The document provides several ideas for how hotels can be more eco-friendly and benefit their guests and business. Some suggestions include serving water in jugs instead of bottled water to reduce plastic waste and chemicals; using colored towels and linens which require less harsh chemicals to clean; allowing guests to choose whether towels are washed daily to save water; and offering healthy low-sugar snacks and organic food options in restaurants. These changes can help hotels save on costs, improve guest satisfaction, and differentiate themselves as environmentally-friendly.

1. How your hotel can be more eco-friendly
(AND save money and attract more guests in the process)
Some ideas
All of these do one or more of these: are good for the guest's health, save money for the hotel, improve
guest loyalty, or give the hotel a USP.
Action Benefit Example / More info
Stop giving bottled water to
guests.
Why?
Chemicals in the plastic, like BPA,
are known to cause cancer.
Bottled water is harmful to the
environment, because of the
energy used in making them and
the difficulty in disposing of them.
A lot of cities worldwide are
banning its use.
Action
Serve water in jugs in rooms,
restaurants, banquets. Put a sign
in rooms that explains the benefit
to the environment and benefit to
the guest – harmful chemicals in
the plastic that leach into the
water, etc. Explain that all the
drinking water in the hotel comes
from an RO plant, which is also
where bottled water comes from.
Benefits to guest
1. Does not drink water with
harmful chemicals leaching into it
from the plastic.
2. Gets a feeling of satisfaction
that he/she is being eco-friendly.
Benefits to hotel
1. Reduction in cost of bottled
water.
2. Less waste to be disposed of
3. Branding as eco-friendly hotel
4. Differentiation from competitors
http://www.bizenergy.ca/blog/plasti
c-water-bottles-and-the-
environment-how-bad-is-bad/
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2
013/01/07/us-town-concord-bans-
bottled-water/
Use coloured towels, bedsheets,
etc. instead of white.
Why?
Residual bleach and detergent on
the linen enters the body through
the skin, and can be carcinogenic.
Keeping linen bright white involves
a lot of damage to the
environment:
1. Use of far more and stronger
detergents than for coloured
clothes.
2. Use of bleaching compounds
that get into ground water and
other water bodies.
3. Bleach and more detergent
means more water used for
washing than for coloured clothes.
4. White requires more intensive
washing, in hotter water, resulting
Benefits to guest
1. Less residual detergent and
bleach in linen getting into body
through skin.
2. Gets a feeling of satisfaction
that he/she is being eco-friendly.
Benefits to hotel
1. Reduction in cost of detergent,
bleach, heating power, water. If
washing is outsourced, renegotiate
the rates.
2. Since less detergent and bleach
are used, and water need not be
as hot, hence lower energy cost,
the life of the linen increases and it
need not be replaced so often.
Cost of replacement reduces.

2. Action Benefit Example / More info
in more energy consumption.
Action
1. Switch to non-white linen
(towels, bed sheets, foot towels).
2. Switch to smaller and thinner
towels – water consumption is
reduced.
3. If the laundry is outsourced,
specify that they must use less
detergent, and the detergent must
be environment-friendly and not
harmful to humans.
4. Test the linen for residual
chemicals periodically.
Put a sign in rooms that explains
the benefit to the environment
(E.g., “X tons of detergent
reduced, Y tons of bleach, Z liters
of water reduced, P units of power
saved for heating the water” in our
hotel) and benefit to the guest –
residual bleach and detergent
reduced by Q %.
http://www.smartklean.com/html/th
e_truth.html
Don't change and wash towels
and bed linen every day – allow
the guest to decide.
Action
Keep a basket in the toilet for
towels that need to be washed,
with an appropriate sign above it. If
the guest puts the towel in the
basket it is to be washed, else it
remains on the rack.
Benefits to guest
Same as in using coloured linen.
Benefits to hotel
Same as in using coloured linen.
Switch to organic raw material
in the restaurants.
Action
Organically grown vegetables,
pulses, rice, wheat, bread, milk,
spices and meat are all available
in most parts of the country.
Source these instead of the
regular pesticide-laden raw
material.
Benefits to guest
Same as in using coloured linen.
Benefits to hotel
No economic benefits. Organic
raw material costs upto 25 % more
than the regular.
Can however help in guest loyalty.
A lot of people are becoming very
health conscious, switching to
organic food, and would definitely
prefer to stay in a hotel that uses
organic raw material.
Switch to low-fat, low sugar
snacks without preservatives in
mini-bar
Action
Source snacks from local bakeries
and snack makers, that have less
processing and preservatives.
Benefits to guest
Healthier snacks. A lot of people
are becoming very health
conscious.
Benefits to hotel
No economic benefits, sourcing is
more difficult.
Can however help in guest loyalty.

3. Action Benefit Example / More info
A lot of people are switching to
healthier options in snacks instead
of salt, sugar and preservatives-
laden food, and would definitely
prefer to stay in a hotel that has
this option.
Bicycles for guests
Action
People who stay in you hotel
probably are doing so because
they have work nearby, within a
couple of km. You could have 10
bicycles for the use of your guests,
free of cost, so they can cycle up
and down to work or to a neaby
shopping or food place. In
business hotels, particularly,
people may stay or days or even
weeks together and cycling to
work would be a nice change from
taking an automobile.
Offer a 5 % discount to guests who
use the bicycle facility, likek the
Vienna hotel in the Example/More
info column. Even if a guest
doesn't use the facility, he/she is
going to remember the hotel for it.
Benefits to hotel
No economic benefits.
Can help in guest loyalty.
http://www.hotelstadthalle.at/bicycl
e-hotel-vienna
http://infinitelegroom.com/2013/10/
20/hotel-bicycles/
What some hotels are doing

5. Author of document
Name : Dasarathi GV
Email : dasarathigv@gmail.com

6. Author of document
Name : Dasarathi GV
Email : dasarathigv@gmail.com