Legionella Testing for Hotels & Hospitality Premises
Hotels owners and managers guide to Legionella Compliance
As an owner or a manager of a Hotel, it is important to understand your responsibilities when it comes to Legionella Compliance. Legionella Risk Assessments and understanding what a Legionella Risk Assessment is will help you in becoming compliant and ensuring that the water systems within your hotel are safe.
Health and safety regulators in the UK must be adhered to when you operating a business. It’s therefore vital that every hotel has an compliant Legionella control programme in place to control to ensure the safety of their employees, guests, other people and the hotels reputation.
Legionella bacteria is found in water. This means any part of a hotel that has water present carries a risk of people being exposed to the bacteria if it be present. There are higher risk areas within the hotel such as shower heads and taps but also:
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Indoor fountains and water features
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Whirlpool baths, spa pools, hot tubs, and similar attractions
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Cooling towers and air conditioning anywhere around the hotel grounds
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Condensers
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Food displays that use humidified air
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Misting and irrigation systems
There is a reasonably foreseeable Legionella risk in your water system if
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Water is stored or re-circulated as part of your system
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The water temperature in all or some part of the system is between 20-45°C
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There are sources of nutrients such as rust, sludge, scale and organic matters
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The conditions are likely to encourage bacteria to multiply
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It is possible for water droplets to be produced and dispersed.
Risk Management
Once the Risk Assessment is completed we can help you implement the necessary measures to ensure the water system remains safe and you remain compliant. Risk Management could include the following:
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Temperature Monitoring of taps
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Regular flushing low used taps
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Cleaning and Descaling taps
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Removing redundant Pipework
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Water Testing
The risk of Legionnaires’ disease can be reduced in hotels and hospitality premises if steps are taken.
For example, one person, often referred to as the responsible person should take overall responsibility for controlling the risks from legionella at the hotel. While this person should be properly trained and suitably competent to take on this role, other hotel staff should also receive legionella training to ensure they understand how they can reduce the risks.
Record keeping for hotel managers
It’s vital that hotel managers or those named as the 'responsible person' for controlling the water system risks keep records of the task they do to control legionella. This could include details of the roles, responsibilities and competence of the people involved, the results of tests, routine inspections, control measures you’ve implemented, staff training, details of your legionella risk assessment and any updates.
Without these records it’s difficult to manage the effectiveness of what you do at the hotel, and also demonstrate to the regulator that you are taking reasonable precautions to control the risk.