Changing hotel sheets

I'm a big fan of Mark Hurst and his This Is Broken website. But today's entry, to me, speaks much more about the ridiculous level of American self-entitlement than it does about bad design. Hurst stayed at the Marriot Monterey, a big hotel in a part of California which is both environmentally fragile and evironmentally aware. Hurst's complaint?

At the Marriott Monterey...
... the only way I can finagle new sheets every day, in this $200+/night hotel, is to
(a) read the card and
(b) remember to put the card on my pillow every morning.
Otherwise they reserve the right to give me the same sheets each day.
(If they're saving water as a result, shouldn't they give me a price break?)

The language about the price of the room (which seems utterly normal for this kind of hotel in this kind of location to me), along with the language about wanting a "price break" for the water they're saving, makes it clear that Mark thinks this is a cost issue: that the main incentive here is to save money. The idea that saving water and electricity might be a good thing anyway doesn't seem to have crossed his mind.

I don't know Mark very well, but I've met him a couple of times, and he certainly doesn't strike me as the kind of person who changes his sheets every day at home. (Does anybody do that? Donald Trump, maybe?) In fact, I daresay that if I told him that I changed my sheets every day, he'd think me very wasteful, and/or obsessive-compulsive to a point nearing outright mental illness. So why does he seem to think that any halfways-decent hotel should change his sheets automatically?

Obviously, if sheets are dirty, they should be cleaned. If a guest requests new sheets, he should get them. And new guests get new sheets, always. But I see no reason for a hotel guest to expect a level of wastefulness and environmental unfriendliness which would be outright shocking to most Europeans.

Let's just think of everything that Mark is expecting on a daily basis as a default setting here. The bed to be stripped, and all sheets (used once) to be scrumpled up into the laundry. Then the sheets from hundreds of hotel rooms to be washed – a massive operation, involving vast amounts of water, electricity, and nasty bleach. Then all those sheets to be dried, and folded, and stored, and then made into new beds. Never mind the cost of the water, how much labour does Mark think all this involves? How much does he think a reasonable wage is? Why does he feel that he is entitled to all this? Because he's paying $200 a night for a room in a full-service hotel in one of the most expensive parts of the world?

Different places have different levels of environmental consciousness. Britain is somewhere between Germany and California; California is somewhere between Britain and New York. If Mark goes to a hotel in Germany, he won't find the hotel apologising for not changing his sheets every day, because the hotel doesn't think that's anything to apologise for. They won't change his sheets unless they're dirty, and he won't notice or care. And that's not broken: that's as it should be. And Mark needs to get over himself.

Posted by Felix at 0:08 EST

Comments

The water rates in that part of California are nuts. Utterly nuts. Thousands of dollars a month nuts. Staying at a home in Monerrey two summers back I was given very strict, and very parsimonious, toilet-flushing instructions. Water supplies have been tight for a while in that part of the world. So, if yer man wants fresh sheets every day, let him pay extra.

Posted by: Gari N. Corp at 8:25 EST, April 07, 2006

The Union Station Wyndham in Nashville was doing this five years ago (at least), and their water rates are, I'm sure, far more reasonable. The card was obvious and easy to understand (on my pillow when I got in), and I was really happy to see such a logical and sensible policy in place (plus, I'm no fan of overly starched, industrially cleaned sheets). I look for the card now every time I'm in a room. I haven't seen one since (and I've been to other Wyndhams -- I got the impression it was a chain-wide policy). I figured such a win/win (lower costs for the hotel while providing an environmentally friendly option) idea would be pervasive by now.

Posted by: miss representation at 8:46 EST, April 07, 2006

Methinks Marky Mark doesn't get out much, becuase I've lived out of many hotels the past year, from Austin to Montreal and lots of points betwixt, and EVERY hotel, cheap or expensive seems to be doing a similar water conservation/environmental impact reduction program. Particularly Marriott, which seems to have a chain-wide policy. Most of us I recon, find this comforting - that a large corporation is making an effort to help reduce it's environmental footprint. As you rightly point out, Mark needs to get over himself, and I'd add - get with the modern world, where we all could do more to limit unneccessary useages of natural resources and the production of waste. But then again maybe he's really making a mess of those sheets every night and NEEDs them to be changed. I mean, who really likes sleeping in the wet spot anyway, especially when it's of ones own making.

Posted by: bafc23 at 11:55 EST, April 07, 2006

I dont think he actually stayed in the hotel there is no mention of that in the article!

Posted by: Mike at 22:51 EST, April 07, 2006

My company just bought a hotel in Monterey, and we found the area to be unusually water restricted, even compared with the rest of California. There is a water moratorium on the Monterey Peninsula, and no new water fixtures can be added to residential or commercial buildings until it is lifted. Hotels in Monterey are required by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District to post signs promoting water conservation. I understand the guest's concern for hotels nationwide, but in Monterey specifically, this one is actually governmentally regulated.

Posted by: Jean DiMaria at 12:44 EST, April 11, 2006

Posted by: Jean DiMaria at 12:45 EST, April 11, 2006

ugg outlet
cheap ugg
ugg boots
cheap uggs online
cheap ugg boots online
cheap ugg online
Ugg Boots
nba jerseys
basketball shoes
nike basketball shoes
UGG Classic Cardy Boots
UGG Classic Tall Boots
UGG Classic Short Boots
UGG Kids Boots
UGG Ultra Short boots
UGG Ultra Tall boots
UGG Nightfall Boots
Tim Duncan
Allen Iverson
Penny Hardaway