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The threat of a legionella hotel closure remains a critical risk for hospitality operators who fail to maintain stringent water hygiene standards. Following a positive identification of the bacteria during routine sampling, local authorities have moved swiftly to shut down a premises to protect public health.
A hotel in Reggio Calabria has been ordered to cease operations immediately by the city’s mayor. The emergency measure was triggered following a formal proposal by the Provincial Health Authority (Asp) after laboratory results from the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (Arpacal) confirmed the presence of Legionella within the building’s water system.
The closure order was issued as a precautionary measure to prevent any potential outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease among guests and staff. While the specific concentrations of the bacteria have not been made public, the immediate suspension of business activities suggests that the levels detected were significant enough to pose an unacceptable risk to life.
The operational impact of a legionella hotel closure
For any hotelier, the sudden enforcement of a legionella hotel closure is a worst-case scenario that extends far beyond a simple maintenance issue. When a local authority or health board intervenes to shut a building, the reputational damage and financial loss can be permanent. In this instance, the Mayor acted on the technical advice of environmental and health experts, highlighting how quickly local government can move when public safety is at stake.
The hotel is now required to undergo an intensive disinfection process of its entire domestic hot and cold water system. This typically involves chemical shock dosing or thermal disinfection, where water temperatures are raised to levels that kill the bacteria. However, simply cleaning the system is rarely enough to allow a reopening; the owners must prove through follow-up testing that the remediation has been successful.
Water systems in the hospitality sector are particularly vulnerable to colonisation. Large buildings with complex pipework, seasonal fluctuations in occupancy, and multiple “dead legs” where water can stagnate provide the ideal conditions for Legionella to thrive. When rooms are left vacant, the lack of flow allows the water temperature to drift into the “danger zone” of 20°C to 45°C, encouraging biofilm growth.
Lessons for UK dutyholders and facilities managers
While this specific legionella hotel closure took place in Italy, the underlying compliance failures serve as a stark reminder for UK-based dutyholders. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the specific requirements of the COSHH Regulations, UK employers and landlords must manage the risk of exposure to Legionella. The HSE’s Approved Code of Practice L8 (ACoP L8) and the technical guidance HSG274 set out exactly what is expected of those in control of premises.
In the UK, a legionella hotel closure might not always come from a Mayor, but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or local authority environmental health officers have the power to issue Prohibition Notices. These notices effectively stop the use of water systems or shut down entire sections of a business if they believe there is a risk of serious personal injury.
Compliance managers should look at this case and review their own “written scheme of control.” This document is the backbone of water hygiene management, detailing the frequency of temperature monitoring, showerhead descaling, and flushing of infrequent-to-use outlets. If these records are not up to date, proving “due diligence” during an inspection becomes almost impossible.
Risk assessments and system maintenance
The core of preventing a legionella hotel closure is the water safety risk assessment. This should not be treated as a “tick-box” exercise to be filed away and forgotten. It is a live document that must be reviewed whenever there is a change to the system or at least every two years. In the Reggio case, the presence of the bacteria was caught during sampling, but ideally, a robust maintenance regime should prevent the bacteria from reaching detectable levels in the first place.
Facilities teams must ensure that hot water is stored at 60°C and distributed so that it reaches at least 50°C at the taps within one minute. Conversely, cold water should be kept below 20°C. Failure to maintain these temperature boundaries is often the primary reason why samples come back positive, leading to the types of emergency enforcement actions seen this week.
The hotel in Reggio Calabria will remain closed until further notice. Reopening will depend entirely on the results of new samples taken after the disinfection process. For the owners, the road back to compliance involves not just plumbing work, but a complete overhaul of their management systems to satisfy the Provincial Health Authority that the site is safe for the public once again.
