A Study in Motel Eco-Guests

As moteliers we learn by experience to quickly make judgment calls about our prospective guests and offer appropriate tariff according to their likely behavior during their stay.

High management guests like sports teams and heavy smokers are charged at the upper end of the scale, while guests that require little or no management like our regular reps are charged at the lower end.

One interesting subset of guest are those that choose to drive a Toyota Prius. Spotting these hideous vehicles pull up at our reception immediately puts us on high alert and quoting tariff at the high end of our dynamic pricing scale. 

Anyone that drives a vehicle like a Toyota Prius can be classed as "special people." They are willing to pay a premium for a vehicle that forces them to give up on pride, comfort, style, road-handling and acceleration in order to smugly make a statement to others that they are saving the planet.

We know from experience that a Prius driver by their choice of vehicle is more that willing to make an enviro-statement in public, however away from scrutiny behind the closed doors of their motel room, they gluttonously consume anything they can get their hands on throughout their stay.

The Prius driver always occupies the unit that has every single light on, the bathroom consistency has hot water running as a mountain of towels pile up in the corner, rubbish bins are always overflowing, every guest amenity including shampoos, soaps, moisturizer, makeup remover and all tea, coffee, sugar sachets are stripped daily.

We also observe the same behavior from occupants of vehicles adorned with Greenpeace stickers.

We were interested to read a recent study that backed our own guest behavioral observations that concluded that the public that showcase their environmental and social acts do so for the general satisfaction of moral self and in doing so this gives license to indulgence in self-interested and unethical behaviors - In other words environmentalists are meaner and more selfish than others.

Thanks to Whaleoil we note that there are drivers of another vehicle that moteliers should also be wary of:

"If you thought the Toy­ota Prius was gay, then Nis­san has gone one bet­ter and made a gayer car with a gayer adver­tise­ment that if fol­lowed to its log­i­cal con­clu­sion will get you deader faster than you could imagine.
I now have a new car to hate as I drive."