Clean sheets now opt-in
 

Here at the Marriott Salt Lake Downtown, they've always had an option to save the environment by requesting to not have the sheets changed daily. This was a card you could place on the bed. If you took no action, you got the clean sheets.

Well, that's changed now. Now, you have to place the card on the bed if you want new sheets. No action means re-used sheets. What's worst is the branding: the card is labeled the ' "Just Like Home" Linen Reuse Program'.

It gets worse.
 

I've stayed in one upscale hotel where you have to contact the front desk to get daily sheet changes. It won't be long before they stop changing sheets between guests.

In the rooms I've been in (Concierge Floor) at the Hartford Marriott Farmington the card that must be placed on the bed in order to receive a change of linen more frequently than once every three days is located (and completely inaccessible) under the glass desk top.

To me that indicates that hoteliers' bean counters (not only Marriott's) have realized that "green room campaigns" are not only PC these days (with the resultant favorable publicity), but also a form of expense control.

They hadn't converted to "Revive" bedding the last time I was there (a three-nighter) so the program amounted to them not having to launder three sheets three times each (not to mention pillowcases).

I've posted before that I was not a particular fan of the "Revive" bedding for reasons having to do with preferring to sleep under less-heavy covers.

(Of course, Westin's Heavenly Bed features both the comforter and feather blanket so you can choose either option).

If you think about, it's a brilliant move in terms of economizing on laundering -the duvet cover is replaced (besides between guests) every three days (no options offered), the equivalent of avoiding the cost of laundering two top sheets.

I think it's a great move. Nobody washes their sheets at home every day. Why? Because there's no need to.

From an environmental standpoint, the amount of energy and water that goes into laundering sheets daily at tens of thousands of hotels nationally is an embarrassment of waste.

And if it helps keep costs and prices down, that's a win-win for everybody.

Call me a bit suspicious or jaded but I've never thought this policy was driven by an environmental concern. Sure it may have started that way for a few months but as rahmanbar states, it didn't take long for the bean counters to develop a gleam in their eye when they saw the cost savings.
We only change the sheets at our house once a week but I'm also not paying upwards of $200 a night to sleep in my own bed. I want the sheets changed daily in any hotel I'm staying. I'm not sure why this is an issue with me....perhaps because the sheets and towels are cheap and/or have been used by who knows how many thousand people in the past. But they can't be clean enough for me.
I see this "no-change" policy for sheets and towels as a disturbing and even disgusting practice that appears to be gaining legs.

The only people who truly believe this policy is a win-win situation for everyone are hotel employees/owners . . . certainly not guests.

What I object to is the attempt to convince guests that the policy of re-using towels/linens is for the benefit of the environment, rather than the true reason: the hotel's profit. Who actually thinks that we are going to "win" by lower priced hotel rooms because the hotel industry might actually pass along their laundry cost savings to us? :rolleyes:

I will embrace this policy when the hotel gives me a monetary credit on my checkout bill for each night of my stay where I don't require fresh linens/towels. Until then, as a matter of principle, I will continue to insist that linens and towels are changed daily.

I'm with ondeadlin on this one. The Sydney Harbour Marriott has the same program with the card and I see this as a positive thing. We waste water and pollute without a real genuine point.

Agree. By the way, Milwaukee Marriott West has the new policy. Absent affirmatively opting out with an easily misplaced card, sheets are not changed.

These programs have come in since I left the hotel industry, but I have no doubt that the real motivation is cost savings.

But really, who cares? Nobody changes their sheets daily at home, so why would you need them changed daily in a hotel?

Is your house cleaned everyday? is your bathroom scrubbed everyday? do you change the towels everyday at home?

So what you are saying is that Housekeeping should come in straighten out the bed a bit and then Leave! and if its for cost savings then the rates shouldnt be going up as they are, Oh Dumb me the cost savings is NOT to be a savings for Us but a savings Only for the Hotel Industry.

No Thank You, I want new sheets and towels everyday and my room to be vaccumed. Especially with the rates that we are now being charged.

I have recalled seeing this at Marriotts since the beginning of this summer. FWIW, I care more about having the towels changed and the bathroom cleaned on a daily basis than having the sheets changed everyday.

Optional extra
 

It's going this way (not just Marriott): Each item will be an extra cost option: want fresh towels? $1.00 per towel. Want fresh sheets? $5.00. Want your bathroom cleaned? $7.50, or buy the whole room cleaning package at $10.00. Add these to the parking charges, resort charges, package reception charges, fax charges, charges for the formerly free wine/beer in the concierge lounges, charges for hs internet, charges for wired for business, etc. Take your calculators with you; it's the future.

It's not the environment; it's the bottom line.

This has been the policy in MVCI units for years...at least for the owners.
When you're using your week at a property, everything is an extra charge. Changing towels, changing sheets, cleaning the room, etc. The only freebie is a midweek "tidy-up" and a daily pick-up of trash. I think they only do the trash pickup so the whole property doesn't smell like a garbage dump by midweek.
And the daily charges are a lot higher than what you've outlined above.
But I see the MVCI situation as different than the hotel situation as we don't own the hotels.

My views tend to be towards preserving the environment and our natural resources. Ideally, the hotels should pass on the savings to us (or at least a percentage of them) from reduced laundry expenses. Even if they don't, I still believe it is a good idea to help preserve our natural resources. That said, in practice at hotels I tend to ask for new towels daily though I try to use as few as possible. I also expect the room to be dusted, vacumed and the bathroom to be cleaned (light duty touch up is fine most of the time). I am more than willing to use the same sheets for a few days (even a week) at a time. Back to towels if the ones hotels provide were larger and a higher quality (more absorbent), I'd be willing to use them for a few days (i.e. similar to the grade I use at home). Bottom line, regardless of whether or not the hotels share the monetary savings we only have one world to live in. We should all do our part to preserve as best we can. Stepping down from the soap box now...

--Jon

LOL!

Might even result in an EEO -Buy one weekend night change of linen and get one weekend night's linen at no charge.

Or a new MR Matrix (for instance):

Item 1 Night-2 Nights-3 Nights-4 Nights-5 Nights-6 Nights-7 Nights

Replace 2000----3900----5800----7700----9600----11500----13400
Linen

Change 1000----1900----2800----3700----4600-----5500-----6400
Towels

Robes, Turndown, Q-tips, Mouthwash - the possibilities are endless!