Development and application of an integrated indoor air quality audit to an international hotel building in Taiwan

Indoor air quality (IAQ) has begun to surface as an important issue that affects the comfort and health of people; however, there is little research concerned about the IAQ monitoring of hotels up to now. Hotels are designed to provide comfortable spaces for guests. However, most complaints related to uncomfortable thermal environment and inadequate indoor air quality appear. In addition, microbial pollution can affect the health of tourists such as the Legionnaire's disease and SARS problems. This study is aimed to establish the comprehensive IAQ audit approach for hotel buildings with portable equipments, and one five-star international hotel in Taiwan was selected to exam this integrated approach. Finally, four major problems are identified after the comprehensive IAQ audit. They are: (1) low room temperature (21.8°C), (2) insufficient air exchange rate (<1.5 h⁻¹), (3) formaldehyde contamination (>0.02 ppm), and (4) the microbial pollution (total bacteria: 2,624–3,799 CFU/m³). The high level of formaldehyde may be due to the emission from the detergent and cleaning agents used for housekeeping.