The refresh or reuse dilemma
There is a direct relationship between resource consumption and operating costs for all hotel businesses (no surprises there). For years, sustainability professionals have been at pains to emphasize the close relationship between sustainability and profitability. For some hotels, sustainability has equaled resource efficiency. This rather blinkered interpretation has resulted in accusations of ‘greenwash’ (hotels have consistently made it into the list of the top 20 businesses that ‘greenwash’). ‘Greenwash’ is almost universally characterized by (and in fact came into being as a result of) towel schemes that ask customers to use their towels for more than one day in the interests of saving the planet.
Dan Condon believes in recycling. However, when it comes to his hotel towels he believes differently. Condon composts when he’s at home in Boulder, Colorado. He eats local, organic and fair-trade food and drives a Honda CR-Z hybrid sports car. You might call him green. Except he’s not so green when he travels for his work at an education nonprofit and stays in a hotel, which happens about 10 weeks per year. There, he uses a new towel every day. And don’t try to bribe him with a drink or dessert coupon to get him to reuse the same one. “I could care less about rewards for environmentally conscious behavior unless it’s miles,” Condon wrote in an e-mail. If hotels can’t convince a hybrid-driving recycling enthusiast like Condon to go green while traveling, how can they possibly convince everyone else? That’s the problem of hotels trying to “green” your hotel stay. After guests have paid a pretty price for a night at the hotel, even the most environmental guests may want to treat themselves to fresh towels every day and those little bottles of sweet-smelling shampoo.
Despite the fact that most people describe themselves in surveys as environmentally conscious and as preferring green products, there’s a big gap between consumer attitudes and consumer behaviors when it comes to going green, said Michael Giebelhausen, a marketing professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.“It can be nice to have fresh towels, and not doing so is a sacrifice,” said Giebelhausen, whose current research focuses on the impact of hotel sustainability programs on guest satisfaction. “Participating requires some effort, and there’s some cost to be incurred on the part of the consumer”.
Guests will be prepared to make some sacrifices if they are convinced that the monies saved by the hotel are channeled together with an equal if not more spend by the hotel towards a charitable cause, instead of swelling the hotels bottom-line. Hotels that provide towels with threadbare thread are cautioned to exercise some prudence!
Ilzaf Keefahs
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