I'm away this week, attending a yearly conference of Catholic Superintendents in Atlanta and speaking in Dallas on my way back, so I've been living in hotel rooms more extensively than usual. While I generally like hotel living (call me Eloise), I found myself confronted by a moral dilemma this time that demonstrates one of the many complexities of modern life.
It was a small card on the bed with a seemingly generous offer. The hotel would give me points for each day I did without maid service. The card pointed out the many environmental and energy saving benefits of this choice. As someone who has always folded and reused towels in a hotel room to save water, this seemed like a natural extension. I certainly can keep neat enough on my own. In fact, it sounds pretty selfish and indulgent to have someone make my bed and straighten up my room daily. If I get hotel points in the deal, well, then I'm just doing well by doing good. It seemed a simple choice.
But life (and the voice in my head) is complicated. As I went outside the door to put out the card to turn down service, I saw the woman pushing the cleaning cart down the hallway, and the entire issue took on a new face and a new dimension. For the hotel is not primarily interested in cutting water or chemicals, it is interested in cutting its most expensive cost, human beings. How many generations, from how many cultures have used entry-level jobs like these to make their way and feed their children? Am I, under the guise of concern for the earth, forgetting my co-inhabitants?
What's more, the offering of hotel points for this “harmless” inconvenience has all the smell of the camel's nose under the tent. People are acclimated to a new reality by giving them (essentially meaningless) trinkets, and soon the card changes to read, “Out of concern for the environment, we will only offer daily room cleaning to elite members, or those willing to pay a nominal extra charge.” Taken to its fullest extension, this program will reduce maid service to only on leaving days, which will have a job cost that I can't calculate.
Still, I don't want to poison the earth any more than I already am for an indulgent service that I don't really need.
Still, I don't need the points or the self-righteous feeling more than that woman needs her job.
If the hotel were to say in such a way that I believed them, “We will permanently maintain all staffing levels, and will use these employees in Eco-friendly roles,” the choice would be easier. But I don't think they would say that, because I don't think it is their intention.
So I ripped up the card, apologized to the woman with the cart, and went back in my room to hide my head under the covers. The modern world is really confusing (and don't get me started about the chocolate on the pillow!)
As always, I welcome your comments.
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Well said, young man, although the time for moral thinking may have just boarded the last train to Clarksville.
The people who clean hotel rooms are often paid very poorly and therefore go to community clinics, where I’m a doc. And you’re right– they need the work. I’d respect the hotel more if in lieu of a “no maid service” offer, they would offer “low-impact maid service” for guests staying another night: tidy the room, wipe things down with water or low-impact cleaning products, make the bed, and that’s it. I’ve had more patients in hotel service who have asthma attacks or terrible rashes on their hands and arms from the chemicals used to clean the rooms– why use this stuff when it’s the same guest a few nights in a row? (Why use this stuff at all if there are environmentally-friendly alternatives?). I remember one patient who was coughing from the fumes but wasn’t allowed to use a mask while cleaning because it didn’t look good for the patrons. You get the idea. Glad, as always, that someone else thinks about these things.