Inroom cards that encourage hotel guests to participate in programs to reuse their towels usually make one of four types of appeal -

Three of these four approaches encouraged about one-third of the guests studied to reuse their linens. Those appeals involved social responsibility, environmental concern, or a partnership concept.

However, basing appeals in social psychology theory improved participation dramatically.

One of those messages reversed the environmental partnership model to say that the hotel had already made a donation to an environmental cause and asked the guest to reciprocate by reusing the towels.

Two other theory-based messages incorporated the concept of descriptive norms, which increased participation by around 50 percent.

An important conclusion is that proper application of social psychology theory improves participation but adds nothing to expenses.

To read the complete story, click on the link below:

www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/pdf/showpdf/publications/hraq/feature/pdf/invoke.pdf