I’m up in Sydney for a few meetings and I have just checked into my hotel. Feeling a bit grumpy, having been deplaned from faulty Qantas jet and hence ran late for the meeting, I thought a shower might be just the thing to cheer me up (I did get up very early). And, lo and behold, this little cheery message confronted me as I was about to turn on the taps:
Water is a precious resource.
Please consider reducing your shower time by 4 minutes and in doing so you will contibute to saving 6 million litres of water per year.
Relax, enoy and contribute.
So, here’s my calculation: how long does the shower have to be to take 6 million litres and then I will subtract 4 minutes. OK, I will be a bit pruney but it will be worth it.
Happily, no chipper, helpful suggestions about towel useage – or I don’t think so.
UPDATE: I spoke too soon; the guff about the towels is even worse.
A DAILY CONTRIBUTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Detergents are being needlessly dumped into the world’s water supply every day.
Giving thought to the following can lead to a positive change:
- Should you wish you TOWELLING to be replaced please place in the bathtub
- Towelling you will use again may be hung on back of towel rack
This simple gesture helps us all to protect our environment.
Thank you for your support.
I’m thinking of changing hotels; I have thrown all the bath towels into the bathtub in the meantime.
Have fun in Clowntown.
coz
19 May 11 at 2:19 pm
err coz, you’re tasmanian.
you moved there because you couldn’t hack real life.
I need say no more
jtfsoon
19 May 11 at 2:33 pm
Dirtyness is next to Godliness.
Rodney
19 May 11 at 2:39 pm
You’re odd and strangely unfair. A lot of people think so.
coz
19 May 11 at 2:41 pm
Please consider reducing your shower time by 4 minutes and in doing so you will contibute to saving 6 million litres of water per year.
And acknowledge the traditional owners of the land whilst you’re about it.
Why did you take a Qantas domestic flight? Are you a masochist?
Adrien
19 May 11 at 2:43 pm
Or you might not be showering at all. I fact you might need to bring in water and pump it back into the pipes!
Shower times (min)
Regular Corrected
1 -3
2 -2
3 -1
4 0
5 1
6 2
7 3
8 4
9 5
10 6
Biota
19 May 11 at 2:44 pm
He does make some good points, coz. You’d be wise to listen. To those living in the civilized world, you sound odd, almost alien.
JC
19 May 11 at 2:44 pm
You’re odd and strangely unfair.
No just a bitter and twisted Sydneysider.
Sydney: The sound of syringes crunching underfoot!
Adrien
19 May 11 at 2:45 pm
You wanna banana?
coz
19 May 11 at 2:51 pm
Um, is it a green message or the hotels way of dealing with a moral hazard problem?
Sam
19 May 11 at 2:55 pm
You wanna banana?
No thanks Coz I’m straight. I’m also Melburnian. Just engaging in a little anti-Sydney chauvanism. Don;t take it too seriously. We here in the Oz Retail and Kulcha Kapital look down on Tasmanians even more than the NSWelsh.
Adrien
19 May 11 at 2:57 pm
Changing won’t help. They’re all the same as far as I can tell.
Putting all the towels in the bath is one option. Another is to fold up the used ones and put them on the shelf when you leave. The next customer will cause a huge fuss.
As for a shorter shower, reducing it from 24 minutes to 20 minutes is not such a big ask.
DavidLeyonhjelm
19 May 11 at 3:01 pm
I was referring to your efforts to groom me as a member of the ape colony here.
coz
19 May 11 at 3:02 pm
“..I have thrown all the bath towels into the bathtub in the meantime” A pointlessly juvenille act, somewhat beneath your station and dignity Ms Sloan? Why such a petulant response to a sensible piece of advice? Why should unused towels be washed needlessly? I recall when conservatives believed in thrift, moderation and believed in waste. That was before they signed on to profligate consumption as the one and only path to human fulfillment and meaning. I recall when conservatives were worth listening to and left the teenage tantrums to teenager rebels without a cause or a clue.
Ignatius Reilly
19 May 11 at 3:03 pm
Where is this paradisical place?
coz
19 May 11 at 3:03 pm
“believed in waste” should have read “abhorred waste”.
Ignatius Reilly
19 May 11 at 3:08 pm
If they have a 200 guest hotel and their shower heads use 20 litres per minute, 4 miuntes less showering per day 365 days a year we have the calculation,
4*20 * 365 * 200 = 5.84 million litres per year.
You are being asked to contribute not do the whole thing Judith.
Steve Edney
19 May 11 at 3:08 pm
Of course they could have efficient showerheads and only use 10 litres/min but have 400 ish rooms.
Steve Edney
19 May 11 at 3:13 pm
but what we really must ask is why judith is opposed to private enterprises making more profit by keeping costs down?
Steve Edney
19 May 11 at 3:15 pm
agreed
why should I pay higher hotel rates because Judith wants to waste towels?
I’m as frugal with my own towels as I am with hotel towels. don’t see what the issue is
jtfsoon
19 May 11 at 3:18 pm
If you’re not living in Sydney, you’re just camping out. Even little Johnny Howard knew this.
.
19 May 11 at 3:20 pm
I’d find the message annoying, but I suspect (hope) the hotel is just trying to use the green thing to save money… the worst case I had at a hotel was when I found I’d kindly made a small donation to unicef on my bill. It’s my own fault for not checking the bill before I signed, I guess, but it pissed me off no end (it was only $2 or something like that, but still…)
Fleeced
19 May 11 at 3:20 pm
Why should unused towels be washed needlessly?
Unused towels are washed as matter of course; how do the cleaning staff know if this or that towel has been used?
dover_beach
19 May 11 at 3:20 pm
Judith simply had an unguarded moment in which her hatred for her ideological foes overwhelmed her good judgment, common sense and self-respect. Unfortunately a very public unguarded moment. Much better to have simply thrown the towels in the tub and enjoyed a private partisan win. Of sorts.
Ignatius Reilly
19 May 11 at 3:23 pm
If I was aware of a hotel that “re-used” towels without washing on the assumption that they were unused, it would not be a hotel I stayed in any longer.
Fleeced
19 May 11 at 3:25 pm
err by doing what is said and placing them in the bathtub
jtfsoon
19 May 11 at 3:27 pm
Perhaps she simply didn’t enjoy being bombarded with ideology with when she’s trying to relax in a hotel room.
daddy dave
19 May 11 at 3:28 pm
How do you know the bedsheets were cleaned after the previous guest checked out? I’m assuming hotels have enough sense to replace all towels for new guests regardless. or do you think there is market failure now?
jtfsoon
19 May 11 at 3:28 pm
Here’s a song for you shitty people
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBhdIcb84Hw
coz
19 May 11 at 3:29 pm
“waste not, want not” has become “ideology”? Thought it was sound common sense of the kind espoused by grandma? See the tragedy that has befallen the conservative cultural warroir – they see ideological enemies everywhere.
Ignatius Reilly
19 May 11 at 3:32 pm
This is what happens when I come to the thread late… yes, I now see you were referring to changeover of towels during your stay, not at the end of it.
WTF? Who said anything about market failure? Not getting what I want for a price I want it isn’t market failure (if there is even such a thing)
Fleeced
19 May 11 at 3:32 pm
Thrift is now ideology because it also serves Green purposes?
jtfsoon
19 May 11 at 3:33 pm
Buy yourself a cheap UV torch.
Next time you stay in some Sydney doss house, shine the UV on the towels, sheets and dunny surrounds.
You will be out of there like a shot, and hitting the nearest 24 hour pharamcy for a 4 litre drum of Dettol (and that’s just for personal use!)
Pedro the Ignorant
19 May 11 at 3:34 pm
That said, a hotel that penny-pinches to the point of suggesting people re-use their towels would have me wondering where else they cut costs… I’d with Judith – I’d change hotels to somewhere I wasn’t constantly nagged.
Fleeced
19 May 11 at 3:34 pm
lol… I’m tempted to try the UV thing out of curiosity, but I suspect I’d never want to stay in a hotel again
Fleeced
19 May 11 at 3:36 pm
Lame.
These almost Islamist messages of religious hygiene are the consequence of state propaganda being adopted by sanctimonious bedwetters.
C.L.
19 May 11 at 3:43 pm
You mean the kind that was sceptical of an unmarried woman being shacked up with an unemployed hairdresser?
That common sense?
C.L.
19 May 11 at 3:45 pm
5-star hotels are often the worst. Book a room, receive a sermon! Always fill up your bathtub, I say.
Also give them “feedback.”
Ben
19 May 11 at 3:49 pm
If I want to be preached to, I’ll go to church. Reading it in a hotel is just too much. I can well understand Judith’s reaction. I would have thrown them in the bath tub and set them on fire.
boy on a bike
19 May 11 at 3:50 pm
I’m tempted to try the UV thing out of curiosity, but I suspect I’d never want to stay in a hotel again
While you’re at it do it in your home as well. Then you’ll want to live in the sticks. The average office is probably a pathogen’s holiday retreat.
John H.
19 May 11 at 3:52 pm
Motels and backpacker warrens post signs in bathrooms. A quality hotel doing so is a tacky embarrassment.
C.L.
19 May 11 at 3:53 pm
err by doing what is said and placing them in the bathtub
Very few people do what is said at hotels or motels, Jason. People often place used items back as they found them. But I see from the later comment where on the same page.
dover_beach
19 May 11 at 3:54 pm
Nah, they’re my own germs, so it’s OK
Fleeced
19 May 11 at 3:54 pm
I shouldn’t be here, but in all honesty, d-b, how many people who aren’t autistic would use a towel in a hotel and at the end of the stay fold it up and place it back on the bed, or on the rack in the bathroom, where they found it? You’re as unreliable in your assessment of human behaviour as you are on AGW.
I like the cut of Ignatius’ jib, btw.
Carry on.
steve from brisbane
19 May 11 at 4:04 pm
“…unreliable in your assessment of human behaviour…”
Steve was formerly a passionate supporter of Kevin Rudd.
C.L.
19 May 11 at 4:06 pm
Oh I should allowances I suppose: a couple of ideologically driven twits Catallaxy might fold up a used towel because they don’t like the words on the little card on the sink.
Fortunately, most adults are above such behaviour…
steve from brisbane
19 May 11 at 4:07 pm
Um yes Steve, I’ve paid for this, so I’m going to work for the hotel for free because I’m an adult?
.
19 May 11 at 4:11 pm
Judith simply had an unguarded moment
Perhaps she simply didn’t enjoy being bombarded with ideology with when she’s trying to relax in a hotel room.
daddy dave
19 May 11 at 3:28 pm
THAT’S not an unguarded moment, THIS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osz-GQbX37o) is an unguarded moment!
Mt Isa Miner
19 May 11 at 4:20 pm
Anyway, Judith, I always use up ALL the towel and ask for more when I stay in hotels, part of the (non) value for money. Just like I never close the curtains so i can get every red cent worth of the bleeding view!
Mt Isa Miner
19 May 11 at 4:23 pm
Judith it occurs in all the hotels.
I usually thrown the offending signs in the wastebin (okay the ones which aren’t stuck on the wall).
Gabrielle
19 May 11 at 4:29 pm
Childish, Gab, very childish.
steve from brisbane
19 May 11 at 4:37 pm
Steve from B, I didn’t say it happens all the time but it does happen quite a bit. I clean at a motel on Sundays for cash very near where I live and people often wash the plates, etc. and put them away without drying them, or they use a hand towel and fold it back on the rack, or use a coffee cup and place it upside down as they found them. They in fact do a lot of strange and unusual things. Most leave their towels on the floor, but some will throw a wet towel on the bed; very few in fact thrown them in the bath where we’d like them. There other thing is you don’t know what they may have done with a towel. They may have simply dried a damp hand or face or wiped their nose with a bath towel while keeping it rolled up. So my assessment here is first-hand and quite reliable while yours as usual is from an armchair.
Adult? Steve, I and others have found soiled nappies left in a draw, vomit in the tea pot, etc. They state that rooms can be left in is quite unbelievable at times. Not normally, but at times.
dover_beach
19 May 11 at 4:38 pm
Childish, Gab, very childish.
This from a “man” who thinks planes falling from the sky are quite funny.
Gabrielle
19 May 11 at 4:40 pm
d-b: I bow to your greater knowledge of ugly things people do in hotels/motels, d-b.
I still suspect that it would not be often that there was doubt as to whether a towel had been used or not.
steve from brisbane
19 May 11 at 4:52 pm
Maybe 1/4; so the rule is the all go in the wash.
dover_beach
19 May 11 at 4:58 pm
A BIT OF ‘UMOUR, CATALLAXIANS, ‘UMOUR! Dont’ worry I will return to serious topics soon.
Judith Sloan
19 May 11 at 5:03 pm
Where is this paradisical place?
Why here o’ course. Aren’t you jealous?
Adrien
19 May 11 at 7:47 pm
Dubbo? Home of the Reels? do you live there?
coz
19 May 11 at 8:38 pm
Yep, the managament is far less concerned with the environment than with controlling their costs. It’s not tiresome greenie bulldust so much as tiresome beancounter bulldust.
I’d be more disposed to co-operate if they were more honest – ie “Please help keep our profit margins up by …”
derrida derider
20 May 11 at 4:13 pm