Hotels and the Environment

At home and on the road, my husband and I are dedicated recyclers. We buy products made fom recycled materials whenever we can. We are water-conscious and don't let the water run unnecessarily while brushing teeth or doing kitchen chores. We always do laundry on the lowest practical water level and temperature. We installed an on-demand water heater, and as often as not, we run the dishwasher on "power save" mode. We have switched to the new energy-saving lightbulbs and even then, turn off lights in rooms that no one is in. We have setback thermostats, set to no higher than 66 degrees, and we don't have air conditioning. We have decided to voluntarily pay about 10 percent extra on our monthly electric bill as an "energy offset" to purchase our electricity from windpower, and we are looking at solar panels -- if we can find some that would be workable in the historic district where we live. In short, we try to do do our modest bit for the environment.

When I travel, I always take the "green" option of reusing towels instead of tossing them on the floor to be washed and asking that the sheets not be changed daily. After all, we don't wash sheets and towels at home every day, but I am really not confident that most hotels' housekepers heed that request.

But something else just struck me: waste of electricity. I am currently in an "executive suite" in the Hotel Park City in Utah. This room category has a living area/kitchenette a couple of steps down from the sleeping area. As usual, I turned off all the lights when I left for dinner last night, and when I returned, turn-down service included turn-on service. The housekeeper had turned on at least nine lights: one in the entranceway, two above the fireplace, one on either side of the sofa, one on either side of the bed, two above the kitchenette unit and one in the bathroom. Every bulb is an energy-sapping standard incandescent. At least the TV and radio were not switched on. A huge outdoor Christmas tree outside my window burned all night, as did several in the lobby area. The Hotel Park City is far from unique.

Further, there is a wall fixture next to the door to each room. Each set of room doors is paired so that an odd- and an even-numbered room are just inches from each other, and a totally unnecessary ceiling fixture hangs at each pair of doors. Two doors, three fixtures within a few feet of each other is approximately 50 percent more hallway lighting than is necessary. In fairness, the Tiffany-style lamps on tables here and there in the common areas that are on 24/7 were energy-savers -- but still, it saves more energy not to have so many lights burning so much of the time.

Perhaps I was particularly struck by this waste because I was so recently in Europe, where the hallways of many hotels and apartment buildings are wired with on-demand, timed light switches. Get off the elevator or leave your room to click on hallway lights, which turn off automatically after a few minutes, when you presumably don't need them anymore. At Austria's St. Antoner Hof, motion sensors in the hall turn the lights on when you get off the elevator or leave your room and of course, turn off automatically, after a few minutes. That's probably against some US safety regulation, but it makes sense to reconsider such energy saving options. So if anyone in the hotel industry is paying attention, please give some thought.