Is it Better to Steam Clean or Shampoo Carpet?

Posted August 11, 2022

78% of hotel guests believe that cleanliness is the most important factor when choosing where to stay. Whichever type of organisation you operate – be it a hotel, entertainment venue or educational facility – you’ll know that appearance matters. If you regularly welcome visitors or customers to your premises, thorough carpet cleaning is a vital part of leaving a positive impression. And this becomes even more important if you’re aiming for a high-end, luxury experience.

The question is, if you’re going to hire a team of commercial cleaners, which method should you ask them to use on your carpets – steam cleaning or shampooing? Each has advantages and disadvantages, so to help you decide which to choose, we’ve summarised them below.

Shampoo pros and cons

Perhaps the more traditional approach, using a carpet cleaning machine to shampoo your flooring can be extremely effective nevertheless. Carpet shampooer has a couple of distinct advantages over steam cleaning:

It’s able to remove a lot of dirt quickly from heavily soiled carpets.
It’s ideally suited to removing soil and loose dirt, making it ideal for high-traffic areas (like entrances and exits, for example).

Although shampooing works well on heavily soiled carpets, it’s not all positive.

Disadvantages in comparison to steam cleaning include:

Drying time. Once your carpet has been shampooed, you’ll have to wait hours for it to dry out – particularly in winter. It can require a drying time of 12 to 24 hours
It’s harsher on the carpet. If your flooring isn’t in bad shape and only needs a light clean, shampooing it could wear out the fibres unnecessarily.
Shampoo machines can be quite large and cumbersome, making it hard to clean small areas.

Steam cleaning pros and cons

So, what about steam cleaning? Does it fare better? Although we offer both approaches, in our opinion, steam cleaning tends to be the better option in most situations. Here’s why:

It can usually remove ingrained dirt more effectively – particularly stubborn stains that have embedded themselves deep into the fibres.
Because the steam is released at a high temperature, this method also helps disinfect the carpet.
The machine can efficiently clean both large and small areas – including tight and difficult to access corners.
Requires a quicker drying time – approximately 6 to 12 hours.

The only real disadvantage of steam cleaning is that it’s not as effective at removing loose dirt, although this only really applies if your carpets haven’t been cleaned for a long time.

Not sure? Consult the experts

Still unsure of which option to go for? Speak to the experts at Donau today for advice. Our commercial carpet cleaning experts work with all kinds of high-end clients on a regular basis, and could help you restore and maintain your carpets to leave the perfect first impression.

We serve a wide range of clients, always striving for professionalism and cleanliness in our service. Our work at 5-star hotel, The Dorchester, involved providing an immaculate carpet cleaning service, which left their carpets looking brand new. Read more to find out about how we kept this renowned establishment spotlessly clean. Are you looking for this level of service?