, or hot-water extraction, is the most thorough cleaning method as it flushes out the most soil. Drying time can be minimized by the use of special drying fans.

A planned maintenance program shouldn't increase the work or the cost of maintaining your hotel. Good IEQ doesn't have to compete with other building management priorities, it can enhance them

In the ideal situation your guest enters the room and smells a fresh clean smell which triggers pleasant thoughts. Hopefully, as the guests fire up the laptop in their room they are writing a great review of the clean, pleasant-smelling room.

Bill Yeadon is the training director for Jon Don, a distributor of carpet cleaning, restoration and janitorial supplies. He is also an approved instructor and the Technical Advisory Chairperson for the Carpet Cleaning Technician category for the Institute of Inspection Cleaning & Restoration Certification (IICRC).