Is skipping hotel room cleanings saving the environment or a scam for hotels to save on labor costs?
Union leaders are calling out hotels for their supposed concern for the environment, arguing that this is nothing more than a ruse to allow customers to expect less while paying the same price.
Lizzy Tapia, president of Unite Here Local 2, a San Francisco-based hotel workers union, explained on a recent broadcast of America’s Workforce Union Podcast that “previous to the pandemic, [Marriott Hotels] used to have what they called ‘The Green Choice Program’ [that allowed guests to choose not to have their rooms cleaned every day but]… after 3 days or 5 days of not having your room cleaned, your room is sticky and dusty and dirty–– end it requires double the amount of work, not to mention the chemicals and water, and all of that stuff. So, The Green Choice Program was a hoax.”
Tapia noted that a similar marketing ploy, deferring room cleanings to protect public health, was used during the pandemic mandates.
“The public believed that,” she said, adding, “It was a different message to get the same outcome –– to have workers working, of being able to eliminate healthcare, to take away healthcare from workers who are no longer eligible, to not have to pay those wages, and all that stuff… So, the automatic daily room cleaning is a really, really key issue for us.”
The Westin, a chain of Marriott Hotels with locations in DFW, described its now discontinued “Sustainability” program this way:
Make a Green Choice (MAGC) program — Any guest can Make a Green Choice by forgoing full housekeeping for up to three days in a row (excluding check-out day). For each night of opt in, guests can receive Marriott Bonvoy™ points or a Food & Beverage voucher, while helping to reduce the use of water, energy and chemicals.
A flyer from The Westin further advocated making a “green” choice, stating, “We embrace our responsibility for environmental stewardship and are committed to integrating leading environmental practices and sustainability principles into our core business strategy.”
While Marriott ended the program in 2022, some hoteliers appear to continue to embrace it. The Hilton’s website advertises a “flexible” room cleaning policy with daily room cleaning available “by request.”
Plan Disney’s website states that room cleaning frequency depends on the room the guest selects.
“If you stay at Disney Moderate and Disney Value Resorts, you will receive housekeeping service every other day. Rooms at Disney Deluxe Resorts and Disney Deluxe Villas will receive daily full housekeeping service,” per a company response to a consumer question in August 2023.
This is not the first time major corporations’ social or environmental policies have been criticized for anti-union or anti-labor practices.
Internal documents from Whole Foods obtained by Business Insider in 2020 showed that the company tracked employee racial diversity, among other things, at its locations to determine the risk of unionization. The company reportedly believed that more diverse workplaces were less likely to organize.
A leaked memo, published by Vox and Recode in 2022, showed Amazon, Whole Foods’ parent company, contemplating hiring former inmates and students from low-income families to fend off unionization efforts from the Teamsters in southern California.