Long overdue

An article from USA today says many hotels and motels are no longer changing sheets on a daily basis for its customers.

A USA TODAY survey of the policies of 25 hotel brands reveals that most do not require a daily change of sheets during a guest's stay. All said they would change them daily for no charge if a customer makes a request. Eleven said they provide a daily change, nine said they change sheets a few times per week or weekly and five said polices vary at their lodgings.

More than one-third of the hotels of Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express - four brands with various policies - say they participate in an environmental program called "Conserving for Tomorrow" and change sheets every three days.

Whether business travelers like it or not, the days of fresh sheets automatically being put on a bed may be coming to an end. "It's clearly been shown that changing sheets on a daily basis is not an important issue to customers," says Hyatt Vice President Gary Dollens. "It's a trend that's here to stay."

Dollens says less than 10% of Hyatt's guests are requesting a daily linen change. Nearly all Hyatt's hotels switched to every four days last year - unless a guest requests otherwise.

Marriott's full-service hotels switched to every three days this year, and other company brands - Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, Fairfield Inn & Suites and SpringHill Suites - will begin testing a similar policy in the next two months.

John Bott, a frequent business traveler in Louisville, says he prefers a daily sheet change. "It always feels better," says the consultant for an auto parts company.

Many business travelers, though, are either quietly accepting less frequent bedsheet changes or agreeing with hotels that there's no need to do it daily.

Marc Caron, a sales manager for a machinery company in Greensboro, N.C., says he usually doesn't ask for clean bedsheets each day. "It's no different than my bed at home," he says.

"Those sheets don't get cleaned every day."

Caron says he shares hotels' concern for the environment and doesn't ask for fresh sheets daily. But he's certain it's being done to cut laundry and labor costs. "Ultimately, as with any publicly traded company, they have to protect the interests of shareholders, continue to increase profits and watch over their financial health," he adds.

This change I saw coming for a long time. From 97 to 01 I travelled between 70-125 thousand miles a year. Bed sheet changes were done every day at the hotels I stayed at. At home my sheets get changed once a week. Daily changing I never felt was necessary.

The real reason for this change is economic not enviormental. Changing sheets in a large hotel is costly and is labor intesnive. I've seen it personally how it works, my late father owned two Motels on Long Island in New York State. Much of a maid's time was spent stripping and changing beds and then bringing the sheets to the laundry room. When I was 13 and 14 I helped out at the hotel during the summer time and got to see this first hand. The maids would spend twenty minutes in a room approximately every day. I'd think not changing sheets would shave five minutes off that and plus save the time spent collecting, washing, folding and re-storing the sheets on a daily basis.

At my father's hotels the laundry room was in the basement. To get the sheets down there, there was a hole in the floor of a storage room up above. The maids or me and my siblings when helping out would drop the dirty sheets down the hole. My father was the one in the basement most of the time and sometimes us kids would drop the sheets deliberately on our father! Who would then loudly curse upward at the culprits.

The hotels should just be truthful why they are doing this. Any way thanks for the memory. Hat tip- Outside the Beltway