When a guest of an unspecified Courtyard Marriot decided to turn in for the night, he found a disturbing note tucked underneath his sheets, left by the last person to stay in the room. It read... "If you're reading this, then housekeeping did not change your sheets." The idea behind the article published in American Web Media is that the Courtyard Marriot had left the same sheets on the bed after the last guest checked out. However, what I am thinking is that this must have been a bed that had not been slept in. After sleeping in a bed, someone would have to meticulously remake the bed in order for it not to be made obvious that the sheets had not been changed. If that were done, perhaps it appeared to the housecleaning staff that another member of the staff had already changed the linen. Or maybe there were two beds in the room, and that bed had not been used since the last time it was changed. Would you be disgusted to learn that they linen had not been changed on a bed that had not been used?
I would be so disgusted that I would immediately ring Management and have them personally come change those sheets for me! Joke or no joke...don't mess with the sheets I'm going to sleep on!
Now, Ken, when reading this note, I don't see where it specifies one or two beds in the room. The last sentence appears to ask about sleeping on a bed that the linens had been changed the day before, but not slept in that night. If that's the case, there's no reason for the linens to be changed.........they are clean. Clarification?
I don't see why they would have to change the bedding on a bed that was not used. Many times a motel room has two beds in it and you only need one bed. I think that in this case, I would want to show the note to the management, and see what they had to say about it. Most likely, they would change the bedding at that point, just because of the note, whether they thought the bed had been slept in or not. I think that the note was probably left as a prank.
I think recently, especially in California with the drought, I remember seeing signs that said something about if the sheets don't need changing..they won't because it saves on water washing them....same thing on towels...if you didn't use them, don't throw them on the floor to be washed. I'd have to look this up to be sure of the exact wording but I do remember something like this, especially when our drought was at its worst. Some restaurants you even had to ask for water, if you weren't going to drink it, they weren't going to just pour it and throw it out. This was mostly in restaurants in Carmel that would do these kind of things.
That actually makes a LOT of sense for them to do that, @Chrissy Cross . Especially when California was having such a bad water shortage as they were having , why wash sheets and towels that have not been used. I think that a hotel as expensive as the Marriott is going to be meticulous about their rooms being clean, and fresh linen on the beds, not like some little pokey motel that might try to only make the beds with the same sheets to save on the work or expense of washing them. Many times, restaurants will do a similar thing with bringing you a glass of water, and only bring one if you ask for it when there is a water shortage. Otherwise, they usually brought water whether people asked ot not; but I think that more and more places are only bringing water when someone asks for water, just to save on washing extra glasses.
Yes, if you really think about it...we are a very wasteful society...and just because we can doesn't mean we should.
This is so very true, and my thoughts exactly ! Most countries (except maybe the very large ones) could probably live on what we throw away here in the United States, and our laws do not help this situation many times. I remember, years ago, restaurants were happy to have people pick up the wasted food for their livestock. We had 2 pigs that we were raising with a friend who had room for the pig pen out behind their garage. I would go to the grocery stores and get the throwaway fruits and vegetables, old bread, and lettuce trimmings and take it out to feed to the pigs. We also went to the pizza place and got the leftover pizzas, and in the fall, we got the leftover corn and squash for the pigs. Now, stores and restaurants are pretty muc not allowed to do this, and it is just thrown in the trash and hauled to landfills. Some of the outdated foods at the grocery store are given to the food banks and rescue missions; but even this is often just thrown away, when it could be used to feed people who need groceries. This is actually one of the reasons that I like Lowes and dislike Home Depot. Lowes marks down all of the wilted plants and sells them for almost nothing; whereas Home Depot either gets full price or throws them in the trash. When you add in that Lowes gives all veterans and their families a 10% discount on everything, it is well worth making the trip to Lowes.
Some stores are better than others on marking down things....here in Fresno it's practically never done with food. At Safeway there is a very small bin with markdowns and I took a look and it was stuff I wouldn't even buy at normal price ...just some random no use crap, lol. I envy my sister in Colorado that has a huge supermarket and the markdowns are great, especially with good quality meats that are just maybe a day past the sell by date. Safeway is pretty expensive for produce, yesterday I was there and a large (not really) avocado was $2.49 and the worst part was they were so ripe that by the time you got home they'd be rotten...I almost said something I was so angry. I was actually willing to pay that amount because I wanted one but there wasn't even any in the pile of at least 100 that wouldn't be brown when I cut it in half...all those avocados (that we grow here) were garbage!! I just looked at the OP, I've gotten way off topic...sorry.
One thing to remember folks, there are some fast-food restaurants that "cook to order", so there is very little food waste leftover to toss. Another thing to look at, just how many people order a nice dinner, don't eat it all, but also don't want to take leftovers home. Once food is served to a customer, any leftovers have to be tossed. We never/ever leave any leftovers behind. Always take them home and make a second dinner out of them.
I am guessing that the note might have been left in a bed that had not been used because I have a hard time imagining a guest making up the bed in such a way that it wouldn't be obvious that it had not been changed, and thinking that even if housekeeping neglected to change the sheets, they would still notice if a piece of paper was in there, but I don't know that that was the case. If that was the case, I wouldn't expect the linen on a bed that hadn't been used to be changed. We often end up in a room with double beds, and sometimes we use both of them, but sometimes we don't.
Yes, I have seen those notes too. I think that might apply when you are staying in the same room for more than one night. If I was the only one who used the bed the night before, it's quite likely that the sheets don't need to be changed, although I still like to have them changed anyhow. But I wouldn't think that would apply when someone different will be getting the room.
Clean sheets are sometimes the least thing you have worry about in some motels....I saw a show once that did an expose of how some are cleaned. It was pretty disgusting. Think the maid wiped the bathroom glass clean with the same rag she wiped the toilet with....YUCK! These behind the scenes looks are always disgusting and best if you don't even know or you'll never eat out or go on a trip.