In the midst of the holiday season, it is a good time for the lodging industry to show its heart. In the United States, the industry has had another good year, with the average U.S. room rate surpassing $100 for the first time. I would not be surprised at all if industry pretax profits exceed those of 2006: $26.6 billion. We all have a lot to be thankful for. So tell me, what are you doing to give back to your community this holiday season? I would like to know. Call or e-mail to tell me. I will include...

To my knowledge, just four U.S.-based companies announced new 100 percent nonsmoking policies this year—Choice Hotels International for its Comfort Suites brand, Gaylord Hotels for its three properties, Walt Disney World Resort for its owned and operated hotels, and Shaner Hotels for its 20-plus properties. Choice, Gaylord, Disney and Shaner joined Marriott International, which eliminated smoking in its U.S. and Canada hotels in 2006, Heartland Inns, which eliminated smoking that same year, and Westin Hotels & Resorts, which went smoke free almost two years ago. One of the biggest surprises in our industry this year, I believe, is that...

Three wire stories caught my interest this week and they all had the same theme: compostable cups, plates and utensils. In the first article, a restaurant called the Grille Zone in Boston was featured. It composts all of the items described above. In fact, there are no trashcans in the eating area and the restaurant produces an average of just 15 pounds of waste per day. The restaurant does not even own a dumpster. In the second article, Hilton Garden Inn announced the introduction of the ecotainer, an environmentally friendly coffee cup, in more than 340 locations across North America....

I have been attending trade shows since 1989 and I can honestly say I have never seen anything like Greenbuild. Held in Chicago last week, the event drew more than 20,500 attendees and featured more than 850 exhibitors. There certainly are shows in the hospitality industry that are larger but none has grown as quickly as Greenbuild. The attendance at last year’s event in Denver was 13,500. It was painfully obvious at McCormick Place that the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) was not ready for the huge turnout. It reminded me of the kind of crowd that turns out on...

This week will be one of the most exciting weeks of the year for those interested in green building design and operations. From Wednesday through Friday, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild will take place in Chicago. I will be attending the event for the first time and will be providing coverage in Green Lodging News later in the week. Greenbuild will feature a record 850 exhibitors and 18,000 attendees. What has surprised me most about this event, and it shouldn’t, is the number of hospitality industry vendors that will be exhibiting there. It says a lot about the...

When comparing the elements of a guestroom that have the most to do with a quality sleep experience, the pillow has to rank right up there with the mattress and the room’s ability to block noise. Unfortunately, many hoteliers forget about the pillow’s importance. We all have our own pillow stories from our travels but I can’t tell you how many times I have stayed in properties that offer the steam-rolled variety—as flat as a pancake and way past their end of life. It is ridiculous when you have to stack two pillows on top of one another to...

Crunchy is the only word I can think of to describe the feel of the grass when I was in Tennessee over Labor Day weekend. Crunchy, yellow and brown. I had no idea how bad things had gotten in parts of the southeastern United States until viewing news reports in the past few weeks. The situation is extreme. Lake Lanier, the Atlanta area’s main source of water for 3 million people, could be empty in three to four months if it does not rain a lot soon. In addition to Tennessee and most of Georgia, parts of North and South...

When Hotel Terra opens later this year in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the linens on the beds of the 72-room, six-story eco-boutique property will be made from organic cotton. Even though the sheets and pillow cases will cost about 25 percent more than standard cotton linens, the Terra Resort Group, developer of the new hotel, will gladly pay the premium. Ashley Morgan, corporate director of sustainability for the company, says using organic cotton linens just makes sense. Morgan believes the extra investment will quickly come back to the company, as travelers reward them for their commitment to health and the environment....

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Janine Benyus. For those of you not familiar with Janine, she is the author of “Biomicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.” She is also president of the Biomimicry Institute, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to naturalize biomimicry in our culture by promoting the transfer of ideas, designs and strategies from biology to sustainable human systems design. Simply put, she advocates using nature’s designs—ones that have developed over billions of years—in the design of buildings and products. Picture a sunflower. Moen, the company well-known for products such as kitchen...

There is a pretty good chance you are drinking coffee while reading this column. I am one of those rare individuals who has never had a cup of coffee. Never. That’s probably a good thing with the price of java rising faster than petroleum. Speaking of which, did you know that coffee is the world’s second most valuable traded commodity? It is just behind petroleum. According to San Francisco-based Global Exchange, coffee is the United States’ largest food import. The United States primarily purchases coffee from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, and Vietnam. It also buys coffee from Indonesia, Costa...