I spoke with Kristen Pryor this past week. Kristen is the general manager of the LEED Silver Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa Avon, Vail Valley in Colorado. She has been General Manager of the 240-room property for almost five years and has overseen many of the property’s green initiatives. Several of the hotel’s programs caught my attention—some because of their uniqueness and others because they address issues that many of you are currently facing. First, the resort is in the process of phasing out all single-use plastic bottles. This will be done by May 1. No longer will plastic water...

I am excited to report that Green Lodging News has added a “Wellness” section to its website. Click here to access it. The section currently includes articles posted within the past year. To access articles farther back in time, search on “wellness” in the “search” box on the Green Lodging News website. Wellness is something just about everyone in our industry is talking about. I wrote about the topic in a previous column. Of course this past week was huge in the news with the continuing spread of the coronavirus around the world. Watch for an article in the coming...

When Lauren Wolfe traveled to Key West, Fla. with her family in early 2016, she paid $400 per night on Hotels.com for a hotel room. At check-in she was told she would have to pay an additional $20 resort fee per night or not be able to get her room key. This did not sit well at all with Wolfe, an attorney who has worked in Washington, D.C. politics. When she got home, she created the “Kill Resort Fees” website to educate the traveling public about resort fees. “It’s time to kill the resort fee, the most deceptive and unfair...

Whether you realize it or not, you are deeply involved in the wellness movement. If you do not provide an environment in your guestrooms that is conducive to sleep, your wellness score? Zero. How do your guestrooms stack up when it comes to Circadian Health? Yes, there is such a thing and it was the number one 2020 Global Wellness Trend, according to the Global Wellness Institute. Believe it or not, New York City’s Equinox Hotel has sleep coaches who analyze a guest’s circadian rhythm state. (I would love to see the resumé of a sleep coach. “GREAT at napping.”...

Do a search on “trafficking” on the Green Lodging News website and you will find almost 130 articles that mention it. In recent months, human trafficking has been getting a lot more attention. That is mostly a good thing because the media attention primarily has been focused on efforts by hotel companies and associations to prevent, recognize and stop this madness that affects 40 million people around the globe. Just prior to Super Bowl, for example, the hotel industry convened the National Football League, national and local Florida organizations and human trafficking prevention groups to kick off a month-long series...

Some of the most read articles on the Green Lodging News website are the guest columns. These are not paid articles but contributions from consultants, suppliers, students and others who choose to volunteer their time to help educate and share their opinions. Our website currently has about 340 guest columns archived. They are posted approximately every two weeks. Green Lodging News is currently seeking contributions for 2020. If you would like to help educate our industry or express an opinion about a topic relevant to green hotel operations or design, give me a call at (813) 510-3868 or e-mail greenlodgingnews@gmail.com....

As ingrained as sustainability has become in our industry’s leading hotel companies, few individual brands have emerged as truly green brands. 1 Hotels comes to mind, of course, but there are few others. As reported on Green Lodging News last month, Lucky Shepherd recently launched its Shepherd Eco sustainable hospitality brand. The first hotel will open in 2022 in Miami. I spoke with Christine Menedis, Lucky Shepherd Co-Founder and CEO last week about her company’s new brand. Menedis told me the Miami property is one of several Shepherd Eco properties in development. The others will be in other cities. Ground will be...

The National Restaurant Association just released the results of its annual What’s Hot Culinary Forecast. The What’s Hot survey was conducted in November-December 2019. More than 600 American Culinary Federation chefs rated 133 individual trends in 12 categories, identified in partnership with Technomic, Inc. What is clear from the survey is that sustainability, health and wellness are top of mind among chefs. The top 10 overall trends include: eco-friendly packaging, plant-based proteins, delivery-friendly menu items, healthy bowls, scratch made, creativity with catering, revamped classic cocktails, stress relievers, specialty burger blends, and unique beef and pork cuts. According to NRA, eco-friendly packaging...

One of the most read articles on Green Lodging News, with almost 10,000 views, is “How to Better Accommodate Travelers with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS).” It is proof of the great interest in the topic. When I wrote that article in 2014, it was estimated that MCS affects about 12 percent of the U.S. population, but more than 30 percent of the population is fragrance sensitive. As much interest as there is in MCS, not enough has been done in our industry to accommodate travelers with MCS. If you google “chemical free hotels,” you will not find much. I spoke...

As a supplement to your green cleaning arsenal, I strongly recommend the use of steam cleaners for cleaning and disinfecting. I spoke with executives at two steam cleaner companies recently and they filled me in on the many applications and benefits of steam cleaning. Watch for my article on Green Lodging News in the next few days. Steam cleaning is a rare event in hotels these days. One of the executives I spoke with estimates that only about 2 percent of hotels use steam cleaners. It is a missed opportunity to clean very effectively with very little water and no...