In a Facebook group for Marriott Bonvoy members, a person shares an interesting notice they saw at a Marriott property, and it got me wondering (thanks to LoyaltyLobby for flagging this)…
In this post:
Hotel threatens $20-50 charge for dirty towels
The Aloft Rogers-Bentonville in Arkansas reportedly has a laminated sign in guest rooms, explaining the “Hotel Towel Policy.” Here’s the content of the notice:
To maintain the highest standards of cleanliness and comfort for all guests, we kindly ask you to take note of our towel policy:
- Normal Use: Towels are provided for your convenience and are intended for drying off after a shower.
- Stains: Please inform our housekeeping staff if a towel becomes stained. We understand that accidents happen and will do our best to clean the towel.
- Severe Stains: A replacement fee of $20-50 per towel may be applied to your bill for severe stains that cannot be removed through normal cleaning processes.
- Avoiding Charges: To avoid any charges, please use towels responsibly and avoid using them for activities that may cause stains (e.g., removing makeup, or cleaning shoes).
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
I’ve gotta say, in all my years of staying at hotels, I’ve never seen a sign like this. That being said, from researching the topic online, it seems like there are a fair number of hotels with this type of policy.
My take on this hotel’s aggressive towel policy
My first instinct is of course that this is completely ridiculous, but let’s try to talk through it a bit more than that.
The first thing I find to be in bad faith about this initiative is the amount of the charges being threatened. The hotel wants to charge $20-50 per towel for replacement, in the event of an accident? Aloft is a limited service brand, and hotels buy towels at heavily discounted prices, given the volume. Aloft can probably get close to 10 standard sized hotels for $50. Is the hotel trying to just recoup its costs, or is it trying to turn this into a revenue stream?
Now, to look at it from the hotel’s perspective, there are some things that guests can take with them when leaving a hotel, and some things they can’t. Towels fit in the latter category, so I suppose there’s a reasonable expectation that items that can’t be taken home should be returned in decent condition. Like, if you smash the TV or lamp in your room, you’d expect to get charged for that.
But I also feel like wear and tear on some things is a cost of doing business, and dirty towels should be among those. If someone starts bleeding, or if a child has an “accident” that needs to be cleaned up, or if you’re trying to clean up a food mess, then using a towel doesn’t seem like an unreasonable move.
There’s a difference between using towels for painting classes (fully knowing what’s going to happen), vs. responding to an unexpected situation with towels.
That brings me to my next question — is this really such a big issue that it’s worth it for the hotel to put energy into chasing down guests? Like, even if the hotel wanted to charge for towels, how exactly does the towel tracking work, and how often does this end in an argument between a hotel employee and guest?
All of that leads me to believe that the sign is more a threat than anything, intended to encourage people to use towels as “responsibly” as possible. The high price tag is probably encouraged to make guests even more cautious about how they use towels.
I can’t imagine it’s worth the effort to go after people in this way. Then again, we live in an era where the concept of hospitality really is lost on some hotel owners (while many hotel groups do nothing to enforce standardized practices).
Bottom line
An Aloft is threatening to charge guests $20-50 per dirty towel. The hotel suggests that towels are only for drying off, and using them for other purposes could lead to a fine. While I can appreciate a hotel not wanting a huge number of towels ruined, this just seems to me like a very inhospitable policy.
What do you make of the concept of hotels charging for “dirty” towels (or at least threatening to charge)?
Stayed at the Xian Hilton 10 years ago and got charged $5 for a plain white washcloth I used to clean up a red wine spill. That's on me. I shouldn't have taken a glass of lounge wine back to the room.
Also a bad idea was renting a tandem bike to ride the city wall on a sunny afternoon. As with tandem kayaks, those things are divorce-makers!
Since no one would go to Bentonville but Walmart company travelers, I checked for prices at Walmart for towels. The most expensive I could find there was a set of 4 for $40
Bentonville is Walmart HQ and they are currently adding a 10 building campus to the city. Almost all of the trade labor is coming from out of the area; I manage one of the companies working on the project and we have not been able to secure any local labor for our scope of work and like many others are bringing in teams each week from Tulsa and Kansas City. I suspect that with a...
Bentonville is Walmart HQ and they are currently adding a 10 building campus to the city. Almost all of the trade labor is coming from out of the area; I manage one of the companies working on the project and we have not been able to secure any local labor for our scope of work and like many others are bringing in teams each week from Tulsa and Kansas City. I suspect that with a sharp uptick in construction, etc. workers staying at the limited number of hotels in the city that they may in fact be struggling excessively dirty towels from guests working on the job site all day.
Large hotel chains like Marriott should keep a record of replacement items needed on each guest's account. If it becomes a pattern with a particular guest, do something. Otherwise, the occasional mistake is the cost of doing business, and should be amortized in their pricing model.
Some people just don't belong in hotels. I've seen people take the whole bedding set for the fold out bed from a Residence Inn (still in its case) without batting an eye.
In a hotel I stayed at in a tourist city in China, all the furnishings in the room had a price sticker on it. When you went to check out, someone was sent up to your room to inspect it. Anything that was damaged or missing would be charged to your bill before you received it.
Baseball great Yogi Berra once noted that the towels in a particular hotel were so plush that he could hardly close his suitcase. Then, of course, there are the lowlifes who go into an Amex lounge with an empty gym bag only to leave with it stuffed with food.
it is not only ladies. At drive up motel layout especially, we guys need to clean our motorcycles with something, and the white towel is sometimes the only thing available. Responsible guests ask for something else but…
Even if you are technically liable, you would only owe the hotel the present value of the towel? What is the present value of a used towel? Close to zero…
Ar some point the towel needs to get replaced anyway. I do not want anyone to misuse towels, just use them responsibly like your own.
I’ve been to a few hotels that have small brown hand towels in the bathroom specifically targeted for make up removal. There was also a sign asking guests to only use those towels for that purpose and that using the white towels would result in a room charge.
This is 100% about makeup removal for women. It’s a way to nudge women to use the provided makeup remover wipes rather than the towels. Someone figured this is a better sign than one that says: “Attention Women: you must use makeup remover wipes. If you ruin a towel, we will charge you for it!”
So... if one of your towels gets excessively dirty, you're better off tossing it in a public bin and grabbing a new, replacement towel from the housekeeping cart while passing by.
I had the same thought!
To likely be considered theft and subject to being caught on hallway camera in the act
Dont try this in certain middle eastern countries unless fine with losing your hands
Worked in a hotel for many years, so many people use them as a makeup remover it’s crazy! The towels are trash afterwards as it can’t be cleaned to remove the makeup. Like pack wipes just like you pack paper towel wipes.
Small TYPO IN ONE OF THE BULLET POINTS:
As it reads:
"Stains: Please inform our housekeeping staff if a HOTEL becomes stained."
May I suggest:
"Stains: Please inform our housekeeping staff if a TOWEL becomes stained."
Ben, you need a e-mail contact point. If you have one, its buried.
I continue to go Airbnb for all personal travel. People claim outrage over Airbnb's cleaning fees and yet pay yet one more ridiculous hotel fee or surcharge.
Yeah, because there have been no stories and no property reviews regarding hosts and unreasonable charges for "dirty" or "damaged" items. And that $50 to $150 cleaning fee is really worth it for short stays.
A company that makes billions every year and can’t afford new towels on their own dime? Okay then.
This is good news. This is a towel replacement fee, not a dirty towel fee.