My hotel room, in common with every hotel room I’ve stayed in in the past 10 or more years, is very “green”. What I mean by that is that it has little notices like this:
There are a few variations, but basically they are asking guests to indicate whether they want their sheets or towels replaced, reminding us of the damage we are doing to the environment by washing things to often.
That’s all very well. If it’s a short stay, I don’t mind using the same sheets or the same towel. But there’s a problem.
The housekeeping staff in this hotel — in common with the staff every hotel I’ve stayed in … — don’t necessarily pay attention.
On a couple of occasions I’ve hung a towel up (rather than throw it in the, non-existent in this case, bathtub), but they’ve replaced it anyway.
Now, this is not a complaint. Who is really going to complain about getting a fresh towel? And the towels here are those really big, fluffy white hotel towels that really are best when fresh.
But it does expose the fact that their commitment to the environment may not be as strong as they’d like us to think. Or,as I said, the staff really aren’t paying too much attention. After all, I imagine that cleaning hotel rooms is fairly dull work.
Meanwhile, only a cynic would say that the management are all for minimising the amount of laundry because of its impact not on the environment but the hotel’s financial bottom line.
