Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH), one of the world's largest hotel companies, announced today a new relationship with Boys & Girls Clubs of America. To kick off the partnership,Choice Hotels volunteers, including several members of senior leadership, will renovate the Germantown Branch of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington on Monday, May 23rd.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) today announced Element Hotels, its stylish eco-incubator brand, will debut in Detroit in July of 2018, following an adaptive re-use project that will transform the historic Metropolitan Building into an upscale mixed-use development. Element Detroit at the Metropolitan Building will be owned and developed by Metropolitan Hotel Partners, LLC, a joint venture between Detroit-based Means Group and Roxbury Group, and will feature 110 light-filled rooms and an atmosphere designed to fuel a life in balance and on the move.
Inns have always served not only as havens for weary travelers, but also as centers of community life. At the local inn, business was done, information exchanged, meetings and celebrations held. From its inception, the U.S.-based hospitality management company, Benchmark Hospitality International, has honored this tradition, giving back to the communities in the 40 domestic and global destinations it serves.
Recent advancements in battery technology, rising electricity demand rates, and the advent of no/low-risk financing models have made energy storage systems a financially attractive option for hoteliers. However, critical questions remain for hotel managers and owners even after they have decided to invest in energy storage: What is the best way to finance the system and how can it generate the highest ROI?
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company embarked on a three year program centered on reducing energy consumption. The purpose of the program was not only to reduce the portfolio's energy consumption and cost, but also to raise the awareness of the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Ritz-Carlton as to their personal responsibilities pertaining to energy and the environment.
The Ritz-Carlton program was a resounding success by any measure. On a portfolio basis, energy consumption was reduced by over 13% from the baseline year which gave rise to a substantial decrease in energy spend.
The author explores the connections between wellness and sustainability and uses this frame of reference to explain current trends in both soft programming and the physical design of resort hotel properties. Wellness and sustainability have very different definitions, but are often tied together in hospitality industry literature. In a foundational survey on wellness and its definition, conducted by Canyon Ranch, respondents most frequently associated the words hope, joy, and energy with wellness. These are words that are often used to describe travel and vacation experiences, especially vacations taken at resort properties. The full range of body, mind and spirit-enhancing activities constitute various dimensions of wellness. For example, one of the most popular wellness activities noted in a 2011 Values Study of Baby Boomers was simply "laughing with friends".
Seventeen notable New York City hotels have committed to getting greener.
Marquee properties like the Waldorf Astoria New York, Grand Hyatt New York, Loews Regency New York and the Peninsula New York recently joined the NYC Carbon Challenge, a program Michael R. Bloomberg started as mayor in 2007 with the city’s universities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Hospitals, commercial office buildings and multifamily residences were eventually added, and in late December, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the initiative would expand to include hotels.
The Waldorf-Astoria New York, the Lotte New York Palace, the Pierre-A Taj Hotel and the Crowne Plaza Times Square are among the 16 city hotels — all currently thronged with tourists visiting New York for the holidays — whose owners have agreed to cut greenhouse gases from their buildings by 30 percent or more in the next decade.
Atlanta-based Hotel Equities recently held a Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting for the new 106-room Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel in St. Louis/Forest Park, Missouri. Hotel Equities serves as the management company for the hotel with Amanda Michael as General Manager and Carron Bean as Director of Sales. It is the first Home2 Suites by Hilton in Missouri.
The expansion of the Hyatt Regency Austin's Downtown on the Lake's already progressive green initiatives and forward- leaning sustainability practices have led to increased amounts of waste diversion, new conservation measures throughout the hotel and designation of 'Greenleader' status by the popular travel site, TripAdvisor.
Shore Hotel was honored at the 1st annual Best of the Best Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) awards ceremony this month, winning the Los Angeles Best Green Hotel award for 2015. This award coincides with the hotel's fourth anniversary and recent technology enhancement, reinforcing its commitment to the environment, guests, employees, and community.
Shaner Hotel Group, one of the hospitality industry's leading owner-operators of full- and select-service hotels, today announced that it will manage and operate the just-opened Courtyard by Marriott hotel at Shippensburg University's Conference Center in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. The select-service hotel is a for-profit, joint venture partnership between the Shippensburg University Foundation's Raider Capital Ventures and Shaner Hotel Holdings.
Shore Hotel celebrates its fourth anniversary with the installment of AquaRecycle® Laundry Water Recycle System, which will reduce carbon emissions and its laundry water usage by 80%. The new system will allow the hotel to reclaim and reuse its laundry wastewater, conserving precious resources all while offering its guests premium eco-conscious accommodations.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) today announced the debut of its eco-wise Element brand in Bozeman with the opening of Element Bozeman, marking the first Starwood hotel in the state of Montana. Owned by a group of Bozeman investors, the newly constructed Element hotel offers a stylish and sustainable new option for travelers with 104 light-filled rooms and an atmosphere designed to fuel a life in balance while on the road.
In the wake of the settlement for the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a new report from the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) at Cornell University chronicles the communication factors that led to canceled travel plans and poor regard for BP as a corporation. The report, "How the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Damaged the Environment, the Travel Industry, and Corporate Reputations," by Alex Susskind, Mark Bonn, and Benjamin Lawrence, is available at no charge from the CHR. Susskind is an associate professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration (SHA); Bonn is a professor at Florida State University; and Lawrence is an assistant professor at SHA.Focusing on BP's corporate credibility and plans for tourism to northwest Florida, the study examines the communication channels used by 540 respondents in the year following the oil spill. "Needless to say, we found that few travelers planned to go to northwest Florida after the spill, but there was more to the story," said Susskind. "In particular, we found that survey participants who had strong environmental leanings were far less likely to plan a trip to Florida. Those environmentally aware people also had a much lower opinion of BP than those who were not concerned about the environment."Susskind added that the survey respondents as a group had a relatively low regard for BP and its remediation efforts, but there were differences that related to each participant's main information channel. "Respondents who relied on television networks or cable had a somewhat more favorable view of the company than those who used the internet, perhaps due to BP's advertising efforts," Susskind noted. "On the other hand, people who read newspapers or used word of mouth thought much less of BP. Thus, we can see that the media channel does make a difference when companies are seeking to promote their corporate responsibility
Kinseth Hospitality Company (KHC) is pleased to announce the ground breaking of the Home2 Suites by Hilton in Brookfield, Wisconsin. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Home2 Suites Brookfield, located at 650 Larry Court, Wausheka WI, took place on Septemember 3th. With nearly 40 guests in attendance Bruce Kinseth and Les Kinseth, Executives of Kinseth Hospitality Companies; Keith Henderson, the Town Chairman for Brookfield; Nancy Justman, President of Visit Brookfield; Steve Johnson of Red Sky Partners and John Burkemper of Amcon Design & Construction broke ground on the new hotel.
Delaware North, one of the largest hospitality management companies serving national and state parks, recently announced a lineup of environmentally-friendly initiatives it is implementing across its parks and resorts properties this summer.
Executive Summary: This tool accompanies the CHR Report, "Hotel Sustainability Tool 2015: Energy, Water, and Carbon." As explained in the accompanying report, the tool consists of two outputs: full data tables, and a searchable index. Twelve full data tables are provided, each on a separate tab containing the benchmarks for a single measure. Each data table contains the list of geographies and the benchmarks per segment. The data tables can be used for research and calculation purposes for multiple properties and regions. Using the tool, a hotel could view the statistical range of the location and segment's data for the metrics of carbon footprint per room, per occupied room, and per area unit (either square foot or square meter); hotel energy use per occupied room or per area unit; and water use per occupied room or per area unit. A benchmark for HCMI carbon footprint for rooms and meeting space is also included. The benchmarks are for calendar year 2013, the most recent year with complete available data.
The hotel industry will be able to compare ranges of energy and water use, as well as carbon footprint, using a new tool from the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR). Developed by researchers Howard Chong and Eric Ricaurte, the "Hotel Sustainability Tool 2015" is available from the CHR at no charge. Chong is an assistant professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, and Ricaurte is the founder of Greenview and an adjunct instructor at New York University's Tisch Center.
The Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®) being held June 15-18, 2015, produced by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals(HFTP®), is organizing several avenues for exhibitors and attendees to donate monetary funds to the United Way for Greater Austin. These efforts will be the basis of HITEC Helps, HFTP/HITEC's way of giving back to the community. All donations to the United Way for Greater Austin will go towards helping those victims affected by the Memorial Day flooding devastation in and around Austin, Texas, USA, the host city of HITEC 2015.