My hope for better allergen-free bedding while traveling

Vacation Home Travel

When traveling, having allergen-free bedding is one of my number one challenges. I learned this the hard way recently at a beautiful VRBO home in an exclusive 30A beach house in Florida. The homeowner had her cleaning service use Tide Pods to clean all of her bedding. I was shocked, to say the least! With our family size, we almost exclusively rent beach homes now. We generally use the VRBO service, and recently, every VRBO home we’ve rented has always used a linen service for their linens, and the bedding had never bothered me.

I always travel with my own sheets and pillows (and laundry detergent) just in case, but this was an extreme instance where all the bedding was fragranced and definitely not allergen-free. Major sad face. Such a beautiful home and hard for me to enjoy. Even if I had tried to wash the bedding, as you know, removing fragrance from fabrics can take 4 or 5 times to wash it out. If it’s heavily fragranced, it can take much longer. I contacted the homeowner; she was shocked I had a problem as she feels Tide is safe for all. Whew. We need lots of education in this area. Having allergen-free bedding on vacation is a must.

Hotel Travel

Recently, My husband and I went away for the weekend. Man, did we need a reboot! Months and months of lots of family togetherness, and we needed to get away and breathe. It was amazing. We stayed in a 5-Star hotel in Nashville, The Hermitage.  What a gorgeous property. I highly recommend a visit if you’re in the Nashville, TN area. Just call ahead early for a hypoallergenic room. My problem was our getaway was last minute, and we didn’t give the property enough heads up about the need for a switch out. So we had a small problem.

Again. Bedding. Only this time, it was all featherbedding, and we had to wait for more than 2 hours for them to switch out to hypoallergenic allergen free bedding. We nearly lost our dinner reservations at a nearby restaurant. A rocky start to an absolutely fabulous getaway. Luckily they gave us a beautiful suite to change our travel clothes and into our dinner attire. The service was impeccable at this property.

I always wonder, though, when will hotels and VRBO homeowners realize hypoallergenic, feather-free, and fragrance-free bedding is the best way to go to accommodate all needs. Awareness is my best hope! Cheers and Happy Traveling to all my allergy buddies. Hugs to you!