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Has anyone ever been charged for pool towels from those automated checkout / return machines.

billymach4

billymach4

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Currently at Aruba Surf Club and apparently this towel checkout machine was not reading my card. As I was repeatedly attempting to get the dang thing to open there was a message on the display something like "processing start up". Sort of like a reboot.

There was a group of ladies? 2 young one a bit more mature that were anxious and mentioned there was a brief power outage since the lights inside went out for about 10 seconds. The machine was not opening for what seemed like 30 seconds.

The machine then displayed processing returns for what seemed like 15 more seconds and finally opened the door.

Since they were anxious to get into the lazy river I grabbed my towels and in an instant the mature lady just helped her and the other young ladies to their pool towels. All along it was my card that ultimately opened the door for checkout. The ladies never bothered to let the door close and read their respective room key.

All along I knew this was going to be the case and I did not want to seem rude and prevent them from getting their towels. In effect they piggy backed their towel retrieval on my key card? I always thought it was a myth that that machine tracked towels. However I have since inspected the pool towels and I do see what appears to be an RFID tag patch glued into the fabric of the towels.

To be honest I am not losing sleep over the fact that they will run off with pool towels on my account.

However I am just asking if anyone has ever been charged from any hotel or timeshare for missing pool towel returns. In this case as you may know it's $20 per missing towel.
 
I’ve never seen charges for those machines. I don’t know how the logistics work when you return towels and how it knows if you took multiple towels. My guess is the card really only gives you access to open the door.
 
It's all smoke and mirrors. Mainly to make you think they are tracking your towels which helps get more people to return them vs. leaving them laying around the pool area or on loungers. The towels apparently have an RFID in them, but as far as I can tell the card simply opens the door.
 
dioxide45 said:
It's all smoke and mirrors. Mainly to make you think they are tracking your towels which helps get more people to return them vs. leaving them laying around the pool area or on loungers. The towels apparently have an RFID in them, but as far as I can tell the card simply opens the door.
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Agree with @dioxide45...we were in MOC-Napili this Feb and the staffer who was replenishing the towels in the machine basically said the same (your card only opens the door...no unique tracking device...and unless Marriott is buying very expensive towels with RFID trackers on them, don't have any of those either...if they did, I want a deduction on my Annual Maintenance Fees!)...you can also take as many as you need/want (although try not to be a pig about it)...frankly don't know why they purchased these machines although maybe they did a study where they'd save on some personnel...
 
aland0524 said:
Agree with @dioxide45...we were in MOC-Napili this Feb and the staffer who was replenishing the towels in the machine basically said the same (your card only opens the door...no unique tracking device...and unless Marriott is buying very expensive towels with RFID trackers on them, don't have any of those either...if they did, I want a deduction on my Annual Maintenance Fees!)...you can also take as many as you need/want (although try not to be a pig about it)...frankly don't know why they purchased these machines although maybe they did a study where they'd save on some personnel...
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I suspect the company that sells the machines touts some operational efficiencies when they sold the machines. Perhaps there is the ability to actually track towels if that feature is activated. I know when I read about them being installed at Grande Vista, the cost was tens of thousands of dollars per machine. Not sure we've made that back.
 
dioxide45 said:
I suspect the company that sells the machines touts some operational efficiencies when they sold the machines. Perhaps there is the ability to actually track towels if that feature is activated. I know when I read about them being installed at Grande Vista, the cost was tens of thousands of dollars per machine. Not sure we've made that back.
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I suspect (actually know) that they make 10% of whatever the machines cost.
 
dioxide45 said:
It's all smoke and mirrors. Mainly to make you think they are tracking your towels which helps get more people to return them vs. leaving them laying around the pool area or on loungers. The towels apparently have an RFID in them, but as far as I can tell the card simply opens the door.
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We'll be at Bluegreen's Bayside this weekend and they have those as well. Clearly no way for them to track the towels in or out.
 
Dean said:
We'll be at Bluegreen's Bayside this weekend and they have those as well. Clearly no way for them to track the towels in or out.
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Can you please take a picture of the pool construction there this weekend. Thanks.
 
davidvel said:
I suspect (actually know) that they make 10% of whatever the machines cost.
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Very true, it does help Marriott Vacations bottom line.
 
MrockStar said:
Can you please take a picture of the pool construction there this weekend. Thanks.
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The Bluegreen pool? I'll try to remember. Feel free to PM me on Saturday as a reminder.
 
I feel that the towel machine only tracks the down of towels placed into the box that day and someone manually tracks the number of towels returned after been laundered and returned to the towel machine. The towel machine only tracks the number of towels placed into the machine at the beginning of each day.
 
Today I noted that there are iron patches that seem to have an rfid tag under the patches.
 
billymach4 said:
Today I noted that there are iron patches that seem to have an rfid tag under the patches.
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When we were at Grande Vista after they first installed the machines, I thought I could feel what seemed like something sewn into one of the hems along one end of the towel. That said, I still don't think they are doing any kind of actual tracking of the towels. They are just fancy dispending and collection bins.
 
dioxide45 said:
When we were at Grande Vista after they first installed the machines, I thought I could feel what seemed like something sewn into one of the hems along one end of the towel. That said, I still don't think they are doing any kind of actual tracking of the towels. They are just fancy dispending and collection bins.
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Totally agree. Playing games with our minds.
 
Funny but I am also currently at Surf Club and I am not a fan of the towel machines as they do not always open when you scan your room key. It would be impossible to charge anyone though as once you open the machine there is no way the machine knows whether you are taking 1 or 10 towels so as mentioned it is all smoke and mirrors.
 
NJVacation61 said:
Funny but I am also currently at Surf Club and I am not a fan of the towel machines as they do not always open when you scan your room key. It would be impossible to charge anyone though as once you open the machine there is no way the machine knows whether you are taking 1 or 10 towels so as mentioned it is all smoke and mirrors.
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Apparently the towels have an RFID in them and can count how many are removed. Towel Tracker explains this in a video on their website;
 
Another reason I can confidently say they don't track is I often see someone walk up to return towels as they are also emptying the return bins. The worker just has the guest toss the soiled towel into the bin they are putting the soiled towels into. They aren't going back through the hopper. Unless they have some way to scan these before they put them into a washing machine, those towels are not being tracked. I would say there would have to be a lot more people getting charged for unreturned towels if these aren't being tracked.
 
dioxide45 said:
Another reason I can confidently say they don't track is I often see someone walk up to return towels as they are also emptying the return bins. The worker just has the guest toss the soiled towel into the bin they are putting the soiled towels into. They aren't going back through the hopper. Unless they have some way to scan these before they put them into a washing machine, those towels are not being tracked. I would say there would have to be a lot more people getting charged for unreturned towels if these aren't being tracked.
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Agree and I see people leaving towels at the pool and on the beach every day. And after seeing some of the things people complain about at this resort there would be small riots here if anyone was ever charged for a towel. The video seems to be more a promotional sales pitch to hotels than anything else. Just another case of jobs being eliminated by technology unfortunately.
 
At Mountainside recently some people at the spa were saying they are fake. The towels have a small pouch sewn into a corner with something inside. These people had cut open the pouch on a towel and showed there was just a piece of rubber sewn inside. No RFID, no electronics. It looked like 2" length of a 1/2" wide rubber seal.

Strange thing is they don't even have the towel machines there. Pools towels are in your room.
 
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