Hotels in China offer disposable inner pots for kettles after guests boil underwear in them

After reports of hotel guests boiling underwear and socks in in-room electric kettles sparked widespread concern, a hotel in China has drawn attention for offering a novel solution: disposable inner pots.

Chinese media outlets including Yangtze Evening News recently reported that a hotel in Linyi, Shandong Province, has been generating buzz for providing electric kettles fitted with disposable inner pots.

Photos shared by local internet users show a single-use inner pot made of food-grade aluminum foil sitting inside the kettle.

The concept is simple: guests remove the plastic wrapping from the inner pot, place it inside the kettle and boil water as usual. The inner pot is replaced with each new guest, according to the hotel.

"Quite a few guests worry about the hygiene of shared electric kettles in hotels," a hotel official told the media outlet. "We replace the inner pot for each guest so they can use it cleanly."

The official added that guests have generally responded positively.

The inner pots are also available for purchase on local e-commerce platforms. A vendor said hygiene concerns over standard hotel kettles have become so serious that many businesses are turning to such products.

Public reaction has been largely favorable. Some internet users said the disposable inner pot addresses a key hygiene issue during hotel stays and expressed hope that more hotels would adopt the practice.

Others, however, noted that while the inner pot is disposable, the kettle lid cannot be replaced, and suggested that bringing a personal kettle is the safer option.

Anxiety among lodging guests has been growing both in South Korea and abroad in recent months, fueled by online rumors that some hotel guests boil underwear in electric kettles.

In practice, there have been cases at domestic lodging establishments where guests were suspected of having done exactly that. "When the kettle breaks down and we go up to check, we sometimes find that guests have washed their underwear in it," one lodging operator said.

A survey of American travelers by hotel booking platform Hotels.com also found that 5 percent of respondents said they had used an in-room coffee maker to wash their underwear.