Barbara Huberman wants fresh sheets on her hotel bed every night. Shes annoyed that a growing number of lodgings are now changing them less often. Its ridiculous, says the executive for a Washington-based charitable organization who stays up to 100 nights each year in a hotel. I have always looked forward to that feel of clean pressed sheets every night. At $200-plus a night, I think I deserve this.
Hotels say that Huberman is in the minority and that most of their customers accept the less frequent sheet changes during their stays. Any guest can simply request a daily change, they add, and it will be done free of charge. But Huberman says its not that easy. A business traveler is often busy, she says, and may forget to put a card on a bed requesting a sheet change or to make a call to the hotel staff. She says she sometimes returns to her room late at night - an inconvenient time for a linen change. She recently requested a change at one hotel and the housekeeping staff declined, saying it was against hotel policy, she says.
A USA TODAY survey of the policies of 25 hotel brands reveals that most do not require a daily change of sheets during a guests 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. Its clearly been shown that changing sheets on a daily basis is not an important issue to customers, says Hyatt Vice President Gary Dollens. Its a trend thats here to stay. Dollens says less than 10% of Hyatts guests are requesting a daily linen change. Nearly all Hyatts hotels switched to every four days last year - unless a guest requests otherwise. Marriotts 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.
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