Dear Housekeeping: Please Don’t Change My Towel
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
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
Good article, but remeber to have your sign in Spanish,Chinese and Russian just in case
Cute sign! Also, I just came across these tips on Green Guide about finding a green hotel:
http://www.thegreenguide.com/blog/tow/832
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[...] Housekeeping took the hung towels (despite the sign saying they wouldn’t). I guess next time I’ll need my trusty green hotel don’t change my towels sign! [...]
ew…honestly, you dont mind using the same towel from the night before, when you were all sweaty and gross??or if it was after a shower you already wiped off the remaining dirt….ew…and just think if you share a room with some1, you may get their towel…im sorry but thats nasty…i really dont meant to offend any1 im just making a point
Well, if you want to “go green” by tring to save some water, you make want to think about how much you are poulling the earth when you travle…Plane ride, bus, cars, ect…. the last thing you are worried about is washing a towel…
@ Jaylene - Generally that I find after I take a shower and use the towel the towel doesn’t get especially dirty because I’m using it to dry my clean body. I guess people may use their towels differently…
@ Karen - We definitely realize that travel pollutes the earth. But, we created this site in order to focus on ways to lessen in impact while traveling. Every little thing counts.
What a lovely surprise to find people who think like we do! we have info in our guest info pack asking guests to hang up and air their towels to help save the environment as we will only change them after 2 -3 days of use unless specifically asked. Most of our guests comply willingly and we hang up towels to maximum advantage for drying for them if they have folded them just in case they dont dry well enough for another use.
Only ahd one person complain so far, after one shower they were appalled to find their towel hung up for them! cant please every one it seems!
Keep saving the world one towel at a time!
Haha .. I like the heading! Great read!
I will never understand why people do not have the habit of hanging a used towel after taking a shower. Even more, many use the towels to clean the bathroom floor, to clean their shoes, even though they have everything for cleaning in a self catering vacation rental. It is expected some spots in a white towel but it is incredible the way they leave it. Some times I think they do not use it after taking a shower, but before that … I even offered a client to pay for telling me what was the logic behind that behavior. I am still waiting for an answer. Maybe a child trauma?
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