Dear Housekeeping:

Your hotel, like nearly every single hotel I stay at, has a little sign in the bathroom that says “in an effort to conserve water, if you hang your towel, we will not replace it. Leave it on the floor and we will exchange it for a fresh one.” Much like this one.

So, just like the sign says, I hang my towel.

Honestly, I hate hanging my towel. I’m on vacation or exhausted from traveling for business. The last thing I want to do is make the effort to hang up my towel.

But, like a good little environmentalist I follow the sign. Sometimes I hang the towel on the back of the door.  Sometimes I hang it wrinkled on the rack. Lately I’ve gone a step further.

I don’t just hang my towel. I carefully fold it into three parts, just like my mother taught me. It looks oh-so-neat-and-clean folded and hanging on the towel rack.

But guess what.

You take my towel anyway.

You take my once-used, nearly-clean towel. And your hotel wastes millions of gallons of water washing my towel and towels like mine as you replace my nearly perfectly clean towels with perfectly clean towels.

Most days I try to remember to put up the “privacy please” sign on the door so you don’t ever enter my room. But lately it’s become a test; will you take and replace my towel even though your sign says you won’t?

I’ve thought about calling the manager of the hotel. I’ve thought about hiding the towel - perhaps hanging it in the closet. I’ve thought about bringing my own quick drying msr towel thus avoiding your towels all together.

But frankly, on vacation, I’m too forgetful for these things. And I know you’re just doing your job. So, I’ve come up with a solution:

The “Don’t Change My Towel Sign.” Next time I visit your hotel I will print a copy (on recycled paper with soy-based ink, of course) and hang it with my towel. Hopefully this sign will make it clearer. I really do want to save the environment - one towel at a time.

Here’s to a green future together,
Elizabeth