Travel 2018 – Towels!

Dear Hoteliers!

We really need to talk about towels! Many of you can now relax because you do provide good quality, decent sized towels (and please note that plural!) for your guests. Which is as it should be. They’re paying good money, often very good money, to stay in your establishments and it would be nice if you could at least act as if you have given some thought to what might make their stay more comfortable. For me, as long as the beds are comfortable, and there’s a good supply of hot water, there are many other things I can put up with or do without. I’ll provide my own kettle, and tea and coffee if I have to. I’ll buy water or refill the bottle from the tap. I’ll bring my own snacks and late night drinks. I’ll provide all my own cosmetics and things like toothpaste, shampoo and shower gel. But… and this is a big one, even if it is a first world problem… for the love of all that’s holy, give me proper towels.

I have long hair, which for some reason seems to retain water very insistently, and after washing it in the shower I don’t want to have to choose between drying my body while my hair drips steadily everywhere, or drying my hair and then not having a dry towel for my body. So, two towels per person please, not just one.

And having addressed the number of towels, let’s talk about the size of them. If the smaller of the two towels will not wrap around my head fully, that’s not a towel; it’s a face flannel! Much the same applies to the “bath” towel. It’s not a bath towel if I can’t wrap it around myself without there being a gap between the two edges. I am NOT a large woman. I’m tall and not skinny but I fit into UK size 14 clothes comfortably, which means I’m slightly thinner than the average woman.

You don’t have to fold them into clever and intricate shapes. You don’t need to perfume them or place chocolates in their folds. You don’t even need to launder them every day, I’ll happily reuse them during my stay. All you have to do is give me a pair of towels that I can actually get dry on. Don’t make me continue to carry a spare sports towel around, please!

And rant over!