Tag Archives: Hotel

How You Could Be An Environmentally Friendly Hotel Guest

The running of a large hotel, with its huge amount of hotel supplies and energy use, can have a fairly large negative impact on the environment. So much so that there are now many green hotels that use renewable energy resources when possible and other resources in more environmentally friendly ways.

These hotels are becoming more and more widespread, but there is still a long way to go before every hotel adopts this greener outlook. So what if there are no green hotels where you are staying? How can you do your bit to help the environment while away from home?

Well, even in a regular hotel, there are still ways in which you can help the environment, by using hotel supplies like hotel linen more conscientiously:

1) Whenever you are out of your room, make sure everything is fully turned off. This includes lights, TV, radio, heating and air conditioning. There are many people who abuse this, simply because they are not footing the electrical bill.

2) Bring a plug in night light from home and use this instead of leaving the room light on all night.

3) If the hotel is promoting any kind of recycling effort, make sure you join in.

4) If the hotel offers complimentary newspapers, either try and pass them along to someone else once you are finished with them, or try and recycle them some other way. You can either ask the management if they recycle papers or even bring them home with you and recycle them with your own papers.

5) Keep the wrapper intact and bring home the hotel soap; otherwise it will only go to waste once you leave.

6) Conserve water in the same way you would at home. Try and take short showers and don’t leave the water running while cleaning your teeth.

7) Most hotel lobbies offer a wide selection of tourist brochures. If you don’t need them, don’t take them. You can even return ones you have used to the rack instead of dropping them in a bin somewhere. This is a waste of paper.

8) Don’t pour water or take food that you don’t intend to drink or eat. Some hotels offer free self-service breakfast buffets in which you can pile your plate as high as you like. Some people do this just because they can, and end up leaving half the food they put on their plate. If you aren’t all that hungry, leave the food for someone who is.

9) Bring your own reusable mug rather than using several disposable plastic ones.

You can even ask the hotel not to change your sheets and towels every day. It isn’t particularly necessary to do this, hotels just do it as part of their service, as a courtesy. While some may be hesitant to break from policy, others should understand your requirements.

As you can see, a lot of these use common sense. Others simply involve reusing hotel supplies as you would your own at home. They may seem like small things but they can make a difference if enough people make an effort.

Technology Driving the Hotel Industry

Technology has been at the forefront of practically every industry, helping improve businesses and making processes more efficient. The hotel industry is no exception to this, as it has been quite adaptive of new technology in order to bring the business to greater heights.

One of the biggest factors that have to do with the technological evolution of hotel services is, without a doubt, the Internet. With the widespread use of the Internet as a convenient tool for people to gain easy access to products and services, it is no wonder that even the robust hotel industry has used the World Wide Web to improve the business.

An interesting example is how a lot of online booking sites have sprouted all over the Web over the past few years. This makes every aspect of booking hotels easier for netizens-and even those who may not spend that much time online but still look for a more convenient way to book a room.

The advantages of the Internet are tremendous, which is why online booking sites have been quite prolific. See, booking is not only accomplished with just a few clicks, potential guests can also compare and contrast one offer for another much easier. That is because all the data is readily available-info on room rates, special promos, locations, services can be obtained right away with an Internet connection.

Hotels and their marketing arms have also turned extensively to social networking-particularly with the tremendous popularity and usefulness of Facebook. This allows hotels to reach out to previous clients as well as potential guests by bringing the information straight to their computers or mobile devices. Many hotels have capitalized on this marketing thrust, and pretty soon almost all hotels will likely follow suit.

There are many more platforms available for hotel marketing on the internet. Search engine marketing is one, of course. There are also blogs, message boards, and video platforms. The potential is limitless.

Internally, hotels also make use of a lot of different technologies. There are different kinds of software that help analyze various aspects of the business. There are implements that help consolidate business processes to make work flow smoother.

Technology really is changing services by the nanosecond. Take a particular hotel in Las Vegas, which has been confirmed to be giving some of their VIP guests access to the hotel’s different services through-wait for it-an iPod Touch.

That is quite an amazing touch, no pun intended. The hotel effectively places all of its services at the fingertips of the guest; no need for waiting or making phone calls. As a notable addition, the iPod can be purchased by the guest as an option. That gives the hotel more financial gain, as well as the iPod manufacturer.

It is indeed true that technology transforms industries, just like we have seen it transform the hotel industry. With establishments extending their reach to more people from all over the world, technology is an essential tool to accomplish different goals. And, as technology continues to evolve, expect the hotel industry to be bigger and better than ever.