Hotels worldwide have cottoned onto the benefits of not changing guest towels every day. Usually, there is a sign inviting us to join them in doing our bit to help the environment.
But are they really helping the environment? Or hoping to save money on their laundry bills?
I’ve been pondering this since reading about how hotels can make their ‘towel reuse signs’ more effective by wording them carefully. You can read about the study in the enjoyable and generally thought-provoking book Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion.
Sure, less laundry is ‘a good thing’ — it translates into less water wasted, less energy and detergents used, and less linen trucked around the place. But let’s have a little honesty here.
I have yet to see a hotel announce that, thanks to guests reusing their towels, the company saved €xxx on its laundry bill last year, which it donated to a named environmental charity*, and with your help they’ll save, or ‘raise’, even more this year.
Now, that’s a wording that would really convince me not just to reuse my towels — but even bring my own.
*With the receipt displayed proudly in the hotel lobby
We have observed this hotel practice, and tried to support it, by attempting to save our towels (we certainly do not need a clean towel every day when at home!). We have invariably been frustrated by the fact that they always give clean towels every day, no matter how pointedly we leave our towels in the ‘save’ position. It is evident that in most cases the message has not got through to the support staff, many of whom, it seems, do not speak, and are unable to read, English. It looks like the modest hotel notices are, in effect, a PR stunt, unsupported by any implementation practice. We have seen the same problem in several hotels. Is it the norm, perhaps?