In the modern American hotel room, visitors are treated in turn as respected guests and potential thieves. Words such as “convenience,” “honor,” and “courtesy” politely delineate a curious code of ethics. If I spent the night at your home, you might not find it necessary to point out that I shouldn’t leave with your bathrobe. But in hotel rooms, where miniature sewing kits and tiny bars of soap are compliments of the house, you will often see a tag like this one:
Bottled water is the most frequently purchased in-room amenity. But what about the little fridge stocked with candy, booze, and soda pop? It is called an “honor bar” because it would be dishonorable to replace its contents with identical items purchased for a fraction of the price at the corner deli.
Many hotels in the U.S. have started showing interest in ecology. A sign like this may appear beside your pillow:
Help us save the earth.
Each year, countless gallons of water and
detergent are consumed washing sheets
and towels that have hardly been used.
We will change the bed sheets in this room
every third day during your stay.
if you wish to have fresh linens sooner,
please place this card on the bed.
Each year, countless gallons of water and
detergent are consumed washing sheets
and towels that have hardly been used.
We will change the bed sheets in this room
every third day during your stay.
if you wish to have fresh linens sooner,
please place this card on the bed.
Most people don’t launder their sheets every day at home. (Just keeping the bed made is effort enough.) But the difference at home is that when you conserve resources, you get to keep the money. Those save-the-planet cards in hotels are motivated by economics; it costs a lot of money to wash all of the sheets and towels every day. Hotels have caught on to the idea that ecology can make good business sense, or what’s called “market-based environmentalism.” So why not be honest about the economics? How about this?
Our hotel is conserving resources
and keeping costs down by laundering
the sheets every third day.
if you’d like your sheets changed more
often, please place this card on the bed.
and keeping costs down by laundering
the sheets every third day.
if you’d like your sheets changed more
often, please place this card on the bed.
Spilled your drink? Wet the bed? Or this: Had sex? Got your period? We’d be happy to change the sheets, but it will cost you $10
The green-onomics of American hotels would be more credible if these establishments were doing more to conserve resources elsewhere. Novel ideas employed in Europe include windows that actually open (in lieu of mandatory air-conditioning), hallway lights equipped with motion sensors (instead of blasting every public area 24/7 with incandescent floods), and large-scale shampoo dispensers in the shower.
Another clever concept at work in many European hotels is a light switch activated by the guest’s electronic room key. Slide the card in and the lights go on; remove the card, and they all shut off. This ingenious system forces guests to turn out the lights when they leave the room; furthermore, the lights automatically return to the configuration you last left them in. Ideas like this one don’t require any phony signage. They just work. EL
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