Sabrina Siino's Sustainable Travel Blog

As a hotelier and a traveler I have had the opportunity to experience several hotel green programs. A green program can encompass everything from purchasing to energy efficiency initiatives, but what I want to talk about today is the specific concept of giving guests the opportunity to opt in to limited housekeeping services in exchange for some type of discount or incentive. My first experience with this type of program was about 15 years ago, when visiting the Holua Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii. When I made my reservation online I was offered the choice of two rate plans, one with housekeeping included and the other with “limited housekeeping” which essentially meant more supplies would be furnished upon request. At the time hotel green programs hadn’t really taken off yet, so the concept was novel. It was a good fit for this type of timeshare property that offered multi room condos that would be time consuming (and in my opinion unnecessary) for a housekeeper to clean daily. Now, it is increasingly common to see hotels offering a green option.

A few years back when I was working for a hotel in Lake Tahoe I had the opportunity to create the hotels green program. We called it “Go Green for Big Blue” (Big Blue referring to Lake Tahoe). Multi-night guests were given the opportunity to opt in to receive a $5 dining credit for each day of stayover housekeeping service they waived. This provided a secondary benefit to the hotel of getting guests to patronize an onsite restaurant to spend their credits. It was very well received by guests, and a huge benefit to the hotel that was able to decrease laundry, supplies and labor expenses. There is a common misconception among some guests that these types of programs are bad for housekeepers because their work is cut. In my experience this is the furthest thing from the truth. In every hotel I have worked in for the past 10 years finding enough housekeepers to keep up with daily demand is almost impossible. So, having guests opt in to limited housekeeping is a win for the hotel, the employees, the guests and the environment.

There are a number of ways to implement a green program, but the most successful hotels promote their program in multiple ways so it is nearly impossible for a guest to not be aware of it. Offering an upfront discount rate plan when the guest is booking like the Holua Resort did is one way, having front desk agents actively promoting the program is another way. Placing collateral like stickers or door hangers in the guest room is a third way. One of the most impressive implementations of the hotel green program I have experienced is when I stayed at Harrah’s Las Vegas. After I booked I was sent an email offering me the opportunity to opt in to their green program and received a $10 credit that would be applied to any food and beverage purchase I made in the hotel. When I checked in the agent confirmed that I had opted in and that the credit would be placed on my account, and all I had to do was room charge a food and beverage purchase for the credit to be applied to.

As a traveler the hotels with green programs stand out to me, and as a hotelier it just makes good business sense to give guests an incentive to help you cut costs and decrease their environmental impact. As I mentioned hotels that offer a green program stand out, and this is a unique marketing opportunity. I’d love to hear what you thin about this topic. Does your hotel offer a green program, or do you have a favorite hotel green program?

I spent last weekend visiting Yosemite National Park with my husband and his family. Whenever we go on any kind of car trip I round up and fill our collection of reusable water bottles to take with us. Bringing our water in bottles and refiling them when we have the opportunity is second nature to us. My husband’s family regards this practice as somewhat peculiar, having themselves prepared by bringing along a case of disposable plastic water bottles. They continually politely offer us a bottle of water only to remember the last time we told them we don’t do plastic bottles. This inevitably leads to some discussion where we tell them how much time we spend picking up garbage at the beaches and this helps fuel our desire to eliminate plastic waste or some such story.

On this occasion I asked the if they had heard about the trash island, referring to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. According to National Geographic, “Scientists have collected up to 750,000 bits of microplastic in a single square kilometer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—that’s about 1.9 million bits per square mile. Most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups.” So far despite my feeble attempts to impart some justifications for ditching the plastic bottles they haven’t changed their habits. I’d like to think that my husband and I are at least providing some food for thought though, and I was happy to see that my husband and his mom came out of the gift shop with matching Yosemite Nalgene bottles, so I’m hopeful.

It makes me very happy to see businesses getting on board with eliminating single use plastics from their product offerings and I am personally more likely to patronize a business that is environmentally friendly. Whether its restaurants replacing Styrofoam or plastic to-go cutlery, grocery stores eliminating plastic bags or restaurants replacing single use plastic water bottles I think we are slowly shifting away from harmful plastics. I may have mentioned before, for hotels one of my favorite new amenity opportunities is a water bottle filling station. This sends a clear message on your business’s values to your guests, provides a complimentary amenity and an opportunity to sell guests a branded reusable bottle.

What are you doing in your life, or your business to eliminate plastic waste? I would love to hear from you.

Honestly, neither is spelling cool with a K, but I digress. In case you’re not familiar, a K Cup is a single use coffee pod typically associated with the Keurig brand coffee machine. Keurig home use coffee makers hit the scene in 2004 and took off like wildfire. According to a survey by the National Coffee Association, in 2018 some 41% of respondents indicated that they have a single-cup brewing system in their home up from 7% in 2011. The convenience of the single use pod certainly has its appeal, making exactly the amount of coffee needed for one cup, without any measuring grinding or or clean up required. The environmental impact however is alarming.

Supposedly, the current number of K Cups in landfills could wrap around the earth 10 times. Keurig has responded to customer concerns by vowing to make all K Cups recyclable by 2020 however many recyclers still don’t accept K Cups. There are some alternatives to the traditional plastic K Cups, these include the refillable K Cup and the compostable K Cup.  I’m going to made confession here that in my household we have a Keurig. We use both of these alternatives, but honestly, I’m not sure what the point of the refillable pod is. If I’m going to buy regular coffee and go to the trouble of filling a pod for a single cup, I may as well use a regular coffee maker and make a full pot. So, it’s the compostable K Cup for us. Pictured below is an O Organics (Safeway store brand) compostable option. This particular product costs about $9.00 for ten pods, so $.90 per cup which is comparatively pretty expensive to buying a pound of regular ground coffee.

So, bringing this K Cup topic around to travel and hotels, which is the focus of this blog, I’m noticing more and more hotels are using Keurig or generic brand single use pod coffee makers in their rooms. As a hotelier, I can certainly see the appeal, it’s easy to stock pods and the coffee machines require virtually no cleaning between guest but imagine the number of K Cups generated by a single hotel over a year. Now, a conscientious hotel might buy a recyclable or compostable K Cup, but knowing where hotels like to cut costs I don’t see this being the case. I can only imagine the move to the pod machine is motivated by a desire to provide guests with an appealing amenity. But the truth is there is a better, cheaper option for hotels. Coffee filter packs are widely available, clean, environmentally friendly, single or two cup use, and a fraction of the cost.

Next time your traveling maybe you will pay attention to what kind of coffee maker is in your hotel room. If you’re a hotelier I suggest you do your research before making a purchasing decision with lasting environmental and financial consequences.

What did you think of this blog? Leave your comments about K Cups below.

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I’ve had Lime on my mind this week, and I’m not talking about the fruit but rather the little electric scooters that I’m seeing all over my town this summer. And let me preface this blog by saying that I’m writing about Lime specifically for no other reason than because this is the company with which I am most familiar and also my husband is enamored with their little electric scooters. From what I’ve heard there are similar offerings from other companies in other locations, but Lime is what’s familiar to me. If you’re not familiar with the concept, electric scooters are placed all over a town in popular public areas and anyone (meeting some basic requirements) can unlock a scooter using an app, ride it to their destination and leave it there for the next person who comes along to do the same.

The scooters seem to be exceedingly popular where I live in South Lake Tahoe, where it is not uncommon to see up to 50 people at a time riding along the main boulevard through town at any given time. The scooters provide a fun way to navigate the city for locals and tourists alike. As a part time Lyft driver people often initiate conversations with me about the scooters and will often tell me they rode one to or were planning to ride one back from their destination. While this might make me weary of a business that is in competition to a service I’m offering, I actually think it’s a really great environmentally friendly option for people to get around.

So, I was curious if there was any data on the environmental impact of this form of transportation. According to research by Lime, one out of every three trips on a Lime has been in lieu of a trip by car. They estimate that some 6,220 metric tons of carbon emissions have been prevented due to the 15 million miles of estimated car miles saved. This is a pretty amazing environmental contribution. It is also not the only way Lime is contributing to sustainability in my town. The Lime Hero program prompts users to make a voluntary donation to a leading local environmental organization, and a post ride survey allows the company to partner with our city government in collecting customer demographic information.

For a hotelier, another exciting opportunity that has been made available by this company is the Lime Hub. It allows businesses the opportunity to host Lime scooters at their location. This drives foot traffic to the location, and for a hotel is a great opportunity to provide an amenity to guests with no upfront investment required, and no ongoing maintenance concerns.

Lime has come a long way in the three seasons it has been in my area. From initially offering only conventional bikes, to now offering only electric scooters Lime has made transportation fun, taken vehicles off our busy roadways and at the same time supports a local environmental non-profit, and provides opportunities for local businesses to benefit as well. I’m looking forward to seeing what other eco-friendly “disruptive” forms of transportation might be in the pipeline from the Lime company.

What do you think? Would you ride an electric scooter, or host them at your business? I look forward to your comments.

In my last blog post I made some suggestions for hoteliers who want to get started implementing some green programs at their properties. However, equally important is the topic of how individuals can make small changes in the way they approach their travel plans that have big environmental impacts. In fact, in many cases it is really up to the traveler to lead the way in patronizing green travel businesses and options and spreading the movement. Green travel is all about making smarter choices about where to spend our travel dollars in order to decrease the negative impacts we create by traveling. By putting their money where their values are, travelers encourage businesses to take the next step to meet their preferences.

While budget is often the biggest consideration for any vacation there are a number of budget friendly opportunities to go green on vacation.  A little research into the businesses you are considering patronizing goes a long way. Hotels, airlines, restaurants, and tour operators are eager to share their sustainability practices and accomplishments so make sure you look for this information when visiting their websites. Some companies may participate in green programs that are less obvious like carbon offset programs which is why it is important to research online. Third party certifications and accolades are a good form of verification of a company’s actual rather than stated business practices. In most cases a traveler has a lot of choices and decision making to do in planning a vacation. Using sustainability as an additional filter in the selection process helps to narrow those choices.

Whether you’ve used the sustainability filter or not when planning your vacation, you still have a huge personal opportunity to make green choices during your travels. Here are my top suggestions on how you can make an impact.

1. Bring a refillable water bottle. Staying hydrated is important and if you don’t bring your own bottle you may find yourself buying 1-3 plastic water bottles a day to stay hydrated. Despite our best intentions to recycle, inevitably some of these bottles end up in landfills or worse in the ocean. This brings me to a related point, when you see garbage on the beach or while you’re out enjoying nature pick it up even if it’s not yours.
2. Not every hotel is a green hotel, but you can implement your own reduction program at any hotel by following a few simple steps. Reuse your towels. This saves gallons of water, detergents and energy that is used in the washing process. Turn off lights and electronics in your room when they are not in use. Don’t have maid service every day, instead place the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. And finally, take home partially used bottles of shampoo and conditioner and refill them for future travel use.
3. Take alternate forms of transportation and leave the car parked. As a foreigner in your destination it is often easier to navigate by foot, bike, subway or bus. If you find yourself needing to drive a long distance, consider renting a hybrid vehicle. The fuel savings alone may be enough to cover the rental.
4. Buy local. Products that are produced locally help stimulate the local economy and helps keep the community you are visiting unique in character. In addition, there are environmental benefits of reduced shipping emissions.

Thanks for reading, and of course if you liked this blog post please like, share, or leave a comment.

Today I’m here to address a common misperception that green business isn’t as profitable as traditional business practices. This just isn’t the case. Yes, while SOME green practices and products might cost more, many others are cost neutral or cost saving. Not to mention that another important aspect of sustainable or green business is eliminating waste and increasing efficiency which can have huge cost saving effects to your bottom line. Embracing sustainable business practices doesn’t have to be daunting and the possibilities are abundant for making small to large-scale changes in your business depending on your situation and level of commitment.

A shift to more sustainable operations and green products can have a positive impact on your brand reputation and revenues. This is particularly true in a tourism-based business where your guests have lots of options, are looking for a unique experience, and are out of their routine and consequently more in tune with their surroundings. The Global Sustainability Report reveals that 66% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable brands. With these same consumers currently spending some $128.5 billion dollars with sustainable brands per year. With this amount increasing year over year, as a business owner its time to learn how to benefit from this trend. Consider your business for a moment, what changes might you be able to make to decrease your footprint?

As a hotelier I’d like to tell you about a few of my favorite hotel green practices that cost very little to implement. I think you’ll find that some variation of these practices is possible at almost any business. One of my personal favorites is motion activated lighting. Increasingly hotels are using it in guest rooms, restrooms, and back of the house locations, where lights tend to get left on at times when they aren’t needed. The cost savings of powering down during these times can be huge in a large building. Water bottle filling stations are another of my favorite new trends. Travelers often use excessive amounts of plastic water bottles because that’s what’s available for purchase in most locations. While a water bottle filling station does have an upfront cost, the ongoing cost of providing the service is minimal and the impression on the guest is huge. Not to mention that this opens another sales opportunity to sell reusable water bottles branded with your logo. A final practice I’d like to mention is providing a limited housekeeping option. If you’ve stayed at a Sheraton in the last few years you may be familiar with this concept. In this program a guest staying more than one night is offered a small incentive for waving stayover housekeeping service. This in turn decreases the amount of labor for the hotel and saves on the costs of washing linen and replacing partially used single use items like shampoo bottles. I particularly like this concept because is truly a win-win-win for the guest hotel and environment.

If you have been inspired by this blog post please leave a comment about what sustainable business practices your company has implemented or wants to implement.

Maybe you’re a traveler and you’ve been noticing new environmentally friendly practices when you stay in hotels or dine out, or maybe you offer accommodations or services and are wondering if getting on the green business bandwagon is the thing for you. Either way I’m here to tell you sustainability is here to stay so it’s to your benefit to get on board now. In case you’re new to the concept completely, sustainable tourism is the concept of visiting a place, and trying to have a positive impact on the environment, society and economy. For a business this is known as the triple bottom line. This definition is a little bit misleading, because in reality tourism generally has a negative environmental impact, so the purpose of sustainable tourism is more about reducing the environmental footprint, and achieving a healthy balance between the three factors.

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization there were 1.3 billion international tourist trips in 2018, and another 5-6 billion domestic trips. Tourism also accounts for some 5% of global CO2 emissions posing a very real environmental issue as travel continues to grow. Thus, the need for sustainable tourism is very real, and not only that consumers are more ready than ever to embrace sustainable businesses. According to a study by Booking.com 87% of global travelers are eager for sustainable travel, and trends indicate that increasing numbers of travelers are looking to book eco-friendly accommodations. So what are you waiting for?

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton