Hotel toilet paper folding is a common practice performed by

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

s worldwide as a way of assuring guests that the bathroom has been cleaned.Feldman, David, ''When Do Fish Sleep? and other Imponderables of Everyday Life'', p. 4, "Why Do Many Hotels and Motels Fold Over the Last Piece of Toilet Paper in the Bathroom?" New York: Harper & Row, 1989 The common fold normally involves creating a triangle or "V" shape out of the first available sheet or square on a

toilet paper Toilet paper (sometimes called toilet tissue or bathroom tissue) is a tissue paper product primarily used to clean the anus and surrounding anal region of feces after defecation, and to clean the perineal area and external genitalia of u ...

roll. Commonly, the two corners of that sheet are tucked behind the paper symmetrically, forming a point at the end of the roll. More elaborate folding results in shapes like fans, sailboats, and even flowers. Toilet paper folding is also known as "toilet paper

origami ) is the Japanese paper art, art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of pape ...

" or "toilegami". The practice has been considered an emblematic example of a

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copied across the world from a hotel to another, until it became common.Randerson, James, science correspondent
"The meme-ing of life"
blog post, February 22, 2006, "News Blog", ''

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'', retrieved March 31, 2009

Extent

The practice is followed by hotels all over the world, according to Stephen Gill, a British photographer who published a book of pictures of folded hotel toilet paper from various nations.Barnett, Laura
"The loo roll that says I love you: Stephen Gill explains why he spent three years taking pictures of hotel toilet paper"
''

'', September 26, 2007, retrieved March 31, 2009 Dr.

Susan Blackmore Susan Jane Blackmore (born 29 July 1951) is a British writer, lecturer, sceptic, broadcaster, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. Her fields of research include memetics, parapsychology, consciousness, and she is best known fo ...

, who uses the example of hotel toilet paper folding to illustrate the use of

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, pointed out in the 2006

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Lecture before the

British Humanist Association Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...

that even a remote guesthouse she visited in rural

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in India folded the first sheet on its rolls of toilet paper. Hotel toilet paper folding is such an institution that in the horror movie ''

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'' it is used as one of the eerie happenings noticed by the main character—after using the toilet paper, he finds it mysteriously has been freshly folded over when no one else had been in the room.

Reasons

According to David Feldman, in his " Imponderables" syndicated newspaper column, the practice is meant to assure customers that their hotel room has been cleaned. Feldman reported that he had contacted many of the country's largest innkeeper chains to ask why the toilet paper was folded, and all of them provided the same answer. He quoted James P. McCauley, executive director of the International Association of

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

s: Stephen Gill believes the practice is meant to please or impress customers: However, James Randerson takes a different point of view:

Other uses

Variations

"Toilet paper origami" (also called "toilegami") is a variation that involves folding toilet paper in elaborate shapes."Toilet Paper Origami"
Origami Resource Center web page, retrieved March 31, 2009 Gill found differences in the style and care of folding between hotels. One example from Tokyo, "with its tiny pleats, really stands out", according to the photographer. "Only in Japan did I find such minute attention to detail. ..The New York City

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on the other hand, is very poor quality, asymmetrical on rough, thin paper. And the Romania

is a great slab with a small, right-hand fold." According to one hotel industry website, "Housekeepers at luxe lairs around the world are neatly folding the loose end of a partially used roll of toilet paper into a neat little bow or fan." Some hotels provide more elaborate flourishes: some apply a sticker attaching the folded end to the roll; others wrap spare rolls with a ribbon; Thompson Hotels imprint their logo on the first square."Adventures in Overservice: The Art of Toilet Paper Origami"
October 9, 2008, Hotel Chatter website, retrieved March 31, 2009 The Eldorado Hotel in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

, also imprints its name and logo on the ends of its toilet paper — a practice done by supervisors checking the work of the housekeepers. As part of a $1 billion renovation of the

Fontainebleau Hotel The Fontainebleau Miami Beach (also known as Fontainebleau Hotel) is a hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Designed by Morris Lapidus, the luxury hotel opened in 1954. In 2007, the Fontainebleau Hotel was ranked ninety-third in the American Institute ...

Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and artificial island, man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the ...

, in 2006, the typical triangular fold practice was stopped as one of a number of changes in order to give customers an impression that the hotel was special.Hanks, Douglas, "Details are key in Fontainebleau makeover", ''

The Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.Newsbank.com on March 31, 2009 "We're not going to do the little pointy thing," rooms division chief Charlotte Rosenau told the ''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...

''. "Every hotel does that." The change in toilet paper policy was made after Rosenau and several housekeepers crowded into a bathroom to experiment with different methods. They settled on "folding the first square in half, then resting the crease midway down the roll", according to the newspaper. "It just looks nice and clean," Rosenau explained. The Tickle Pink Inn, a hotel in

Carmel Highlands, California Carmel Highlands is an unincorporated community in Monterey County, California, United States. It is south of Carmel-by-the-Sea (better known as simply, "Carmel"), at an elevation of 318 feet (97 m). Carmel Highlands is also located just south ...

, folds the ends of its toilet paper into fan-like designs, mirroring the folds of its bathroom washcloths. A review in the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' noted the practice as "a fancy touch". One travel writer noted seeing toilet paper folded into flowers and sailboats at hotels in Costa Rica.

Usage beyond hotels

An automated toilet paper folding machine called ''Meruboa'' was invented in Japan. With the push of a lever the device folds the first sheet of toilet paper into a triangle. Elaborate wedding dresses have been made from folded toilet paper (also using glue)."Cheap Chic Weddings 2008 Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest"
at Cheap Chic Weddings website, retrieved March 31, 2009

References

Notes

External links

Toilet Paper Origami
(sample images). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hotel Toilet Paper Folding Hospitality management Paper folding Toilet paper