You've heard of tracking technology.
But what about linen tracking technology?
Linen Technology Tracking just happens to be the name of a company that provides M&M-sized tracking chips that are sewn into the towels, sheets and robes of partner hotels. At first, it was used by hoteliers to keep track of towels and linen that were sent to offsite cleaners, but it's now becoming quite the deterrent for thieves (You know who you are! Stop stealing those comfy hotel robes!).
William Serbin, executive vice president of Linen Technology Tracking, said that 2,000 hotels now use the UHF Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to track their linen, according to The Daily Mail. Hotels lose up to 20 percent of their linen each month, according to the report. Serbin estimates that about 2 percent of the loss is due to guest theft. Of course, that can be a rather large number when you're talking about an entire hotel's inventory. Serbin estimated that most hotels save about $50,000 a year in lost linen.
The chips can tell hoteliers when a towel was removed from the hotel by communicating with antennae positioned at the property's entrance and exit. And, while it doesn't track a towel's exact coordinates, a number of guests have already successfully been asked to return missing linen to the property.
Mr. C Hotel Beverly Hills, the luxury property located in Los Angeles, installed the technology in December 2011. It has made a substantial difference. Sam Jagger, general manager of Mr. C Hotel Beverly Hills, said the rate of missing items has dropped from about 20 to 30 percent to 3 percent, per RFID Journal. That can make quite the difference, considering Mr. C Hotel's linen is imported from Italy and costs about $100,000.
The technology has also been helpful for housekeepers. Once they are alerted an item has been removed, they can restock the item for guests without, say, guests having to tell the housekeeping department that they just checked into their room and the robes have mysteriously gone missing.
"Our solution not only provides total inventory information, but provides additional data like dwell time, wash count and laundry reconciliation which assists properties become more efficient," Serbin told The Daily Mail.
But good luck finding out which hotels use the technology. As you can imagine, most hotels would rather not tell guests that they use tracking technology in their towels.
"Our properties like to remain anonymous," Serbin said. "They benefit from the gained efficiency and don't want to alarm guests that they have this technology."
So, moving forward, if you are one of those people who tend to casually sneak a nice robe or an extra set of towels out of the hotel, you may want to think twice.
The towels are watching you.
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