Airing dirty laundry

Like most people, Alicia Nieva-Woodgate isn’t comfortable talking about her dirty laundry.

Her misgivings are understandable. After all, soiled clothes are one of the less glamorous byproducts of a long trip.

But when your hotel keeps you from cleaning up, reticence can turn to rage. That’s what happened to the San Francisco media relations executive when she stayed at the Sheraton’s Palo Alto, Calif., property a few weeks ago.

“I had been on the road for a long time and I had quite a bit of dirty laundry,” she says. “I had called the hotel before I arrived to ask them if they had any laundry facilities. They said they did.”

Turns out the “facilities” at the 343-room property were a single coin-operated washing machine and dryer. Both were in use. Because it was late in the morning, the hotel couldn’t send her laundry to its valet dry-cleaning service, so it offered the next-best thing: to call a cab, which would take her to the closest Laundromat.

“The hotel staff’s attitude was ‘tough luck’. I started to lose my patience, and became very upset because I had to waste the morning doing the laundry instead of working,” she remembers.

Sheraton spokeswoman Lisa Dickason says summoning a taxi was “a little odd,” but added that the hotel tries to be as accommodating as possible. Its coin-operated machine costs only a quarter to operate. It also has a competitively-priced valet dry-cleaning service and, from time to time, makes its big industrial-size washing machine available to visiting sports teams. Little comfort that is to solo travelers like Nieva-Woodgate.

When it comes to laundry, guests frequently get taken to the dry cleaners. Hotels are often ill-prepared to handle visitors who have been traveling for an extended period of time. And when they are able to help, the resulting laundry charges are nothing short of outrageous.

Oh, and good luck getting your employer to reimburse you for it. Companies may not hesitate to send you on a protracted business trip, but according to figures complied by consultants Runzheimer International, less than one-third of them cover laundry costs.

Read through any of the lodging industry publications, and it’s obvious that on the question of laundry, property managers fluctuate between apathy and avarice. Instead of worrying about guests, they concentrate on the hotel’s own bulk laundry-sheets, tablecloths, napkins and towels. If they do worry about visitors, it’s in the context of making more money.

A recent trade article summed up the confusion as follows: “The laundry is one of the most underrated and least understood operations in the entire hotel.”

They could very well say the same thing about guests. Hotel managers seem to be making assumptions about their customers that, if it weren’t for the fact that most stays are mercifully brief, would trigger riots on the concierge-floor levels.

Do they really expect us to schlep enough clean clothes around to last us for more than a week? Do they think we-and the companies we work for-are so loaded that they can afford upwards of $8 a shirt for dry cleaning? And do they think we’ve got all the time in the world to feed a coin-operated machine and dryer, should we decide that we want to save a few bucks?

These questions go to the heart of Nieva-Woodgate’s nightmare at the Sheraton, and to my recent experience at a Colorado Springs, Colo., inn. I checked into the Red Crags Bed & Breakfast with a carry-on full of dirty laundry on a Sunday. Knowing of no other place to turn, I asked the innkeeper if there were any laundry facilities on the property that I could use.

“Of course,” he answered. “Whenever you’re ready, just let me know.”

A staff member later showed me to through the kitchen to a pantry area, where an old but functioning machine sat. There, I washed my clothes-for free.

Maybe some hotels understand the business they’re in after all.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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