Was your property built before 1993? If so, chances are you’re losing money with every flush and use of the sink and shower. After all, you can’t control your hotel guest’s use of utilities. However, you can control your operating costs, and through simple, environmentally friendly renovations to plumbing and electric, you can significantly lower expensive water/sewer and electric bills. Let’s say that you have a 25-year-old, 100-room property with a 50 percent occupancy rate that hasn’t had any updates to toilets, shower heads, sink aerators or continuously operated common area lighting. A guestroom toilet is flushed 15 times a day...

One of the major advantages of being a green hotel is that the reputation of the company will attract like-minded people who are interested in working for an eco-conscious employer. Even in an employment market where jobs are scarce, today’s workforce is searching for a meaningful work experience where their personal values are in alignment with their organization’s values. The ability to find and employ quality candidates that fit into the company culture can be strengthened by effectively communicating green practices during the recruitment process. A company’s reputation for social and environmental responsibility is becoming an important decision factor for...

Window film is making a big difference in energy savings for hotels all over the country, and now it is making big news because of its proven energy savings. California recently incorporated window film into its state building code, making it the first state to recognize window film as a practical way to save energy through reducing solar heat gain and improving window insulating performance. This code change takes effect in January 2014. Window film was also recently found to be the most cost-effective choice for energy savings in retrofit applications. An independent study compared window film to other traditional...

Doing more with less is a common theme for many industries, but few more than lodging. This industry was hit hard, and funding in the shape of bank loans or other external capital was simply not available for hotels needing to renovate, purchase new furniture or redesign rooms. While anxious hotel owners and managers waited for available financing to flow again, it wasn’t uncommon for corporate hotel brands to put their Product Improvement Plans, or PIPs, on ice. Suspended PIPs were a short-lived financial relief, but hotel owners and corporate brands are now reinstating mandatory improvement plans. Many hotel owners...

From independents to national chains, U.S. lodging facilities are bringing greener hues to their rooms and services. Yet for all the improvements, there is still much more that can be done. One important example relates to their supply chains. From coffee to shampoo and bath tissue, where do all the elements that fill hotel rooms come from? What goes into their development? What is required of their disposal? With their continual and broad purchasing, upkeep and disposal of so many kinds of goods, lodging facilities carry tremendous power—and responsibility—from an environmental standpoint. The issue is so important that it stretches...

Implementing and promoting green, sustainable energy initiatives is a proven strategy for marketing a hotel to environmentally-inclined guests and meeting planners. But do these efforts contribute to the property’s value in the investor’s portfolio? The U.S. Green Building Council has found that “green” hotels enjoy a 6.8 percent to 10.9 percent property value premium. Hotel managers and owners are constantly looking to ensure that improvements and capital expenditures made to the property’s energy infrastructure can make the hotel a more attractive asset, improve the cash flow and net income. There is a growing opinion that properly selected and implemented energy efficient...

A company in the hospitality industry may want to enhance its sustainability profile because it wants to save money, target a green customer base, develop a corporate responsibility program or genuinely become a more environmentally and socially responsible business. No matter the reason, changing behaviors, operations or physical infrastructure most often requires some amount of capital investment. Fortunately, a lot of these investments pay for themselves very quickly. Often called the low-hanging fruit, these include no-brainer improvements in areas such as energy, operations and waste efficiency as mentioned in the first few points below. But a myriad of other methods...

Spring cleaning, at least for the hotel and lodging industry, typically has more to do with evaluating the facility’s current cleaning tools, products, and processes than actually performing special cleaning projects. With this in mind and because more and more properties have transferred to green cleaning products and systems, we are finding that many hotel and housekeeping managers are asking what’s new in green cleaning during the spring cleaning season. Green cleaning is evolving as it continues to grow. Along with the development of chemicals and products that are sustainable as well as green, one new area of interest is...

The transition toward greater sustainability is impacting how hotels are approaching operations. As part of many green initiatives, more and more hotels are now implementing an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) system to gain better control of their energy usage and manage their carbon footprint. I will elaborate more on this later. The definition of hotel sustainability has evolved over time from a simple going green idea to a philosophy that more and more organizations are recognizing as critical to their long-term success. For hotels and resorts the move toward sustainability issues is a win-win scenario. Surveys...

Hotel executives are constantly reviewing cost-benefit analysis throughout their properties: Will the addition of a particular guest amenity pay for itself in an incrementally higher average room rate, or more nights sold? Will the investment in a new property management system deliver solid returns through better revenue management or inventory planning? There are some investments hoteliers need to make, which are not as easy to quantify, but yet are among the most significant decisions made today. What sustainability initiatives should you implement in your hotels? Which ones deliver the greater return? Installing an energy efficient HVAC system? Solar panels? Furnishings...