Most Forget to Bring Green Habits to Hotels

A recent analysis conducted by Starwood Hotels and Resorts (thats corporatese for Sheraton) revealed some disturbing findings regarding how people view natural resources when they check into a hotel.

Most of those polled said they are less likely to conserve water and electricity while they're away from home. More than six in 10 said they were using more because they knew it would be free.

Nearly 70 percent of respondents said they open a new mini-bottle of shampoo each time they shower at a hotel, and 63 percent said they were more likely to leave the lights on at a hotel than at home.

Leaving common sense at home when you enter a hotel room reminds me of an incident in Yellowstone National Park long ago. I was passing through the park in a federal agency vehicle that was painted the same color as a National Park Service vehicle. Somewhere along the main road in the park I encountered Tommy Tourist and his brood from New Jersey out trying to commune with nature. The nature they were trying to commune with was a female moose and her calf.

Tommy's plan was to walk up to the moose and photograph it from as close as possible.
What Tommy didn't know or maybe forgot was that a female moose with her calf is one of the most dangerous creatures anyone can encounter in the wild.

I parked my car and watched as this nimrod "sneaked up" on the moose who was watching his every step from the time he got out of his car. When he got to where it was making me nervous I jumped out of my car and yelled at him, warning him to get away from the moose now! Luckily he listened to me and left before the female moose did a tap dance on his thick skull.

I left Tommy and his family beside the road after chewing him out for his foolishness then a few minutes later saw a real life National Park Service person driving a car toward where the moose encounter just occurred. Flagging him down I told the NPS person about the interaction with Tommy and said I wanted him to know in case there was a complaint filed because of me chewing out this nitwit.

The Park Service person told me not to worry. What Tommy had done was an all-too-common occurrence in the Park. He then went on to say that "I don't know why it is but when people leave home they leave their common sense there also."

It appears from this Starwood Hotel survey that Tommy Tourist in Yellowstone National Park isn't the only person who leaves common sense behind when they leave home.