HOUSTON—How do you get a laundry facility that covers 27,000 square feet into the basement of a downtown Houston, Texas hotel? It’s easy; you build the hotel on top of the laundry. Most hotel laundries are put in as an afterthought to the construction of the hotel and as such have limited space for equipment. The laundry facility located in the basement of the Hilton Americas-Houston was included in the initial building of the structure and exists as the largest laundry facility in the United States Hilton family of hotels. The massive equipment, including two tunnel washers, was put into...

ATHENS, GA.—Atlanta-based Rialto Property Partners, LLC and Savannah, Ga.-based Melaver, Inc. announced that construction on a new Hotel Indigo has commenced in downtown Athens, Ga. Located five blocks from the University of Georgia’s campus, the boutique hotel will have 130 eco-luxury guestrooms and plans to be open by the fall of 2009. The building is anticipated to be among the first three hotels in the world to achieve LEED Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. Hotel Indigo Athens will offer a complete boutique experience. Features include residential-inspired guestrooms, hardwood floors and spa-like showers, which are all part of...

IRVING, TEXAS—Omni Hotels is hanging up on phone books for good. The luxury hotel brand announced that it will immediately recycle its current stock of approximately 30,000 phone books and eliminate future use of phone books at all of its properties. “Saying goodbye to phone books means Omni Hotels will preserve approximately 217,200 pounds of paper each year,” said Richard Maxfield, senior vice president of operations for Omni Hotels. “Our goal is to preserve more than 18,000 trees over the next decade. We feel good about the impact this initiative will have on the environment.” With this move, Omni estimates it...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—Doris Kearns Goodwin, noted historian and author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, will deliver the keynote address at the 2008 Hospitality Leadership Forum. More than 700 senior level hospitality managers will be in attendance as Goodwin illustrates lessons in leadership relevant to today’s issues and headlines using some of the country’s greatest figures as examples. The full day conference will take place on Saturday, November 8, 2008, preceding the 93rd annual International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show (IH/M&RS), running November 9-11, at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. In a presentation based...

DESERT HOT SPRINGS, CALIF.—In response to a lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, a California court has rejected a proposal to build a controversial luxury resort and golf course because the project’s environmental study failed to analyze the project’s greenhouse gas emissions. The lawsuit had challenged the city of Desert Hot Springs’ approval of the Palmwood resort near Joshua Tree National Park. “The court affirmed what the California legislature made clear: that global warming must be addressed in land-use decisions,” said Jonathan Evans, a staff attorney with the Center. The lawsuit is one of a series...

PARSIPPANY, N.J.—Health-conscious travelers—especially those suffering from allergies and asthma—may breathe easier at Wyndham hotels thanks to the upscale chain’s new Wyndham ClearAir initiative to offer allergy-friendly guest accommodations. While eight Wyndham hotels offer the rooms today, all will be required to convert 10 percent of their room inventory or a minimum of 25 rooms into allergy-friendly environments by the end of 2009. Wyndham Hotels and Resorts is the first national upscale lodging chain to mandate allergy-friendly rooms systemwide. The chain’s move responds to guest concerns over rising consumer health issues and costs associated with allergic reactions. According to the Asthma...

NEW YORK—As a result of its $65 million renovation, the historic New Yorker Hotel, located in the heart of New York City, will decrease its use of energy for heating and air-conditioning by 30 to 40 percent, effectively reducing the hotel’s carbon footprint. Furthermore, the new air-conditioning system will exceed ASHRAE Standard 90.1, an internationally recognized energy conservation standard related to HVAC systems (ASHRAE is the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers). The $65 million renovation, to be completed in September of this year, is carefully designed to recapture the style and character of the New Yorker...

SEATTLE—A University of Washington study of top-selling laundry products and air fresheners found the products emitted dozens of different chemicals. All six products tested gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, but none of those chemicals was listed on the product labels. “I first got interested in this topic because people were telling me that the air fresheners in public restrooms and the scent from laundry products vented outdoors were making them sick,” said Anne Steinemann, a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs. “And I wanted to know, ‘What’s...

BOSTON—When you host the annual conference of a national environmental organization, there is a good chance you will make some changes to your operations—whether to impress or to meet the demands of the group you are hosting. That is what happened at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel earlier this year when it hosted the Ceres annual conference. Ceres is a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. According to David Keamy, director of sales and marketing at the 456-room property, Ceres event...

PORTLAND, ORE.— Placing it among exclusive company on an international scale, Portland’s Avalon Hotel & Spa has achieved the Northwest’s first LEED certification of an existing hotel building. The Avalon, a luxury boutique hotel and spa, joins the ranks of only nine other hotels in the world to have achieved LEED certification and is the second existing hotel building in the world to receive the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) coveted Silver rating. The Avalon is located in Portland, Ore., a location that is consistently ranked as the greenest city in America, with 43 buildings certified to the USGBC’s LEED...