California want to force hotels to use fitted sheets
- Thread starter bobwg
- Start date
butterfly610
Veteran Expediter
What is the reasoning behind doing that?
paullud
Veteran Expediter
It is probably for some of the same reasoning MA and TN require trucks to have fitted sheets in the sleeper. It is just so they have one more law to go in and search through things without needing a warrant.
It's actually a union sponsored bill, because the use of fitted sheets would greatly reduce the physical stress experienced by housekeepers who have to lift heavy mattresses many times a day while tucking in non-fitted sheets. Using fitted sheet will reduce worker injuries by eliminating the need for workers to repetitively lift extremely heavy mattresses when making beds. They contend that flat sheets cause workers to strain their backs, shoulders and wrists, and are often responsible for repetitive motion injuries.
The impetus behind all this is a study which concluded that hotel housekeepers had a higher injury rate when compared to most other service workers. The study was commissioned, of course, by the hotel workers union.
The impetus behind all this is a study which concluded that hotel housekeepers had a higher injury rate when compared to most other service workers. The study was commissioned, of course, by the hotel workers union.
dieseldiva
Veteran Expediter
This explanation makes a lot of sense. From one that had carpel tunnel surgery on both hands at the same time, those repetitive motion injuries can be both debilitating and expensive.
chefdennis
Veteran Expediter
Ok, so it is a union deal, based on a union study...They need a Law!?!? I guess there is no need to get it handled during contract bargaining and negotiations.....make it law, give the gov the power to take on labor issues...well, yea I guess when the president of the country is in your corner, you push whatever you think needs done...yea, they need a law....
You'd think just the cost of injury claims hotels would just change the sheets....for that cost alone....
butterfly610
Veteran Expediter
Okay, now I see why. I just wondered what the reason for it was. I knew there had to be something to it.
I know that when I started changing my own sheets as a kid, I much preferred fitted sheets over the flat ones. They were much quicker and easier to change. Duh. When I started buying my own sheets, I've never even considered getting a set of flat sheets. Granted, I'm lazy, but multiply that amount of work by 15 or 20 times a day for a housekeeper and it's an extraordinary amount of unnecessary work that results in wasted time and money when fitted sheets are actually cheaper in the long run, despite the laughable numbers in the millions of dollars the hotel-motel industry in California threw out there as being the cost.
I have a friend in Memphis who owns a couple of hotels in Bartlett, and his parents own several around Tennessee, and he's told me on more than once occasion that they don't have to replace the fitted bottoms any more frequently than they do the flat tops, so the argument made by the industry in California is bogus.
I have a friend in Memphis who owns a couple of hotels in Bartlett, and his parents own several around Tennessee, and he's told me on more than once occasion that they don't have to replace the fitted bottoms any more frequently than they do the flat tops, so the argument made by the industry in California is bogus.
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Brisco
Expert Expediter
Good Gawd............
In California, A Labor Fight Over Hotel Bedsheets
Your Hotel Bed in California Might Feel Different if This Proposed Bill Passes || HotelChatter
California Hotel Groups Flat Out Reject Fitted Sheet Requirement in Proposed Housekeeping Bill - FoxNews.com
Come On....doesn't California have other things to worry about???
I mean Hell, probably 80% of the Hotel Maids in California are Illegal Mexicans anyways, so why waste the time bowing down to their needs???
In California, A Labor Fight Over Hotel Bedsheets
Your Hotel Bed in California Might Feel Different if This Proposed Bill Passes || HotelChatter
California Hotel Groups Flat Out Reject Fitted Sheet Requirement in Proposed Housekeeping Bill - FoxNews.com
Come On....doesn't California have other things to worry about???
I mean Hell, probably 80% of the Hotel Maids in California are Illegal Mexicans anyways, so why waste the time bowing down to their needs???
bobwg
Expert Expediter
Some of you seem to want to go along with the govt forcing the hotels/motels to change over to fitted sheets even though the cost is upwards of $50 million dollars just to purchase new sheets and that the fitted sheets will not last as long as the flat sheets, and new equipment will have to be purchased. They should tell the union and the govt to go fly a kite
bobwg
Expert Expediter
you say bogus you only talk to 1 person maybe you should talk to others and we should believe your friend and the union in california ????
I don't think many of us want the gov involved....it is an issue between the unions and hotels...it should stay that way...
The non union hotels/motels would be fighting this more so....
maybe, just maybe the big motels want this? to force the mom and pop operations out of business???
Because, that's what the do gooders out in La La land do.
Makes them feel they earned their pay.
It's called the "look what we did for you" syndrome.
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I didn't get that impression for any of the posts here.
If you purchase enough of them, it could be $100 million, maybe even a trillion. But I read the actual bill and it doesn't require the purchasing of replacement fitted sheets until the flat sheets would normally be replaced, so the actual additional cost is pretty much zero. Reminds me of another "out of control" government posting here on EO a while back which said the big, bad and evil government mandated the replacement of street signs with different lettering, and how it was going to cost a bazillion dollars, all because the government was out of control. That one turned out to be wrong, too, because the money for street sign replacements is a part of each annual budget. Hotels and motels already replace a good number of flat sheets annually, so now instead of replacing all of them with flat sheets, they'll replace some of them fitted sheets. Oh, the financial horror.
They will wear out a little sooner than the flat sheet, because the fitted sheets is the one that gets slept on all the time, but fitted sheets don't wear out at an alarmingly faster rate than flat sheets. The additional cost of having to replace fitted sheets sooner will offset the costs of injury and missed work due to injury, making replacing the sheets more cost effective in the long run.
What for? The same machines that iron flat sheets are also designed to iron fitted sheets, not that most hotels and motels iron the sheets, anyway.
I don't disagree with that at all. This isn't something that needs to be legislated. If it's a truly significant problem, then OSHA would be involved, or the insurance companies would require it.
I have talked with more than one person, actually. How many have you talked to about this subject? A previous job had me in a motel room every night for 5-6 nights a week. You'd be surprised at what kind of banal chit-chat can come up about all kinds of things motel room related when talking to housekeepers, desk clerks and owners. But, you should believe whatever you want to believe. Whatever makes you happy, or in some cases, whatever keeps you angry if it makes you happy.
bobwg
Expert Expediter
How do you know every hotel/motel has the machines that can handle the flat sheets as well as the fitted sheets??? the fitted sheets do not fold flat like the flat sheets so fitted sheets are more bulky making them harder to store. more and more hotels/motels give guests the option to not have sheets changed every day. I went and looked up the law and the law says the standards board will by 9/1/2012 adopt the standard for all hotels and motels and other lodging type establishments to require fitted sheets no mention of a grace period or time line to make the change over basically rule will be if you dont have fitted sheets by that time you will be fined
I don't know that every hotel/motel has the machines. Never said they did. Many likely do not have them, especially smaller motels. What I said was, the same machines that iron flat sheets are also designed to iron fitted sheets. If they have the machine at all, then they can iron flat or fitted sheets. It's simply how these rotary press machines work. I know this because I used to be a dry cleaner (a graduate of the International Fabricare Institute in Laurel, MD, which is now sadly known by the more pedestrian name of "Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute International", with an official certificate and everything) and am intimately familiar with the machines, how they are designed, and how they work.
Yes, it's a major problem.
Uhm, OK. Using less water and less detergent, I can see how that will be a major problem.
Correct, there is no mention of a grace period, but the standard won't go into law (if the bill is passed) for a year, maybe more. That's certainly enough of a grace period, considering how many times per year bedsheets are replaced (the turnover is twice a year on the average). If the law passes, the next time a motel orders sheets, which is generally monthly or quarterly depending on the size of the hotel, they order fitted sheets instead, and they'll be in compliance long before the standard is adopted. This is not a major problem.
bobwg
Expert Expediter
the point with guest being able to keep the same sheets for more than one day was that would be less hard work for the poor employee to change sheets.the machines they are talking about are ones that iron and also fold the sheets not just iron. so there are what thousands of motel/hotel owners,managers, employees and you talk to a small fraction of them and according to you and the unions everyone will be able to change to the fitted sheets with out any major problems or COST? Easy for you to say its not your money
Yes, I know. I used to do that quite often when I was staying in a motel every night, where I would rarely have housekeeping do anything in my room, knowing how hard they work as it is.
Yes, I know. Like I said, I'm intimately familiar with these machines.
Correct. One doesn't need to talk to every hotel owner, manager and employee to know what's going on in the hospitality industry. All you have to do is talk with enough of them, and be observant. It akin to the gas stations squawking about the insanely high price of having to convert their fuel pumps to dispense temperature compensated fuel, when the reality is that fuel pumps are routinely replaced anyway. They quote the cost of a new pump, as if they need to install a new pump where they would otherwise not do so, not accounting for the fact that all they have to do the next time the replace a pump would be to replace it with a temperature compensated pump, which costs very little above a non-compensated pump, and with some types of pumps there is no cost difference at all. Canada proved that without question. So the ridiculous numbers tossed out by the gas station owners, just like the ridiculous numbers tossed out by the hotel owners, are just that, ridiculous and not to be believed, especially when a little common sense and intelligence confirms just how ridiculous they are.
It's not yours, either. Unless you get a motel room.