The inconvenience of environmental silliness
I am in Turkey this week, and even here the environmentalists hold sway. If anything, many things are worse here than in the US. For example, in the hotel that I am staying in Bodrum, you must put your key in a slot in your room to have any of the electricity work in your room. I found this out when I tried to recharge my computer. I had to take the key with me when I left the room, but since the electricity was shut off as soon as I removed the key from its slot the computer stopped recharging. Here is the real kicker though. They only allow one key per room. The reason is simple. If they let people have two keys, they could leave one in the slot when they leave the room. If two people are staying in the same room, this would produce some real inconveniences. My view is if people leave the TV or air conditioning on when they leave the room, room rates would have to be higher to cover those added costs. But it makes a lot more sense to leave this up to the hotel and its customers than to pass regulations requiring such wacky rules.
Labels: Environment, GlobalWarming
posted by John Lott at 10:52 AM
6 Comments:
I found this in several countries in Southeast Asia. The mechanisms are pretty easy to circumvent so that chargers or the ac can be left running.
John, just leave something else in the key slot (credit card, cardboard, etc), it'll do the same thing. I've had to do this while traveling around europe/mid-east.
I've seen the same thing in Argentina. Hotels do it to lower their costs and therefore make more money.
In Turkey, about half of its electricity is produced from imported natural gas. Electric prices are expected to jump 15% to 20% this year because of natural gas prices going up along with crude oil.
A friend forwarded this blog entry to me thinking I'd find it amusing. In fact, it compelled me to come to this website and leave the following comment: Your post demonstrates an astounding level of ignorance.
Dear Anonymous and The Bronz:
Thanks, I will try to check this out, though only for intellectual curiosity.
Dear Second Anonymous:
I understand that this saves costs. The same would be true if US hotels did it. But there is a difference between a mandate and something where customers value the lower costs of rooms that would result and thus choose it themselves. US Hotels could do this if customers valued the lower prices more than the convenience of how the rooms work, but they don't. I wouldn't mind if the same reasoning applied here.
Dear tanuki7664:
Some detail on your answer would be useful. Could you please explain your statement?
I ran into this in Italy, Germany and Taiwan. I also used a left over credit card key to activate the switch.
In Italy I was talking to the gentleman at the front desk and he looked at me funny. While I was talking with him I found out they also kept track of when you were in your room. (He pointed to the computer screen that indicated I was in my room.)
Post a Comment
<< Home