• The state of Tennessee provides minimum standards for hotels within the state. These standards are handed down from the Bureau of Health Services Administration of the Tennessee Department of Health, designed to protect the health and safety of both guests and hotel employees.
  
  

Personnel

• Hotel employees are required to exhibit personal cleanliness. Employees other than clerical employees must thoroughly wash their hands and the exposed areas of their arms with soap and warm water before starting work, during their work shift, and at any time to keep them clean after smoking, eating or drinking, or after using the toilet. Employees must also keep their fingernails clean and trimmed, and conform to other good hygiene practices. No employee that has a communicable disease, or affliction with boils, infected wounds or sores can work in the hotel in any capacity in which it is possible for them to transmit the disease to another person or contaminate bedding or other surfaces.
  
  

Fire Safety

• Portable fire extinguishers are approved by the State Fire Marshal's office and installed and operated according to the law must be provided in areas that include storage, laundry, linen, and gas-fired equipment rooms. The extinguishers must be inspected annually and afterward tagged, displaying the date of the inspection by an approved fire extinguisher servicing company or an approved fire department. No soda-acid types of extinguishers may be used.
  
  All sleeping rooms and sleeping areas must be provided with a single-station smoke detector that is installed, maintained, and operated in accordance with the law. In sleeping rooms that contain smoke detectors that are connected to a central alarm system that also arms locally, single-station smoke detectors are not required.
  
  A fire alarm system approved by the State Fire Marshal's office must be installed, maintained, and operated according to law in hotels having more than 15 guest rooms. Exceptions to this would include hotels where all the guest rooms have a direct exit to the outside, or in buildings of three or fewer stories where each guestroom has two or more directions to exit from the room's entrance door.
  
  

Sleeping Rooms

• With the exception of hotels constructed before July 1, 1977, toilet and bathing facilities must be provided for each sleeping room in Tennessee hotels. Both the toilets and bathing facilities, including the rooms and fixtures, must have a sanitary design, be easily cleanable, and must be kept in a clean condition and in good repair. Toilet tissue must be provided and new soap must be supplied after each guest occupancy in the room. Rooms must be provided with a minimum of soap, two clean towels, two clean washcloths of adequate size, four clothes hangers, two chairs, two drinking glasses, and two ashtrays, except in areas designated as "No Smoking."
  
  A properly installed and maintained heating system must be capable of maintaining a temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit. If provided, the cooling system must also be maintained in good repair.