Hotel oddity #13

Shower water "all the way on," no half-way

Hotel hypocrisy. This is certainly not unique to the Delta hotel in Newfoundland, but that is where I was struck by the pretense and posturing of those righteous signs in bathrooms about saving water and saving the planet. What the hotel industry really wants is to save on labor costs.

save water sign

I’m all for living lightly on our Earth, taking only what’s needed. I believe in the conservation of resources. But some hotels, the Delta St. John’s included, make it impossible to save water. The shower has no flow regulator.

Shower on-off

To get hot water, you must run full volume. And in my room, the water pressure was fierce. Far more water than I need or enjoy. Much more than necessary down the drain. Certainly enough to wash an extra towel or two.

© Copyright 2008-2010 Bambi Vincent. All rights reserved.

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4 Comments

  1. Appreciate your thoroughness, David! I’ve stayed in lots of hotels lately with new-looking “all-or-nothing” shower controls. I don’t get it… save water on towel-washing, but blast the shower. I think the hotels actually want to save on the labor of laundry.

  2. I checked with the manufacturer about the face plate on the shower and it is still a current model So my attempt at an excuse for the hotel is weakened.

  3. Quite so but consider the timing?

    The shower control was probably installed in the 1990s — an age ago from ‘sustainability’ consciousness.

    What it definitively proves is that the objects around us have continuing influence on our lives.

  4. Right And we don’t need a hotel trying to give a guilt trip.


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