Hospitality Industry’s Greening Trend Catches Fire

From Indoor Environment Connections newspaper, March 2006

By Steve Sauer, Editor, and Indoor Environment Communications

“Westin didn’t discover fresh air, but we’re proud to commit ourselves to offering it throughout our family of North American hotels and resorts.”

So states a promotional Web page making light of the Westin hotel chain’s newfound smoke-free status, freshly implemented last month in all of its locations in the United States and Canada.

Segments of the hospitality industry are discovering the benefits of becoming more environmentally conscious, and indoor air quality is a key part of this realization. Some franchises have recently undertaken steps toward improving the indoor environments for the benefit of their guests and staffers.

Members of the hospitality industry – be they the mom-and-pop entrepreneurs behind a beachfront boardinghouse, marketing geniuses taking advantage of consumers’ increasing interest in health, or corporate shareholders safeguarding their communal wallet – are also attentive to the advantages such proactive measures promise to deliver for owners.

The Turtle Beach Inn, located in Port St. Joe, Fla., last month became the first bed-and-breakfast certified under a “Green Lodging” program the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has offered since 2004. According to a Jan. 31 department press release about the Turtle Beach Inn’s certification, “Air quality is improved through a commitment to proper air conditioner maintenance and efficient AC filters.”

The earliest lodging facilities presented with Florida’s certification are the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center in Gainesville and two resorts at Walt Disney World. Both energy efficiency and indoor air quality are stressed as part of the green certifications in place at all three, including Disney’s BoardWalk Inn and Coronado Springs Resort. At the BoardWalk Inn, for instance, the state’s records show that siding and caulking of guestroom doors and windows were repainted to preserve energy, and that part of the plan to prevent mold is achieving positive pressure, by way of increasing make-up air and cooling.

One of the most publicized stories of a hotel dealing with mold and the legal aftermath was updated last month, as Hilton Hotels Corp. reportedly reached a settlement with one of the companies it sued in 2003 over alleged construction problems at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The 453-guestroom Kalia Tower, a $95 million facility that opened in May 2001, and the Lagoon Tower that underwent renovation in January 2001 were closed for part of 2002 while undergoing a $55 million mold remediation.

Hilton spokesperson Kathy Shepard said last month the hotel chain’s policy is not to comment on litigation. The corporation’s lawsuit against other defendants involved in the construction at the Waikiki luxury resort is still pending. In December, Hilton settled another lawsuit: a class action filed against the hotel and representing some 2,900 Kalia Tower guests whose stays were between the initial discovery of mold in a guestroom on June 14, 2002, and the hotel’s disclosure of it on July 23. (The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers held its 2002 annual meeting in Honolulu during this time period, and ASHRAE said some attendees stayed at Kalia Tower.)

In a proactive move to improve the indoor air for guests, the Hilton hotel at Chicago’s O’Hare airport last year offered a pilot project to eliminate dust, mold and chemicals. As attorney Shelly LeVick reported in the July 2005 issue of IE Connections, “Several test hotel rooms were stripped of all floor and wall coverings, drapes, furniture and bedding. A firm that specializes in indoor air quality rebuilt the room with special wood flooring, wall coverings, fabrics, furniture, paints, adhesives and cleaning products. The rooms also include a unique monitoring system that tracks critical information necessary to ensure continuing healthy indoor air quality.”

Ray Burger, who used to operate a Holiday Inn, launched a hospitality distribution and marketing company in St. Charles, Mo., last year, called Pineapple Hospitality. At freshstay.com, the company maintains an online directory listing “hotels with better indoor air quality.” In a January press release introducing the Web site, Burger said it “delivers significant benefits to both travelers and hospitality property owners/operators.”

One of the nearly 125 smoke-free hotels profiled on the site in late February is the 102-room Krystal Aire Inn and Suites, located in Springfield, Mo. Lonnie Funk, president of the hotel’s management company, detailed the work that went into improving the indoor environment at Krystal Aire. “We changed out the carpeting everywhere, resealed and repainted all the ceilings and walls, cleaned and replaced vents, and changed out drapes, bedding and the box springs,” he said. “There’s no doubt, it was a sizeable investment – but one ... worth every penny for our guests, staff, and property managers and owners.”

This article appears in Volume 7, Issue 5 (March 2006) of Indoor Environment Connections newspaper and is reprinted here with permission of the publisher. For subscription information, visit www.ieconnections.com.