Tuesday, September 14, 2010

SIGNS OF THE TIMES ... IN SAN DIEGO

It was a sign of the times last night at the Westin in San Diego as the woman at the check-in desk tried to convince me that I don't need a maid to clean my room. "Have you heard about our new Green Policy, Mr. Gordon?," she asked, "From now on, we give you a choice regarding whether or not you want to have your room cleaned. It's all part of our program to eliminate waste!" "Eliminate jobs is more like it," I said. Let's face it, if Westin had its way, the Cleaning Lady, like the Telephone Operator and the Parking Garage Attendant, would go the way of the Dinosaur. Speaking of extinct species, I found the Missing Link this morning: He was hiding out at a Starbucks in San Diego's Gaslamp District, pouring an entire container of cream into his latte. It looked like he hadn't showered or shaved since the Mesozoic Era. I wonder whether Darwin would consider that a Natural Selection ...!

7 comments:

emikk said...

You have to give it up to live it up!....I don't know what i mean by that but it sounds like it applies.

Rose said...

Oh my, eliminating the cleaning lady???????????? I don't think I would want to spend the night there.

garnett109 said...

I'd have them clean that room several times aday

Anonymous said...

The last time I stayed at a Westin was 8 months ago and the cleaning was daily. Wow. I am very disappointed in their new "green" BS. -Cin

Ken Riches said...

I wonder if we should not adopt this policy a bit, having a new towel each day is not something I practice at home.

Anonymous said...

Before you judge - you should take the time to find out the details of the Green Program being offered throughout Starwood hotels (Sheratons and Westins) and other larger corporations to save on waste, chemicals, water, gas, etc. There is no elimination of "cleaning ladies". People who are enviornmental friendly understand and if you only knew how much waste, water, chemicals, gas, etc are used in one guestroom - you may change your mind and support the program. Plus - it is an "option" you can opt in or out for.
GO GREEN!

Marty said...

Excuse me, Anonymous, but the woman at the front desk told me that the new Westin Green program allowed me to opt against having my room cleaned at all. I'm all for conserving on towels, linens and etc., but would still like to see the room dusted and vaccumed. Sorry, but I still think one of Westin's main interests here is to save money and that if enough people opt-in to this program, they'll cut back on cleaning ladies. Of course, at that point they can say it was all based on customer preferences. My preference is to keep folks employed, while still conserving when it comes to towels and linens.