Advantages of Sustainability in the Hotel Industry
Over the last few decades, the hotel industry has shifted its attention to the advantages of sustainability in the hotel industry, both in terms of hotel service and growth, which involves social and economic consequences. Hotel sustainability is one of the most pressing challenges confronting the hotel industry.Cutting Costs and Mitigation Strategies
One of the things hotels did to stay competitive was to cut costs. The cost was still the most important consideration, and lowering running costs was a convincing initiative for hoteliers. Investing in advanced operating practices as well as various sustainability technology resulted in cost savings and mitigation strategies. Many hotels employed different strategies with the aim of reducing, reusing as well as recycling waste. They also ensured sustainable procurement, staff training programs as well as the indoor environmental quality (Legrand, Sloan, & Chen, 2016).Enhancing Guest Experience and Corporate Brand Image
Additionally, the hotels highly considered the guest experience. They understood that environmental technology investments would have positive impacts on the visitor's experience. The hotels were, therefore, keen on their furnishing, lighting, cleaners as well as other front-of-house products which were well combined to leave an impression with the customers which affected both occupancy and ADR. Moreover, the hotels maintained an effective corporate brand image. This provided a distinct advantage concerning customer attraction and retaining the talents. The employees were also eager to work with hotels that which they felt they can make a difference (Jones et al., 2016).Economic Incentives for Sustainability
The hotels also made good use of the economic incentives which mainly came from the government to ensure sustainability. The governments enacted different economic incentives with aims of encouraging the development of environmental retrofits as well as the development of sustainable hotels. The advantages included financial grants, tax write-offs, and discounts on insurance premiums.The Changing Hospitality Industry and Sustainable Practices
Currently, the hospitality industry has been through significant changes as sustainability initiatives have taken prominent roles in today's world. The hotel operators are increasingly held accountable to the current worldwide global citizenship standards. They have to understand the benefits of sustainability on the long and short-term basis. Most of the hotels are now going green and are practicing sustainable ways of operating their premises. Most of them were initially hesitant concerning the transition to more eco-friendly practices. Increased capital costs acted as discouraging factors, and despite the long-term return on investment, some hotel managers felt that becoming sustainable was not feasible. However, most of the hotels are now practicing sustainability and are now realizing the benefits of such practices in both the short and long-term.Providing Eco-Friendly Options for Guests
To ensure sustainability, the hoteliers are now offering their guests new and improved opportunities that contribute to a clean and healthful environment. They are providing excellent avenues for their visitors to decrease the environmental footprint. On arrival, the visitor may opt to have linen and towels replaced on a daily basis and can also opt to have day by day maintenance services. Additionally, the participant guests are given a $5 gift card to each of the hotel's restaurant (dos Santos, Méxas, & Meiriño, 2017).Public Support and Visible Commitments
The public is also becoming aware of the sustainable practices, and people are supporting the initiatives. For instance, to ensure that the environment is conducive, most of the hotels are placing recycling bins at every public entrance which are rarely misused by the guests. For instance, The Westin Verasa Napa embraces the concepts of sustainability as something akin to their moral obligation as they have realized that the practices positively affect the long-term profits. This means that hotels are following ecologically sound practices and the guests appreciate visible commitments to the sustainable practices.Eco-Friendly Heating and Energy Systems
Additionally, the hotels are maintaining eco-friendly heating and energy systems to remain sustainable and green. When it comes to The Westin Verasa Napahe, heating energy expenditure normally makes a huge contribution to the carbon footprint of a hotel from refrigeration, to air conditioning, maintaining a steady, relaxed temperature can prove to be difficult to the hotels. One way of the energy expenditure for the sustainable hotel is to make use of a building energy management structure which is a monitoring technology providing an outline of the consumed energy throughout the hotel. This reduces the hotel's energy consumption by up to 10 percent and also leads to significant cost savings (Chong & Ricaurte, 2015).Waste Reduction Technologies
Another way used by hotels to ensure sustainability is making use of waste reduction technologies. According to information from WRAP, most of the hotels dispose of 600,000 tons of compostable food waste every year as well as other recyclable waste products like packaging and paper. This is mainly because of poor stock management where surplus items are purchased. The waste disposal fee and the cost of purchasing products that are not needed imply that technology that can assist in reducing this figure will assist the hotels to remain sustainable. There are different ways that hotels can use technology to reduce the quantity of waste produced. For instance, most of the hotels are currently using Leanpath technology to track and monitor the items being thrown away which helps in making staff more aware of the areas producing the most waste which will help in better and informed decision making (Jones et al., 2016).Reducing the waste to the lowest amount, pulping and composting whenever possible cuts down its volume which allows the hotel to attain sustainability (dos Santos, Méxas, & Meiriño, 2017).Sustainable Laundry Technologies
Another way of ensuring sustainability is maintaining sustainable laundry within the hotel. The major pleasure of a hotel live for most of the visitors is the luxury of freshly clean linen. However, the energy used to clean the sheets is a major contributor to a hotel's carbon footprint. Most of the hotels are currently using environmentally friendly laundry technologies like the Bead cleaning technology which helps the hotel to reduce water usage as well as energy consumption. The technology also cuts down the regularity with which the sheets and towels need to be replaced (Chong & Ricaurte, 2015).Future Technologies for Sustainability
Some of the technologies that hotels can use in future to ensure sustainability include investing in more efficient HAVC systems. This is because it is never advisable to tell guests to avoid keeping their rooms as cool as they would like with aims of conserving energy as well as different costs. Most of the hotels spend more than 50 percent of their operational budgets on heat and air conditioning (Legrand, Sloan, & Chen, 2016).Investing in highly efficient HVAC systems will cut such costs as the systems will be using less energy as well as kilowatts to heat and cool the rooms. This will lead to an increase in profit margins.Another way is to switch from incandescent to LED lighting systems. The LED lighting system is ten times more efficient compared to the incandescent systems. This will save a lot of money when it comes to electric bills as well as the cost of replacing burnt out light bulbs.It is, therefore, evident that maintaining a successful hotel is an ongoing challenge which calls for combined forces from the management and staff. Different technologies must be put in place to ensure sustainability of the hotel industry to increase the sales while reducing the expenses.References
Chong, H., & Ricaurte, E. E. (2015). Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Tool 2015: Energy, Water, and Carbon.
dos Santos, R. A., Méxas, M. P., & Meiriño, M. J. (2017). Sustainability and hotel business: criteria for holistic, integrated and participative development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142, 217-224.
Jones, P., Jones, P., Hillier, D., Hillier, D., Comfort, D., & Comfort, D. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Some personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), 36-67.
Legrand, W., Sloan, P., & Chen, J. S. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Principles of sustainable operations. Routledge.
