For 12 years now, J.D. Power and Associates has conducted its North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study. This year’s study was based on responses gathered between June 2007 and June 2008 from more than 53,000 guests who stayed in a hotel between May 2007 and June 2008. Kudos to those hotel brands that finished first in their respective categories: The Ritz-Carlton, luxury; Embassy Suites Hotels, upscale; Hyatt Place, mid-scale full service; Drury Inn & Suites, mid-scale limited service; Microtel Inns & Suites, economy/budget; and Homewood Suites, extended stay. This year’s study produced some somewhat negative “green” news for the...

Thanks to an invitation to speak at the 2008 Louisiana/Mississippi Bed and Breakfast Annual Conference last week in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to take a bus tour of some of that city’s B&Bs, as well as the areas of the city that were hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. One of the B&Bs I visited, the Ashtons Bed & Breakfast, experienced a lot of damage during the storm. (Picture a side of a home getting hit by a cannonball.) Many other hotels and inns in Louisiana and Mississippi were also hit hard. Their owners all deserve a lot...

July has been a good month for wind. This past week, utility officials in Texas gave preliminary approval to a $4.9 billion plan to build new transmission lines to carry wind-generated power from West Texas to urban areas such as Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. Texas is already the U.S. leader in wind power, generating about 5,000 megawatts. The plan would not directly build new turbines, but would add transmission lines capable of moving about 18,000 megawatts, enough to power more than 4 million Texas homes. On July 8, billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens outlined his plan to help the...

How would you react if you discovered that you were wearing clothing treated with a chemical that is regulated as hazardous waste? And that your guests were, too? How would they react if they knew? Would you tell them to make sure they knew? Do you already do so? When you send garments out to be dry cleaned—either for yourself, your staff or your guests—chances are great that those garments will be treated with a solvent called perchloroethylene, otherwise known as “PERC.” PERC is highly regulated as hazardous waste. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, breathing PERC for short...

Independence Day in the United States is certainly a holiday worth celebrating. I hope my U.S. readers found time to celebrate it with their families and friends—and guests. I will never forget the excitement in our country back in 1976 during the Bicentennial. The celebration went on for months. Gasoline at that time was priced at a little more than a dollar a gallon. Even at that price, a large crowd of people gathered in Boston and threw packages labeled “Gulf Oil” and “Exxon” into Boston Harbor—kind of like the Boston Tea Party all over again, but not as...

Justifying investments in resource-saving products and technologies has gotten easier lately thanks to utility costs that just won’t stop increasing. If you are still on the fence, however, about spending money, you should check out a website run by the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. The site, called DSIRE (Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency), is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility and federal incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. A U.S. map on the DSIRE home page makes it easy to quickly locate incentive programs. The website...

The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation and Smith Travel Research just released the results of their comprehensive 2008 Lodging Survey. The number of questions asked and the number of hoteliers responding was impressive. A total of 45,000 hotels were polled and 23 percent responded (10,350). The survey was last conducted in 2006. This year’s survey included more questions related to green operations. Hoteliers were asked if they participate in or offer the following: liquid soap dispensers, recycling programs, linen/towel reuse programs, energy efficient lighting, water saving programs, nonsmoking rooms, allergy-free rooms, air purifiers, and vegetarian menus. The survey results...

The Hilton Vancouver, Washington likes being a ground breaker. It was the first Hilton hotel to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, one of the first hotels in the entire country to do so, and just announced that it has also obtained Green Seal certification. While LEED certification recognized the hotel’s efforts in areas such as sustainable site development, building materials selection, indoor environmental quality, water savings and energy efficiency, it did not provide a roadmap for improving ongoing operations in areas such as waste management, cleaning and maintenance, and...

The past few weeks were ones the travel industry could do without. One by one, the major airlines announced cutbacks in flight volume and increases in fares—and for good reason. The average price for a gallon of jet fuel climbed to $3.21, up from 33 cents a gallon 10 years ago. The cost of refining a gallon of jet fuel is up sixfold since 2000. Jet fuel costs now make up 30 percent to 50 percent of an airline’s operating costs. Many of the smaller airlines have been forced to shut down (24 in the last six months) and...

Because the dates for the National Restaurant Association’s (NRA) annual Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago fell right on the heels of the HD 2008 Expo & Conference this year, I was unable to attend. However, there was an announcement made at the restaurant show that you should know about—especially if you operate any kind of food and beverage operation. The NRA announced the launch of “Conserve: Solutions for Sustainability,” an initiative designed to support the United States’ nearly one million restaurant and foodservice locations as they become more eco-friendly. “We are launching Conserve to raise awareness and provide resources...