The Chinese startup putting microchips in linens to ensure hotels are clean

Hotel hygiene scandals are forcing Chinese hotels to look for creative tech solutions

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The Chinese startup putting microchips in linens to ensure hotels are clean

Masha Borak

Published: 10:00am, 13 Dec 2019Updated: 10:00am, 13 Dec 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

If you’re the type of person who’s concerned about how clean your hotel room actually is (a terrible rabbit hole to go down), a 1-year-old startup in China might help ease your mind.

Suqu Net designs chips that can be used to track hotel inventory, like being embedded into cleaning rags to ensure the same cloth isn’t used to clean both the toilet and other areas of the room. The chips can also show whether a room has been restocked with fresh items.

Some hotels in China, like Shanghai’s Wugong Hotel, are already using the company’s tech. If a cleaner decides to use a toilet cleaning cloth to wipe down the sink, sensors will set off an alarm. Don’t worry, it’s not calling the police; it just notfies hotel management.

China has had a number of scandals related to poor hygiene in hotel rooms. Is putting chips on everything the solution? (Picture: Shanghai Morning Post via Weibo)

Reusing cleaning tools in an unhygienic way might seem like an oddly specific fear, but this has been the subject of a number of hotel hygiene scandals in China. Last year, a whistleblower nicknamed Huazong created a storm online after posting videos of more than 100 upmarket hotels, including international chains. The videos purportedly show a number of stomach-churning cleaning practices, including using the same towels to wipe drinking cups and toilets.

With Suqu Net’s chips, hotel rooms “know” if a room attendant is using a dirty rag thanks to sensors hidden in the wall. The sensors can track a number of different objects in the room, including cups and bedding. The chips are the key to traceability, according to Shanghai-based Suqu Net engineer Shi Xiaowei.