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Hotels have added all sorts of fees to bookings for years. You’ll often see ridiculous items listed like use of the TV or pool as well as in-room coffeemakers and similar amenities that should just be expected added as perks of paying a resort or destination fee. Penalties for various infractions are also often posted in hotels. Some of these are legitimate like smoking in a non-smoking room or damage caused by a pet, but one hotel is really pushing it with a ridiculous cash-grab attempt from its guests. A Marriott-focused Facebook group had a member report that the Aloft Rogers-Bentonville is warning guests that they might be fined depending on how dirty they leave the towels.
Laminated signs are posted in guest rooms advising of the “Hotel Towel Policy.” It advises the following:
Hotel Towel Policy
Dear Valued Guest,
To maintain the highest standards of cleanliness and comfort for all our 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.
Aloft Management”
I have never seen a policy that is so punitive and left so open-ended for the hotel to be able to charge fees. I have used towels to clean shoes. I have spilled wine and other beverages and needed something to clean them up. I’ve never had an issue with a hotel charging me. I am respectful, but things happen and there is a reason that hotel towels are white (they can be bleached to get them clean).
The fees are exorbitant as I’m sure that the Aloft pays nowhere near $20 to $50 for a towel. I’d guess that it spends about 10% of that amount. And, who is too say when a stain is too severe?
Anthony’s Take: I see this listed nowhere on the hotel’s website and have honestly never seen a policy like this before. Do you think this seems ridiculous?
(Image Credits: Marriott and Facebook.)
(H/T: LoyaltyLobby.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
Meh.
Bentonville is a HUGE destination for mountain bikers so I imagine this hotel has had numerous guests using the towels to clean their bikes. Hotel towels should be able to be used for make-up without issue but using them to clean bike grease or a bicycle chain is too much and my guess is that’s the genesis of this policy.
I’ve seen similar temporary warnings at hotels when there’s a bike race in town for that one weekend.