An open letter to hotels

(hotel name removed to protect the guilty)

Dear Every Hotel I've Ever Stayed In:

Can we talk? I know you claim that you want to help the environment and save resources by reusing towels. That's technically fair, since not washing things means you're not expending the water, electricity, and chemicals to wash and dry those things. Still, I'm going to call bullshit.

Yep. I said it. Your "environmental" claims are a sham, and not the ornamental pillow covering kind, either. I've seen this placard pop up in any number of hotels in the US and internationally. It's fine, and I usually reuse my towels anyway. Still, if you *really* cared about the environment, I'd have seen ONE hotel EVER with recycle bins in the rooms. ONE. EVER. I have not yet encountered this elusive hotel (even in eco-friendly areas), though I hear claims that they exist. Maybe there's one in Shangri-La, and it's staffed by unicorns and happy-faced gnomes.

I mean, it's not like it's much more labor intensive (if at all), and the tipping fees for recyclables are generally cheaper than tipping fees for landfill dumpsters. It's kind of a common sense thing, really.

More than that, you'd also make some effort to have more energy-efficient lighting, and every hotel room I walked into wouldn't be approximately 62 degrees in the summer or 86 degrees in the winter. Seriously. It's downright frigid.

You wouldn't keep your rooms supplied with individually-wrapped disposable nightmares, and you'd have water-efficient shower heads and low-flow toilets, and sink aerators (which I think you might occasionally have, so bravo). And why are none of the appliances in my room Energy-Star? Don't you know you can get tax breaks for Energy-Star compliance?

Anyway, there's a laundry list of other opportunities for you to improve, but for Pete's sake, these are seriously the ones that should be universal.

Anyway, I hope we can work things out.

Sincerely,

Stacie