by Roger Yu
"Frequent business traveler Stephanie Dickey often stays at upscale hotels as a globe-trotting sales executive.
But she never leaves her home in Richmond, Texas, without her own bed sheet, shampoo and soap. Suffering from allergies to many items commonly found on the road — latex, foam, shellfish, nuts, chemicals in cleaning products — Dickey travels with four allergy medicines and a pen used to deliver epinephrine for acute reactions.
"Travel is a challenge," says Dickey. "I have to clean all surfaces to avoid contact, but I can still get reactions. Often, I'll go for feather pillows because it is the lesser of the two evils. But I wake up congested and with red eyes because I'm allergic. I am an extreme case."
Spring is the cruelest season for allergy-prone business travelers such as Dickey, whose trips away from familiar environs expose them frequently to the vagaries of the housekeeping policies of hotels, airlines and airports. About 40 million Americans suffer from allergies, according to Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
Frequent business travelers with allergies, asthma or general intolerance know that offensive air, food and odors are unavoidable parts of their jobs. But after years of suffering in silence, they're starting to see their needs addressed by the travel industry, which is constantly on the lookout for new amenities and sales opportunities.
Hotels are setting aside — and charging more for — rooms that they claim are "hypoallergenic," thoroughly cleaned to reduce dust mites, bacteria and other irritants. They're using "greener" cleaning products. New menus reflect changes to cater to shellfish-, gluten- or lactose-intolerant guests."
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