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Irritating Your Guests
As western cultures adopt more chemicals into society in the way of air fresheners, fire retardants, finishes for construction and furnishings, herbicides and pesticides, and cleaning products (for both buildings and people), humans are suffering the consequences. The biggest consequence is increased allergies and sensitivities to the chemicals around them. Those are irritating consequences.
The best way to quit irritating your guests is to remove as many chemicals as possible from your hospitality operations. Get rid of sodium lauryl sulfate, fabric softeners and air fresheners, and finishes with VOCs (volatile organic compounds). There are great alternatives available to you, so use them and have happier guests.
The sensitivities take the form of itching skin, headaches, breathing and digestion problems, and hives and rashes. If you are increasing your use of chemicals around your property you are irritating your guests. And you are probably contributing to not only their health issues but also to an unpleasant stay at your hospitality venue.
Conversations with various vendors to the hospitality business illustrate to me how much mis-information there is about scents and various chemicals. I've heard that laurel sulfate, SLS, (aka: lauryl sulfate, sodium dodecyl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, and variations on those words) isn't a problem for people.
Asking a manufacturer or vendor if the product ingredients used in your cleaning products are safe isn't the best way to do research. The tobacco companies denied for years the carcinogenic aspects of cigarettes. Be responsible and research with scientists about these products.
Though SLS may be an unlikely cancer causing agent, it is a known irritant (skin and eye) and limited exposure is highly recommended. And some research has connected SLS with nitrate contamination; nitrates are other potential carcinogens. Why would you expose your guests or employees to know irritants?
The hospitality industry goes to great lengths to make guests comfortable, as seen in bed and amenity wars, fresh foods in restaurants, concierge floors, and valet services. It seems to ignore various irritants it introduces to its guests like faux scents instead of fresh air, soap and shampoo with SLS, dryer sheets or fabric softeners in the wash/dry cycles, and paints and finishes with VOCs.
It's past time to take your hospitable actions another step and quit irritating your guests. Insist on products used around your property that aren't known irritants. Treat your guests like they matter, like you do with your various hospitality programs.
(See the related article Ban Laurel Sulfate)
Posted by Kit
