So you want more business and you think that this Green stuff is a bit of a cook up? Guess again - Hotel guests are very savvy these days and with environmental groups getting more prominent by the day it seem the best thing a hotel can do is tell the guest what your green practices are. They’ll come back.

It’s a bit like the shopping story where the silent shopper never complains when they get bad service they just never come back.

Your guest does notice. Just Last month the author stayed in a hotel interstate where the showers were still operating at full flow, no regulators nothing and in another property on a different trip there was no less than 11 different globes of different colors , types ,energy usage and wattage in the one room.

Global warming looks like being a health hazard. Hotels in particular are required to put their best foot forward, however many stop short of a measurable approach and seem happy to just have a green tinge.

Listed below are some easy things your property may not have tried.

A great way to address your indirect emissions is to address your material suppliers. It could be good policy to ask your suppliers if they have programs in place to “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle products. Using this type of approach can give a hotel significant cost savings.

Restaurants could use the organic produce to also minimize the hotels carbon footprint.

The Purchasing department might find that there are providers who use less packaging on or for their goods.

Guest room, bathroom amenities can be of the biodegradable type to minimize the impact of wastes entering the environment through the rubbish dumps. It’s a simple question and selection process with your suppliers.

More direct actions for hotels are things like having the Guestroom drapes closed to help retain the heat or cool air regardless of the room being occupied or not. Sure it’s up to the guest to do what they want when they occupy the room - rest of the time belongs to the hotel. Advertising has told us the heating and cooling costs lost through the windows is significant.

For those hotels that have variable thermostats in every guestroom, it would be a beneficial in terms of energy used if Housekeeping were to adjust the dial to a predetermined standard setting after they have finished servicing the room. Instead of having one room running on 20 degrees Celsius and the next at 23 degrees Celsius

Imagine the energy wasted everyday when thermostats are all over the place; it’s like a silent killer.

Do you have computers running 24 hours day because they’ve not been turned off in places like sales and marketing, housekeeping, finance, or admin departments?

It’s very noticeable the accommodation industry has not taken onboard advances made in lamps and lighting technology. Just Lookup in any reception area at the widespread use of incandescent lamps. With LED lamps 5 times more efficient than halogen or incandescent globes it pure common sense to change. Environmentally friendly LED is Mercury free unlike the fluorescent globes, guess that’s the reason hotels are hanging off changing over.

Lifetime on LED is significantly longer than any of the others out there meaning less replacement and maintenance costs. LEDs do not emit harmful infrared or ultraviolet radiation.

Think they are not bright enough - think again, check them out.

Till next time

The Kenson Team

Does going “Green” in hotels make you more money?

Well sometimes that can be the case.

Looking at Chemicals used around the hotel and in particular the housekeeping departments can give us some great green and money saving ideas.

Did you know there were 81000 chemicals registered with the EPA in the last 30 years? Reports tell us that fewer than 20% have been tested for toxicity.

Not something we like to hear considering the everyday use of these products.

Going “Green” in the cleaning of hotel guest rooms probably conjures up using well know products like baking soda, white vinegar and salt !

Hardly practical when it comes to cleaning hundreds of rooms everyday.

Health and safety issues in chemicals used for cleaning by hotel staff are pretty well known.

Cost of a sick leave provision for staff is a real issue for management.

Improper use of chemicals and anything that goes down the drain costs money to the hotel and the environment. All well known facts.

So what product has technology bought to us in the last 15 years that is used extensively in hospitals and can resolve all of the issues mentioned earlier?

I won’t give you the answer just yet but I do have some hard facts for you to consider from a 5 star hotel in Sydney that has completed a comprehensive

Trial to prove the true worth of not using chemicals.

They had a 3% higher rating from guest comment cards that room cleanliness was better. This was backed up by a bacterial swab count which came out lower the chemical cleaned surfaces. Infra red light tests for dirt buildup showed negative. And reports, that to the naked eye, glazed and metal surfaces such as sinks and kettles as an example looked to have an enhanced appearance.

“They looked cleaner” Great that’s what keeps the guests happy!!

The trial by the hotel did include costings in terms of products and labour, training and was completed in March 07.

Feedback from the housekeeping staff was very good with comments like

“The method used was less physically strenuous”

“Feel good about less chemical usage and its helping the environment”

“Far less water used”

Chemical costs were reduced by 80% Water usage was down by a million litres.

OK so what are we talking about? Microfiber of course.

Used in hospitals since the 1990s – it’s a water based cleaning solution invented and developed in Sweden in the 1990s.

Just how high tech is Microfiber cloth- well when these guys say the fibre is thinner than human hair, that’s only part of the story.

Actually one square centimeter of Microfiber contains over 30 kilometers of fibre.

But that’s not all round surface threads on a traditional cloth are not really designed to pickup dirt particles. Microfiber secret is the fibres are wedge shaped and that makes the millions of fibres much more effective in trapping the dirt particles.

Hence the reason no chemicals are required.

The cloth is simply washed out with water at the end of the day for re-use the next day.

All in all a genuine Green proven product.

Your Kenson’s Team