Hotel "Environmental" requests
 

Everywhere I go it seems that hotels and B&Bs are posting requests that guests help the environment by reusing towels. So far I have NEVER seen one of these establishments offer to participate in the effort by offering their guests any incentive to do this. If they were really serious about water and energy saving, they would offer a discounted room rate or even a small gift as a reward for the guests "sacrifice". Instead it seems they just pocket the savings. I have been considering having a card printed up to leave pasted on top of their requests suggesting this. Comments?

Sometimes doing the right thing is its own rewards.

We've seen those signs in lots of hotels--but we've never actually seen the hotel do anything. We hang up our towels if we don't want them replaced, and the hotels replace them anyway.

I'm happy to be environmentally conscious, and I don't think that using the same towel for a couple of days is a sacrifice --or something I should be paid to do.

You want a prize for reusing your towel???

Bizarre . . .

>>but we've never actually seen the hotel do anything.<<

That isn't my experience at all - If a hotel has those sorts of signs, and I neatly hang my towels they are almost always still there after the room is serviced. I usually have washcloths replaced, and sometimes hand towels. Usually re-use the bath towels and bath mats 2 or 3 days at least.

I use the same towel for several days. What do you think the cost savings is for the hotel to wash/dry one less towel every day? We're talking a few cents here.....and it would take far more time/money to track which rooms should get get that little rebate. Pointless.

We just stayed at the Westin Canal Place, New Orleans. They asked us to " go green" and offered bonus Westin points for doing so. The sad part.....none of the rooms in the hotel have towel bars! There is nothing to hang a towel on anywhere in the room. We had to use the folding luggage rack as a towel bar.

<i>What do you think the cost savings is for the hotel to wash/dry one less towel every day?</I> I think it's a major expense and that a penny here and a penny there adds up--Ben Franklin

I'm with you bmurray.

I'm glad you raised the topic, but you're talking to the crowd that tips 25% on meals, $5 to a valet when they drop off a car, and $1 to a bartender who takes the cap off a bottle of beer.

HTtY

I have my towels replaced everyday. When I'm traveling with my husband and kids I don't want to come back to a room with wet towels hanging all over the bathroom. The signs don't really bother me though.

I'm with wtm300 - I like clean/fresh towels.

I use fresh towels everyday at home why shouldn't I get the same service from a hotel. And I really like hotels with evening turn-down service because that means I can take a shower before going out to dinner and get fresh ones for my morning shower.

I guess that makes me uncaring about the environment but I don't feel the need to "Go Green" when I'm in a hotel.

You people seriously use new towels every day? I'm glad I don't have your water bills. What on earth is wrong with reusing them?

HTTY - you really think washing a towel is a major expense?? I can do a load of laundry at a laundromat for a couple dollars....how many towels in one load? Do the math. And a hotel has economies of scale so its certainly less than a laundromat. The labor alone to track who does and doesn't get the few cents back would eat up the few cents. Not to mention the inevitable headaches from people complaining they didn't use this hand towel but they didn't get their 5 cents off the bill.

Do people change their sheets at hone everyday too? If you're using a new towel you better be changing the sheets as well. What a waste.

I don't understand the "wet" towels part. Granted a washcloth gets totally wet. But hand or bath towels - unless you sling them into a tub full of water (and I have seen one of two rooms where people did seem to do that) they are partially damp at most - and if you hang them on a rack will be fully dry before you use them again - just like towels at home.

(Or do you use dozens of towels per weeks at home?)

IMHO at home I use 3 bath towels per week. the first few days I use one for hair and one for body and the second half of the week the hair towel gets used for the body and a fresh one for the hair. Sheets are changed weekly.

If you have little kids that get filthy all the time - I guess you use more - but think 3 per week is plenty for a woman and 2 for a man - unless he has really long hair.

And why ask the hotel to refund you 3 cents for not using a towel. Even at the end of a long vacation what do you have - $1???? A total waste of time and effort.

Just don't waste them - no big deal.

I actually rarely even have housekeeping clean my room while at a hotel. If it is a one or two night stay - there is nothing they need to clean up. I just leave the "do not disturb" sign up on my door all the time.

<i>HTTY - you really think washing a towel is a major expense??</i>

Yes. I'm not in the hotel industry, but I don't leave my brain at home when I travel. A great deal has been written about how to reduce the expense of doing hotel laundry. For instance: http://bpenow.com/ways-reduce-expens...y-departments/

At home I figure it costs as much to wash and dry one towel as it does to wash and dry three shirts.

There is also wear and tear. Every towel and sheet that is not washed saves labor costs, the expense of washing and drying and the wear and tear that comes from washing and drying.

You will understand this better if you have the chance to wash thousands of loads of laundry and to accurately figure all the costs of having done so.

HTtY

Here in California, this has been a common request for over 20 years. Water out here is a precious and expensive commodity.

It's always curious when a spanking new poster to the forum has nothing more than a petty complaint. The notion that anyone would go to the effort to print up cards to b**ch about this is just weird.

I didn't turn on the TV in my room so I saved electricity. I get a prize, right?

I didn't sleep in both beds. Gratis drink at the bar please.

I used the stairs instead the elevator. Give me something.

I didn't take a shower so I saved water. Cut my bill in half.

I don't wash my hands after I pee so I save water and towel use. Free trip to the mini bar?

To a small degree, what you suggest actually happened to us.

When I stayed at Sheraton in Harrisburg PA, they had this deal: if you leave a sign on your door by 2am that you want NO maid service at all that day -- ie, no sheet change, no vacuuming, no emptying the trash, no change of towels -- you get a coupon for $5 of food at the hotel. Since this includes munchies at the gift shop, it was like $5 of free munchies if we kept our room in shape for a day.

http://www.budgettravel.com/blog/wou...-credit,11096/

OK, first let me say that I am pleased with the number of comments to my initial post, if a little puzzled by the nasty tone of some of them.

To try to reply to some of the comments, I joined Fodors because I have been relying on their travel books for many years and now really appreciate the information available on line. I have owned and operated a small business for over 30 years and have travelled much during the last 40 years, mostly in Europe and North America, but also Central America and Asia, so I believe I understand a great deal about business and about travel. I also believe I belong to the mainstream crowd when I tip 20% for good restaurant service (more for exceptional service, but less or not at all for poor service), $2 per bag or for valet service, and yes, $1 to a bartender for opening my beer.

The point I was trying to make in my initial post was that I hate being scammed and I think that hotels and B&B's who post the "Environmental" request to reuse towels are not genuinely interest in the earth, but are trying to shame people into giving up a service that they are paying for in order to increase their own profits.

I am actually most in agreement with "illnative" who says that daily maid service is unnecessary, and applaud the Sheraton when they make it elective and offer some compensation for those who decide that they don't need it. That is exactly what I was suggesting with the towels, and remember, it is the hotels going to the time and expense to print and post the requests, not the clients trying to chisel down the room rate.

" I also believe I belong to the mainstream crowd when I tip 20% for good restaurant service"

Only in North America, I hope.

Yes, I was speaking of North America. I make it point to follow local customs, but usually on the generous side as I really appreciate good service.

Agree with abram on this - even if I hang towels, they replace them. What I imagine is that housekeeping staff cares less about environmental benefits, real or imagined, and more about getting rooms cleaned, without guest complaints. Easier to replace all the towels than mess it up in one room and have someone complain about dirty towels.

Bmurray- you're right to wonder about hotels' motives but does it matter? Even if they are just doing something to increase their bottom line, if it helps the environment also, I'm in. I certainly don't need a new towel every day and I live in an area where droughts and water restrictions are a real issue so I'm happy to contribute even in a very small way.

What gail said. I've also never (or maybe once) seen the maids actually follow the program.

And I'm pretty sure that these kind of programs have little to do with lowering operating costs and more to do with Corporate being able to profess that they have "green" policies to keep them out of environmentalist's cross-hairs.

I get clean sheets and towels each day on vacation. I think it's about saving $$$$ for the hotel and being perceived as doing their part rather than being green.

If anyone who owns a B&B or manages a hotel is reading here is my plea. Include more washclothes. I hate reusing a damp washcloth and if their are not enough clean dry washcloths I use a hand towel or bath towel. You could save laundrying a large towel by tucking in an extra washcloth.

My husband's pet peeve is the lack of recyling facilities in hotels.

I never reuse a washcloth at home...it skeeves me out.

It is condescending for hotels to try to shame their "guests" into reusing towels with the spurious "environmental" plea.

It is enough to mention that towels in the tub will be washed and that those hanging on racks will not be washed.

Please spare me the self-righteous twist on this request?

HTtY

But almost all hotels give 4 wash and hand towels, plenty for 2 people and way too many for one. and if there are a lot of you in the room, why not just call fro extra towels?

<i> Include more washclothes.</i> I agree. I'm finding four bath towels in most rooms, but only three hand towels and three wash clothes

<i>Why not just call for extra towels?</i> I do, but why should I have to?

On a recent trip to Spain I found extra blankets in the closets of most of our rooms, but in the US I seldom find blankets to replace way-too-heavy comforters. I call for blankets, but why should I have to?

Some Hampton Inns have no blankets--only comforters that are too heavy for me. Some people who work at Hampton Inns don't know that it is common practice in the hotel business to provide blankets.

HTtY

Picking up a phone to call and ask for a blanket or a hand towel = first world problem. Sorry you have to take 15 seconds to do that because a hotel chain doesn't have your room prepared exactly the way you want it.

At home we change our bed sheets once a week and bath towels maybe once-twice a week. I think having the hotel sheets & towels changed daily is excessive.

Good for hotels that are finally realizing it's expensive for them (and they pass the costs on to the consumer) and bad for the environment.

I just want to be sure that the housekeeper doesn't use my (or someone else's ) wash cloth to clean the bathroom and then wash the drinking glasses/ coffee mugs etc with the same cloth!!! I hate plastic or paper cups but the sleeve factor for the glasses is high. And yes I do wash the "new" glasses everyday before using them.

We usually reuse bath towels while staying at hotels. I do have them replace hand and wash clothes each day though.

Palmettoprincess--At Sunriver Resort here in Oregon, the lodge rooms have separate recycling containers in each of the rooms, next to the garbage can. I really like that!

Amazing. Even if it saves the hotel money, it also does save water and water treatment--it IS important.
We do it all the time--and also, don't change the sheets.
If you want full service, have at it.
and I agree about the recycling.

We had recycle sections in the trash cans in our rooms in Scandinavia..paper, metal and organic,food. I really liked that.
I like it when hotels give you lots of towels but the number of bed pillows gets ridiculous. We always have a stack of them next to the bed.

By Googling "hotel towel reuse study," one can find research reports that help in understanding whether hotels promote towel reuse more out of concern for the environment or more to save expenses and increase the bottom line.

HTtY

I think the reason some hotels are now using comforters/duvet covers is because of germophobes here who have questioned the cleanliness of re-used blankets over washable duvet covers.

Equating Laundromat or home prices to the hotel industry is a red herring of the first order. LOL

Sorry I haven't read all the posts. Just wanted to say that it bugs me when a hotel asks me to help the environment, then the maids replace the hanging towels anyway.

I don't really care how much money the hotel saves or doesn't save. I think it wastes water. And the laundry soap probably pollutes.

These are issues we all care about. Hopefully.

As a resident of a state with perennial water shortages, it doesn't matter to me why hotels make changes to save water - environmental concerns, money, PR, or something else entirely - I am just happy to see them doing it.