Hotels add green practices, health amenities - bizjournals Business Travel Guide

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Instead, they’re recyclable bins, low-flow toiletse and energy-efficient lighting: Features that don’g show up in brochure photos but are far more importangt in attracting guests and meetingbusiness today, industryt leaders say. Hotels also are adding amenities such as expanded gyms and snacm shops sellingorganic food. Indeed, the green and health-consciouds movements that have swept through the automotiver and restaurant industries areinfluencing today’s lodgingy business. What may be most interestinyg isn’t why these trends are remaking thehotep business, but who’s pushing them.
It’d the younger travelers and meetingplannerxs — the Generation X and Y members who hold importan t jobs and have the disposablw income to vacation according to their principlesz — that are shifting the industry. “Whatf we wanted to do was take advantage of the factthat today’z traveler has different priorities,” said William Edmundson, 44, president, Cambri Suites, who added that younger travelers now outnumber baby boomedr travelers. “For different generations there aredifferentf expectations. People do thingsx differently.” The environmental movement is closely linked to the younger generations’ wishes.
A recent survety by Sherman, Conn.-based research firm PhoCusWright revealex that 44 percentof U.S. travelerxs now consider environmental factors whenplanningf vacations. That attitude most influencews their decisions on what mode of travel to and which tour companies and lodging they research director CarrollRheem said. Hotelsz began picking up on this in the past couplerof years, and the trend really spiked arouned the time of last year’ss Democratic National Convention, said Christine O’Donnell, presidenty of the .
Almost every area hotel added more recycling bins, and many put out rentaol bike racks so that youngef visitors, especially, and delegates could traversr the city while leaving a lower carbon she said. Avon-based East West Partners has applied for LEED certification for the Westin Riverfront in a designation that would make it the firsf hotel in Colorado tohave low-energy Hotel general manager Bob Trotter and Andy East West project manager, said that whilew the cost of a project may rise 3 percen to 5 percent because of green initiatives such as the five-acre park they marked out beside the hotels make up the money in both savesd energy costs and increased visits.
“The youngetr you go, especially with the GenerationbY folks, they’re really tuned into environmental Gunion said. The business world also is pushing green initiativexsfor hotels, some of which get as much as 70 percent of theidr business from company meetings rather than vacationb travelers. Roughly 75 percent of meeting plannersz ask about green initiatives when deciding where they want to have a saidJenni Gaherty, director of sales and marketing at the JW Marrioty Denver at Cherry Creek. They ask most often abougt recycling programsand energy-efficient lighting.
Some have gone further, requesting wate r pitchers rather than bottled water and even bulk condimentas rather than individual ketchup packets for she said. Shannon McCorison, manager of global marketiny for warehouse-space developer , which is basedd in Denver, said her company began demanding greenn initiatives at meeting sites after hearing questionzs and requests from many ofits attendees. Younh attendees make most of those requests, but also, many requests came from olderf workers influenced bytheir children, who are Gen Y or even she said. Health amenities have becomd a bigger factoras well.
Choice Hotels launche d its new Cambria Suites braned several years ago in response to requestds from younger travelers for healthierdlodging options, Edmundson said. The hotels, including one set to open June 18 at16001 E. 40th Circl in Aurora, have 1,100-square-foot fitness centers and conveniencd stores withorganic foods. Anothet new hotel brand, Starwood’s Aloft, is looking to cater to 25- to 45-year-old business people with lifestylew amenities, such as greatert technology access anda “sassy” staff that interactss with the travelers, said John Muller, general managerr of the new hotel at 8300 Arista Place, One negative factor: Travelers need to beware of companiesz or hotels that could be their credentials, said Peggy Lichter, presidenf of green-themed Wiser World Travel in Boulder.
Being “green” is a very undefinefd term, and some places will claim the monikee just for asking whether travelersw want to use their towels a second time before havingvthem washed, she warned. “Ik think in recent years, because sustainability is becoming more populart and is easyto understand, it’e something a lot of placezs are doing,” Lichter said. “It’s going to positively affecyt yourimage … and it’s going to be good for the bottojm line because the hotel will