Good air quality as an added value for your guests 

Frequent cleaning of ventilation systems prevents damage and complaints

As a hotel guest, you expect a healthy indoor climate and a fire-safe environment. Yet Valor Services Group, which specialises in cleaning air and grease ducts, notes that ventilation ducts in hotels are often highly polluted. "With facility services for the hotel industry, we want to make operators more aware of air quality and fire safety," says CEO and co-owner Thierry Desmet.

When it comes to a healthy indoor climate in public buildings, such as hotels, there are a lot of laws and regulations. European regulations also impose all kinds of air quality requirements. "No lack of clarity, you would think. Yet the air quality in hotels often leaves much to be desired," says Thierry Desmet. "However, professional cleaning of air ducts is of the utmost importance. In particular, the filters in pulse groups - which supply fresh outside air - need to be replaced frequently. These filters remove dust and fine particles from the air and prevent moisture and mould from settling in the air ventilation system. How often you replace them depends greatly on the hotel's environment. If a hotel is right next to a construction site with a lot of dust formation, you need to do this several times a year."

Apart from pulse channels, you will also find extraction channels in air ventilation systems. These exhaust air from (humid) rooms to the outside. "In maintenance, the extraction ducts are often overlooked, even though they are often the most polluted," warns Desmet. "Especially in extraction ducts of sanitary rooms such as bathrooms and toilets, a lot of dirt and dust often accumulates, creating a fire hazard." 

Either way, there is a legal standard for how often ducts should be cleaned. According to the Building Decree, it is once every three to five years. "But you better go by the EN 15780 standard. This is because it determines from how many grams of dust accumulating in a duct per square metre a cleaning is necessary." 

For a healthy indoor climate, it is best to measure the air quality as well. There is a lot of equipment for that. "A good example is our own Zaack DUST®, a sensor that continuously monitors the level of dust in a ventilation system according to the NF EN 15780 standard," says Desmet. "For measuring indoor air quality, there are also all kinds of systems that automatically measure the concentration of CO2, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter, among others. When one of the parameters exceeds the permissible level, an alert is automatically sent. This measuring equipment is a wise investment, as being able to demonstrate good air quality also adds value for hotel guests."

A topic that Desmet says deserves separate attention is fire safety in hotel kitchens. "In commercial kitchens, people often work with deep-fat fryers, hot oils, baking trays and open flames. If extractor hoods are not maintained properly, fats accumulate in the grease ducts, increasing the risk of fire. It is a legal requirement to have extractor systems cleaned at least once a year by an authorised cleaning company. Most hotels comply with this neatly. But for fire safety, especially in heavily used hotel kitchens, it is advisable to have it done more often. Remember: the cost of a periodic cleaning absolutely does not outweigh the cost of an emergency closure of a hotel due to a fire in an extraction duct." 

Desmet speaks from his own experience and is keen to emphasise this: "I am CEO of a company with about a hundred employees, but I learnt the trade from practice. I got my hands in grease, dirt and dust myself. This applies to the entire management of the Valor Services Group, by the way. This clearly sets us apart from other large companies in our industry."■