Staph Infection: Hilton Not Throwing in Towel on Sustainability

Corporate responsibility officers often have to ponder major tradeoffs and have huge decisions to make. Should we do business with China, with its huge market despite its environmental policies and human rights record? Should we continue to invest in coal utilities even if pulling out for environmental purposes would negatively impact the bottom line?

So, on the tradeoff question, albeit on a smaller scale, I read the other day in the New York Times Well blog that towels and sheets should be washed regularly in hot water as a precaution to counter the outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the drug-resistant staph infection.

I was wondering if this issue was on hotels’ radar yet, and how it would impact programs like Hilton Hotels’ Green Program – Conserve to Preserve, where guests are encouraged to reuse their towels and sheets to save on the use of H2O.I was thinking that perhaps the choice comes down to sustainability versus guest safety, and I wondered how some hotels decided the question.

Well, the staph outbreak indeed is on Hilton’s radar and a spokeswoman said it has advised its hotel properties to clean surfaces daily with products that contain Altima 64, a disinfectant.

However, there’s been no change to Hilton’s policies on towel and sheet reuse. “We still honor guests’ requests to launder their sheets and towels either daily or every couple of days, whichever they prefer,” the Hilton spokeswoman said.

So, Hilton is opting for guest choice on this issue, although it is doubtful that most travelers are even aware that towel reuse or daily-towel laundering could be a factor in staph infections.

Meanwhile, Marriott International, too, has not altered its linen reuse program because of the staph infection problem. Marriott encourages guests to reuse linens, and its fitness centers recently introduced antibacterial wiping clothes, a Marriott spokeswoman said.

And, interestingly (to me, anyway), it turns out that Marriott’s Linen Reuse Program, which cuts hot water and sewer costs from laundry operations 11 percent to 17 percent on average per property, is more about the sheets than the towels. (Really, I’m not this domestically oriented in real life.)

Steven Samson, Marriott’s Vice President of Room Operations, said less than 5 percent of its hotels that participated in a test of linen reuse included towels as part of the program, so Marriott has focused on bedding reuse for sustainability purposes.

“Guests told us they didn’t want to deal with the possibility of having a wet towel the next time they wanted to use it,” Samson said.

Well, not to air any dirty linen here, but it seems that the staph-infection outbreak at this point really hasn’t risen to a consciousness level at major hotels where it would impact policies on towel and sheet reuse.

Hopefully, the outbreak doesn't get to that point.