How Much Water is Saved by Reusing Hotel Towels and Linens?
By Kimberly Watson
Welcome summer! For most of us this time of the year means vacations. We all look forward to getting away to a restful vacation destination where we can be pampered and taken care of. Some of us choose to stay in hotels because they offer an array of accommodations and amenities, a few of which are not having to tidy up after ourselves or doing laundry if we don’t want to!
While being able to have fresh sheets and towels every day is a wonderful luxury, it’s hard to also be conscious about the environment while doing so. Many hotels have pledged to conserve water. You have probably seen the promotion tent cards placed in rooms and/or bathrooms to inform you of the value and need to conserve this natural resource. They also ask for your assistance in re-using your towels and sheets, but offer you the opportunity to exchange these items for new ones; it is always your option. Let’s consider how much water is, or can be, saved simply by reusing our towels.
According to the Alliance for Water Efficiency, program effectiveness can be projected using a formula which includes the number of guest rooms, average occupancy, water use for laundry, and other important factors. They also point out that savings potential varies significantly at hotels. For example, some hotels are smaller and do not have large banquet facilities or restaurants which consume more water. One example given is based on a hotel with 250 rooms at 80 percent occupancy. Using their formula, this hotel example could annually save up to $66,000 and 220,000 gallons of water through the towel/linen reuse program; a significant savings! The Alliance for Water Efficiency has found that most guests, if given more towel bar space, will reuse their towels. If there is less available space to fully dry the towels, guests were apt to choose not to reuse their towels.
So, how successful is the program and are people participating? The Intercontinental Hotels Group and Marriott International, are indeed benefitting from the towel and linen reuse program by savings in water usage and water treatment costs. Another study found that with proper wording on the request cards, guests were more inclined to participate. Market researcher Robert Cialdini and a team of Arizona State University students conducted a study which found that wording on the cards such as “Help Save the Planet” was not as successful as “Join your fellow guests in helping to save the planet…” The team took things even further by stating, “Seventy-five percent of the guests who stayed in this room . . . [used] their towels more than once” which brought participation up to almost 50 percent.
Whether or not you choose to reuse your linens and towels when you are staying at a hotel is still your personal choice. If you are not inclined to do it every day, even participating for part of your stay can help. Come on, join your fellow guests!
Tags: Alliance for Water Efficiency, Robert Cialdini, Water Conservation
