If you posted a negative social media review about a hotel last year, you may have helped push U.S. hotel owners to invest a record $6.4 billion to upgrade and beautify their properties.

Complaints — and compliments — on Yelp, Twitter, TripAdvisor and other online review sites motivated hotel owners to invest in carpeting, high-speed Internet and remodeled lobbies, among other hotel improvements, according to a report by Bjorn Hanson, a professor at the Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism at New York University.

The capital expenditures in 2014 represent a 7 percent increase from the previous year, according to Hanson’s annual study, which is based on industry data and interviews with hotel and construction executives.

“It might be a review that says, ‘I’ve always liked this hotel but it’s getting really tired,’” he said.

Hanson added that some executives have told him they also have made capital investments in response to glowing online reviews — about their competitors.

Tray tables play host to vile-high club

The most unsanitary area on a commercial plane is the tray table — the same place you set down your food and drinks during a flight.

That disturbing finding came from a study by the online trip calculating site Tripmath.com, which conducted swab tests on the surfaces of five airports and four flights.

Confounding popular perceptions, the findings show that the stall locks at airport bathrooms are pretty sanitary — even cleaner than your kitchen countertop.

Tripmath.com gauged cleanliness by measuring colony-forming units of bacteria, yeast or mold per square inch. Tray tables scored a nauseating 2,155 CFU per square inch, followed by the overhead air vent (285 CFU), the toilet flush button (265 CFU) and the seat belt buckle (230 CFU), according to the study.

The study calls for a more efficient way to board passengers to give cabin crews more time to disinfect the cabin.

But medical experts say travelers should not panic over this study.

“Travelers are probably no more likely to become ill from exposure to contaminated surfaces and items in an airplane than in any other public place,” said Dr. Gil Chavez, state epidemiologist and deputy director of the California Department of Public Health.

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Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times