When you check into your Uganda hotel or safari lodge, the check-in agent will inform you that the service team thoroughly disinfected your hotel room for COVID-19 as part of standard operating procedures. Nevertheless, it pays to be a little skeptical and disinfect the main touchpoints yourself.

Hotel and safari lodge companies have been forced into new cleaning initiatives—since the 2020 pandemic—as a way to regain the confidence of leisure traveling in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. But just like we understand the human experience, some guests at safari lodges in Uganda may not find their hotel room’s disinfection to standards of their expectations. 

According to national standard operating procedures, Safari lodges and hotels ought to leave a note or chart in the room showing which places and when they last disinfected the hotel room. Nevertheless, don’t spend the night with the last guest’s germs. As soon as you walk into your safari lodge room, it would be best to disinfect the germy areas.

Don’t know how to disinfect your hotel or safari lodge room? We got you covered. Here’s what you should look out for:

Find updated information about Covid-19 travel restrictions

Covid travel restrictions

Disinfecting a safari hotel room, what you should carry with you

Household Disinfectant Wipes

A pack of travel-sized disinfectant wipes can come in handy on your safari trip to Uganda. Use them to disinfect your airplane seat and your safari hotel room. Look for those specialty disinfectants (meaning they kill viruses) and not just cleaning wipes (which may only remove visible dirt and grime).

How to Disinfect a Safari Lodge Room

Thoroughly wipe down all high-touch areas in your room or safari tent. These areas include:

• Light and lamp switches
• Doorknobs (including the exterior handle to your room or safari tent, bathroom doorknobs, and closet door pulls)
• Bathroom sink handles
• Shower handles
• The toilet lid and flush handle
• Remotes (television remote, any smart remotes for closing drapes or turning off lights)
• Nightstands
• Alarm clocks

Glasses and ice buckets can also be germ hotbeds, but you never want to sanitize a drinking glass or ice bucket with a disinfectant. You can wash these with soap and water or use your own water bottle instead. The ice bucket should come with plastic liners, which you can use to line the bucket’s inside and outside.

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Follow the instructions on the disinfectant wipe packaging to properly clean the area—note that most require the surface to stay wet for at least four minutes to disinfect completely.

Bedspreads in your safari room may not be washed in between guests and can be germ vectors as well. Remove any decorative bedspreads and pillows and stash them out of the way in your room (possibly with a note on top asking the housekeeper not to put them back when they make up the room), sleeping with just the cleaner top sheets and non-decorative pillows. 

Additionally, when all is set and clean, ask the housekeeper not to come to your room till you check out (if you’re staying for less than five days) or ask them to clean once a week, and you should inform them when and what areas to pay more attention.

If there’s a curtain on your room doors (which is a culture style with Ugandan homes), ask for it to be removed or keep it drawn so that you don’t have to touch it every time you use the door.

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