Allergen-free room is nothing to sneeze at

First came smoke-free hotel rooms, then rooms reserved for pets and their owners. And now, special rooms for allergy and asthma sufferers.

Major chains, including Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, and Fairmont, are setting aside "hypoallergenic" rooms that they say have fewer airborne particles and irritants bothersome to guests with seasonal or environmental allergies.

Creating a hypoallergenic hotel room (handled in many hotels by a company called PURE Solutions) is no small task. It involves, for example, installing a powerful air purifier (listed as a medical device by the Food and Drug Administration); scrubbing carpeting and upholstery with a solution designed to remove imperceptible dirt, bacteria, and mold; treating surfaces with an antibacterial shield; and wrapping mattresses and pillows in cases fine enough to block the passage of dust mites. Hypoallergenic rooms are usually available only at the chains' high-end locations, such as the Hilton San Diego Bayfront and the Marriott Cincinnati RiverCenter.

But Hyatt says it plans to offer about 2,000 such rooms at all 125 of its full-service properties.

The price for those spic-and-span digs is $20 to $40 higher per night than for a comparable conventional room.

Hotel-industry expert Bjorn Hanson, dean of New York University's Tisch Center for Hospitality, says he doubts the trend in hypoallergenic guest rooms will trickle down to most lower-priced lodging, because of the expertise required to maintain the standards. "No hotel company wants to get involved in a dispute or the bad publicity of a room advertised as being allergy-free that turns out not to be, and a guest experiences a medical problem," Hanson says.

If you book an allergy-free room but wheeze anyway, can you get your money back? "If we were unable to meet this demand for whatever reason," says Mike Taylor, public relations director at Fairmont Hotels, "then I'm sure we would look at refunding the guest for any additional investment that was made to secure this type of room category."