It is true that reality exceeds imagination. I had never seen this in a hotel.
I took part in an organised tour to the Slovak Republic and Poland; in Bratislava we stayed at a good hotel, the Falkensteiner, while in Krakow we were at a more modest hotel, the Chopin.
On arrival, in the room, I found a cloth bag with something written on it. I felt curious and read the text, written in two languages – Polish and English.
I could not believe it. This was the message:
“What is in the bag? Hang me out of the door before midnight to inform the cleaning staff that you have made the green choice not to have your room cleaned on the following day. As our way of saying thank you, Vienna House (the hotel company – editor’s note) will fill it with a surprise gift in exchange for your contribution to save natural resources.”
It is obviously an initiative meant to reduce the cost of housekeeping, by disguising the real purpose, passing it off as attention for the environment, in a trendy “green” spirit.
Why? What would actually be the saving in environmental resources?
The hotels that propose to avoid changing the linen daily do have some justification in terms of care for the environment (even though I am convinced that there is mainly a business profit to it), but not cleaning the room does not produce any amount of environmental conservation. Possibly some savings on bathroom detergents? On electric power to clean the carpet? Let’s not be ridiculous!
Still, much to my surprise, in the morning I counted the bags hanging on the handles outside the doors: in a passage with 24 doors, six bags were hanging out. Considering that the hotel had 220 rooms, there was a potential saving in housekeeping equal to about 55 units. As professionals, you will be quick to do the calculation.
Congratulations, gentlemen of the Chopin hotel: you have thought it out nicely. For a handful of sweets you achieve substantial savings!
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