Hotels are facing a green-tinted dilemma. Guests now expect hotels to operate some kind of sustainability program, but they remain motivated more by price and convenience than concern for the environment, according to a 2015 study by Cornell University's Center for Hospitality Research. And "the link between environmentally sustainable programs and improved customer satisfaction is weak compared to standard drivers like facilities, room, and food and beverage quality."
In short, guests want green hotels, but they're not going to pay any extra. Not only that, but if sustainable practices cause them any inconvenience, they'll be upset. The question for hotel operators, then, is how to shift toward sustainable operations while saving money and keeping guests happy. Here are some ideas and sustainability best practices from leaders in the industry. 
Green hotels measure everything.
"Greenwashing" just doesn't cut it. Guests have come to understand that serious sustainability means more than vague claims about energy efficiency or local produce. "The well traveled and highly educated guest that we welcome at our hotels and lodges is no longer fooled by some kind of an 'eco-certification' or a green label," asserts the Cayuga Collection, which manages eight eco-lodges in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Instead, guests ask specific questions about hotel practices.
That's why hotels need to start with hard numbers, by conducting a thorough assessment of waste, energy and water usage. The American Hotel & Lodging Association provides a list of guidelines to help hotels with this process. One suggestion is using the Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool to record energy and water usage and then compare your hotel's usage to hotels of a similar type.
Green hotels become savings Sherlocks.
EnergyStar estimates that reducing electricity consumption by 10 percent in a typical full-service hotel has the same financial benefit as increasing the room rate by $1.35. But sustainable practices may result in cost savings that go beyond the obvious. Eric Dominguez, corporate director of engineering, utilities, and environmental affairs at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, found that reducing water use by 7 percent resulted in annual savings of $135,000 to $218,000 — not in water bills, but in the natural gas used to heat the water.
Green hotels think small.
The public perception of a sustainable hotel involves dramatic improvements guests can easily see, such as native plantings or rooftop solar panels. Among the top 20 eco-conscious resorts in the United States, however, the most widely used sustainability programs involved these small, low-cost changes:
- Low-flow shower heads
- CFL lighting
- Sealing windows and doors
- Energy-efficient appliances
- Faucet aerators
- Low-flow toilets
- Motion-sensing lighting in common areas
Green hotels try creative ways to reduce resource use.
Cayuga touts its unconventional efforts to improve sustainability. These include the use of treated blackwater from the laundry, showers, toilets and kitchens to irrigate the gardens; line-drying laundry; and giving every guest a stainless-steel water bottle to discourage the use of disposable bottles. Here's one more surprising initiative: At Cayuga's luxury eco-lodge Lapa Rios, non-compostable organic wastes are fed to pigs, and the methane produced from their waste is then captured and used for cooking in the employee kitchens. Might some guests wrinkle their noses at this? Sure. But the pig-manure initiative won Lapa Rios quite a bit of positive media attention.
Green hotels weigh the costs and benefits of LEED certification.
Hotels can earn LEED certification by adopting green building practices, usually in new construction. Being LEED-certified looks good — but does it help a hotel's bottom line? A 2014 study by Cornell University's Center for Hospitality Research suggests that it does. A comparison of 93 LEED-certified hotels to 514 comparable competitors "finds that the certified hotels obtained superior financial performance as compared to their non-certified competitors, for at least the first two years after certification." Two years after certification, those 93 hotels had a mean ADR $20 higher than the non-LEED hotels. However, the benefits aren't universal. "New luxury and upscale LEED hotels quickly caught and passed competitors, while lower-class LEED hotels were much slower to catch up," the research found.
What kinds of green initiatives are you pursuing at your hotel? We plan to report on other unique strategies in the coming months. Let us know here.
Green hotels reward guests' participation.
The Cornell study found that guests are more willing to participate in sustainability efforts when they get something in return, such as loyalty program points. Starwood Hotels and Resorts' Make a Green Choice program gives guests 250-500 Starpoints or a $5/5€ voucher for food and beverages for every night they opt out of full housekeeping services. The benefit: saving almost 50 gallons of water and 0.19 kWh of electricity per night.
It doesn't have to be a monetary reward. Meluha-The Fern, a business eco-hotel in Mumbai, added an ECO button to the control panel in guest rooms. When a guest presses the button, the air-conditioning thermostat rises by two degrees — and the hotel issues a certificate of appreciation to the guest. It's simple, effective, and saves the hotel money in the long run.
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