Article - Hotel towel dilemma: Replace or reuse?

You might call him green.
Except he's not so green when he travels for his work at an education nonprofit and stays in a hotel, which happens about 10 weeks per year. There, he uses a new towel every day. And don't try to bribe him with a drink or dessert coupon to get him to reuse the same one.

"I could care less about rewards for environmentally conscious behavior unless it's miles," Condon wrote in an e-mail.
http://us.cnn.com/2013/03/06/travel/sustainable-hotels/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

We do not offer 'perks' for reusing towels. We just let guests know how to let us know they want new towels. After we put in the little sign that explained how we know, towel reuse went up considerably. Like from 50% to 90%. Guests just didn't know the 'code'. They assumed we were going to pick up the towels off the floor, the bed, the chairs and hang them up for them. Once they understood that if the guest didn't hang them up we were going to replace them, they started hanging them up.
When you reuse your own towel at home for several days it CAN be a nice little 'self perk' to get a new towel every day!
(I know most of you don't get the 'slobs' we get but yes, we do find the towels on the bathroom floor, the bedroom floor, the beds, the chairs, thrown over the lampshades, etc. Some guests have hung them in the hallway over the stair railing.)

Same here Maddie! Our reuse went up drastically after we put up our sign. And we get your slobs too. Haven't had the ones that put on the stair railings but have had them hang them over the FRONT balcony.

we have in the shower or bath to change - you leave them all over the room and they are left - its your problem. Ours has reduced towel bill considerably - PO's changed them every day no matter what! seems like a lot of extra money and work if people arn't bothered.

http://green.tripadvisor.co m/ ive broken the link - but figured id pass on in case people were interested

And what REALLY peeves? When the hotel goes thru the motions of putting up the stupid signs and then clears out your nicely hung towels anyway. Then I know they just bought a 'green package' online that they think is what they are supposed to be doing. Not what they've really trained the staff to do. That makes a mockery of people who really are conserving where they can.

Madeleine said:

And what REALLY peeves? When the hotel goes thru the motions of putting up the stupid signs and then clears out your nicely hung towels anyway. Then I know they just bought a 'green package' online that they think is what they are supposed to be doing. Not what they've really trained the staff to do. That makes a mockery of people who really are conserving where they can..

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Madeleine said:

And what REALLY peeves? When the hotel goes thru the motions of putting up the stupid signs and then clears out your nicely hung towels anyway. Then I know they just bought a 'green package' online that they think is what they are supposed to be doing. Not what they've really trained the staff to do. That makes a mockery of people who really are conserving where they can.

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Or they hang up the wet towels that you put out to be replaced.
One place where we stayed they kept taking our opened soaps and shampoo and replacing them. I was using them, and not wasting them!

Joey Bloggs said:

Madeleine said:

And what REALLY peeves? When the hotel goes thru the motions of putting up the stupid signs and then clears out your nicely hung towels anyway. Then I know they just bought a 'green package' online that they think is what they are supposed to be doing. Not what they've really trained the staff to do. That makes a mockery of people who really are conserving where they can..

Click to expand...

Madeleine said:

And what REALLY peeves? When the hotel goes thru the motions of putting up the stupid signs and then clears out your nicely hung towels anyway. Then I know they just bought a 'green package' online that they think is what they are supposed to be doing. Not what they've really trained the staff to do. That makes a mockery of people who really are conserving where they can.

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Or they hang up the wet towels that you put out to be replaced.
One place where we stayed they kept taking our opened soaps and shampoo and replacing them. I was using them, and not wasting them!
.

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Yeah, that's the other one! I've told the story of the dirty towel I could not get replaced without changing rooms! How could the housekeeper put an obviously dirty towel out in the first place? And then keep hanging it back up for us to use?

We have little stickers. Maybe I should move to larger signs. But we do take the towels from time to time. The reasons can vary. Sometimes we take them because we are washing towels already. Sometimes we take them because we know that they won't dry in time for reuse. We try to honour the guests request to not change towels, but sometimes we just need to wash them.
The worst part... it's the opposite of what most people think, they dry faster in the winter than the summer. So a very damp towel we might take off the hook in the summer, while leaving it in the winter. Logic defies...

Eric Arthur Blair said:

We have little stickers. Maybe I should move to larger signs. But we do take the towels from time to time. The reasons can vary. Sometimes we take them because we are washing towels already. Sometimes we take them because we know that they won't dry in time for reuse. We try to honour the guests request to not change towels, but sometimes we just need to wash them.
The worst part... it's the opposite of what most people think, they dry faster in the winter than the summer. So a very damp towel we might take off the hook in the summer, while leaving it in the winter. Logic defies....

Click to expand...

Eric Arthur Blair said:

The worst part... it's the opposite of what most people think, they dry faster in the winter than the summer. So a very damp towel we might take off the hook in the summer, while leaving it in the winter. Logic defies...

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Same here, we are extremely dry, it's electric!

Eric Arthur Blair said:

We have little stickers. Maybe I should move to larger signs. But we do take the towels from time to time. The reasons can vary. Sometimes we take them because we are washing towels already. Sometimes we take them because we know that they won't dry in time for reuse. We try to honour the guests request to not change towels, but sometimes we just need to wash them.
The worst part... it's the opposite of what most people think, they dry faster in the winter than the summer. So a very damp towel we might take off the hook in the summer, while leaving it in the winter. Logic defies....

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Yes, we take away very wet items, too. Or, if I walk past the towel and I can smell it, it's going in the wash. Or, it's the second day of the stay.
Then again, there are the folks who never use a single towel during a 2 day stay. Not sure how anyone can go 2 days without washing their hands, but that's the way it is.
I love the people who see me going thru the house with a set of sheets and tell me, aghast, 'You don't have to change our sheets!' Right. Wasn't going to do that anyway.

Joey Bloggs said:

Eric Arthur Blair said:

We have little stickers. Maybe I should move to larger signs. But we do take the towels from time to time. The reasons can vary. Sometimes we take them because we are washing towels already. Sometimes we take them because we know that they won't dry in time for reuse. We try to honour the guests request to not change towels, but sometimes we just need to wash them.
The worst part... it's the opposite of what most people think, they dry faster in the winter than the summer. So a very damp towel we might take off the hook in the summer, while leaving it in the winter. Logic defies....

Click to expand...

Eric Arthur Blair said:

The worst part... it's the opposite of what most people think, they dry faster in the winter than the summer. So a very damp towel we might take off the hook in the summer, while leaving it in the winter. Logic defies...

Click to expand...

Same here, we are extremely dry, it's electric!

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Natural gas and electric here. But winter is dry and summer is humid. Now, if I can only convince the Europeans who open the windows in the summer that they are making the room WORSE!