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Hotel Tracks Towels With RFID Chips
nonprofiteer writes "An unnamed hotel is now putting RFID tags in their towels: 'The Honolulu hotel (the hotels have asked to remain anonymous, just to keep you guessing) says it was taking a bath to the tune of 4,000 pool towels per month, a number that it has reduced to just 750 (a savings of $16,000 per month). And that's just at the pool.' It's unclear what they do if the towel flies to the Midwest."
My Uncle, and his family own a dry cleaning business in north Carolina and they have been doing this for years. It has caused the dry cleaners to make more money, as well as their clients. Plus as everything comes into the plant, it gets sorted so easily. You can run a cart through a scanner, and the computer reads everything in the cart, telling it where to go, and it is tracked from start to finish. The best part is, the cleaners and their customers make the agreements on the items that are supposed to be cleaned, not the actual pieces being cleaned, so they can tell the hospital who didn't turn in their shirts that week, yet collect for cleaning them. It is the future of dry cleaners.
take a towel from the maid's cart. It isn't registered to anyone and they are always sitting there in the hallway unattended.
The Hilton Hawaiian Village. Signs all over the place that the towels are tracked and you will be charged if it is not returned.
Free towel, I guess.
Haida Manga
I often pop my towel in the microwave for a few seconds to make it nice and toasty. I wonder if I've ever nuked me any chips?
this story is about 2 months old. The RFID triggers a sensor and then you may be asked to take the towel out of your luggage, or be billed for a towel. This type of news could also be a hoax and people read the sign and don't take the chance. Theft is theft, it shouldn't happen.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
I wouldn't be surprised if they just bill the card associated with the room.
This is a classic, 100%-nails example of a "wish I thought of that" idea.
It enhances their usefulness.
Now you can use them as a form of ID, even if everyone else in the customs area on Baloofinax IV stole their towels from the same hotel.
Free seared towel that smells like burnt popcorn forever.
That's what I can't wrap my mind around (no pun intended). Even the most plush hotel towels are laundered and reused by guests, and the vast majority of hotel towels aren't really that high quality to begin with. Is the economy so bad that people are resorting (again, no pun intended) to taking used hotel towels instead of buying their own for a few bucks?
Despite the use of what must be copious amounts of chlorine and near-autoclave cleaning, just imagine what some people leave on those towels. You still want them?
Kleptos ruin it for everyone.
But, if this RFID thing goes viral, you can expect the return of towels and robes and sheets and blankets that make you want to go to a hotel even if you don't have a reason.
Now if only they could do something consistent about the fucking bedbugs.
They've got to work that into an episode of Raising Hope.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
All they'd have to do is incorporate the rfid detector with popup tire slashers, iron crossing barriers, klaxons and klieg lights. Locals could sit in lawn chairs across the street at checkout time and watch the show.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
But the bed bugs don't like RFIDs. And besides, the hotels want you to take those with you. Every bed bug that goes out with you is one fewer in the hotel.
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It's Hilton's Hawaiian Village. Just spent a week there with the fambly. Inside the beach towel return bins, you can clearly see what looks to be a RFID reader wand/antenna along with other assorted electronics.
That's the only way you could enforce this, when they try to walk out the door they set off an alarm and some poor dumb slob has to embarrass the hell out of a guest. OTHO, it'll get around pretty fast and it won't go over well. $16k isn't much money for a hotel you know. Just let it go.
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As SomePgmr said, they might just automatically bill you for it as walk out the door of the hotel. It would be interesting how many people will either contest the charge (knowingly they stole it in the first place), or just eat the cost because shipping it back would be just as costly for the refund. The idea being that the hotel can reduce the loss of revenue due to theft without causing a scene about it.
Life is not for the lazy.
The next thing you know they'll be releasing a towel with an embedded electronic thumb... the future is now.
Why are people stealing that crap?
Because they can.
Doesn't matter what it is, or how crappy it is, sadly some pathetic folks just feel feel a compulsion to steal, others just feel entitled...
Talk to a hard core song or movie pirate. Doesn't matter how crappy the song or movie is, they just want it in their collection (they often do not even listen to the song or watch the movie). That my friend is compulsive behavior...
Talk to a person that constantly whines about faceless corporations underperforming, or overcharging them for stuff, or descriminating... Then you will understand the sense of entitlement that brings a person to steal.... Stick it to the man!
Why not sell seats to the locals?
RFID tracking arrows and crossbows. If you make it by that, you win a towel.
Fight Spammers!
I have been in hotels all over the planet. Average to luxury, Asia, Europe and the US. One thing nearly all of them have in common (including high end Hawaii hotels) is that the towels are a joke. Small, thin, low cost junk. Why are people stealing that crap?
The last time I was in a super-luxury hotel they had a small shop by the lobby where you could buy hotel-branded towels if you wanted a souvenir of your stay. They were better quality than the ones in the rooms, and very reasonably priced -- I doubt they made a profit, but I bet they had less towels stolen because of it.
This article is two weeks old, and RFID tagging in hotels has been known in the industry since 2009. Wakey wakey people!
So, what, it's the first week of January 2010 for you? What the hell time zone are you in?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Next step is to GPS the towels.
That's like saying the next step from a Bic lighter is a phaser.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Stick it to the man! The irony - you've described the values of the core voters for the current "man"!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I see a new demand for Faraday luggage!
notice it was specifically *pool* towels. i have to wonder if they were just counting towels removed from the pool area as losses. what i've often done is take a pool towel back to my room and leave it there for the maid to whisk away with the bath towels.
possibly they weren't actually losing that many pool towels from the premises overall, they were just being diverted to the wrong pile. if they need RFID to tell a pool towel from a bath towel, i would suggest color coding or size/weight differences instead.
But how much did it cost to implement this plan in the first place?
Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
"There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."
Am I the only one shocked that they are paying over $4.90 per towel? I would think hotels could get a better rate than that...
Get a web developer
Have gnu, will travel.
No. You call it the "if you like our towels, take one"-policy and bill it to the credit card.
-Or you tell your guest: "We have this a special offer this week only, for only $1 you can upgrade to a brand new towel."
Tech (most tech) is not inherently evil or good. This is the kind of stuff RFID tags should be used for, a private company in a closed system. Everyone knows you use towels at a hotel, it's just simple normal inventory control, You aren't taking the towels out of the hotel, whats the problem again?
Whatch'you talking about?
Isn't taking a towel like taking an embossed pen, using the stationery, taking the rest of a bottle of soap? Sure the hotel would like you to leave it, (and to charge if they can), but it's a consumable. Some people even take them home as souvenirs!
Yes, these are the same people who stuff their plates at buffets then leave them barely touched while they get up from the table to get more food. I understand in some societies there is a belief of equating this with power or prestige, but it sickens me when I see it. Gluttony is not pretty.
I'm thinking, shipping costs to the Island...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Whether customers would put up with that is another issue. I suspect that business travelers who aren't paying for the room themselves wouldn't care. If they are constantly generating "Towel Deposit" expenses for their employers, maybe their employers would care.
Why is it full of RFID chips ? Err I mean popcorn.
<p>The last time I was in a super-luxury hotel they had a small shop by the lobby where you could buy hotel-branded towels if you wanted a souvenir of your stay. They were better quality than the ones in the rooms, and very reasonably priced -- I doubt they made a profit, but I bet they had less towels stolen because of it.</p></quote>
They made a profit for sure. People happy to steal did anyway.
All microwave ovens eventually become permeated with that aroma.
I remember one hotel I stayed in had quite a witty note in the room. Something along the lines of;
"Lot's of people seem to like our towels, so we've decided to make them available in the gift shop for $10. If you don't feel like walking all the way to the gift shop, you can simply take the towels from your room, and we'll just charge the $10 to your credit card."
Is 1563649 a prime number?