When you enter a hotel lobby, you’re probably focused on checking into your hotel room, juggling all of your luggage and finding the elevators to your floor. But one thing you’re likely not thinking about: all the contaminated surfaces you’ve touched before you even get to your room.

“Think of hotel lobbies the same way as hospital waiting rooms,” said Jason Tetro, a microbiologist and author of “The Germ Code.” “They are filled with people who are passing time … [and are] the perfect place for germs to spread.”

In fact, a recent study looked at contaminated surfaces and the infection risk in common hotel lobby areas, including the check-in counter, elevator, lounge and bar, office spaces, gym and restroom.

The front desk counter ranked second for the most touches.

“This study showed that just a couple of heavily used surfaces … can quickly spread germs around a hotel lobby,” said Dr. Kelly Reynolds, an environmental scientist at the University of Arizona’s College of Public Health and researcher for the study. “Because so many people touch the same spots, germs can jump from hand to hand, to face, and even to food.”

We talked to experts about which hotel lobby surfaces are the germiest, types of viruses and bacteria that may be lurking, and how likely you are to get sick — plus what precautions you can take to avoid picking up a bug.

So what are the germiest spots in a hotel lobby?

“The lobby is filled with all sorts of great hiding spots for germs, but to find the most germs, you need to look … at high-touch environmental surfaces,” Tetro explained.

So what is the most-touched site in the hotel lobby? The study found that the elevator button received about a third of all touches, Reynolds said.

Elevator buttons are “a central hub, serving as a super-spreader site … [because they connect] people to other parts of the lobby and [spread] germs easily,” she added.

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