Corporate Director, Rooms at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Reveals ''Eco-Etiquette'' Secrets - go to
http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2007_3rd/Aug07_EcoEtiquette.html 

Please feel free to post this reaction. 

I'm not in any way affiliated with the hotel industry, other than as a frequent guest.  Below is an email I sent to the corporate meeting planner who is always trying to green our meetings.

No sympathy from me!   Hotels so conspicuously waste energy that I see any protestation on their part as nothing more than a crass attempt to cut their own utility bills.   Look at how they advertise their spas, build heated swimming pools at the very edge of the ocean, how they set the thermostat to the room at 68 before the guest checks in, how they light up the outside and place unnecessary megawatts of decorative lighting all over the public spaces.  Look at the Las Vegas skyline with lights competing with lights to attract attention.  With waterfalls which are lighted and garden sprinklers running down the concrete.   They set up dining rooms with plates on top of plates and remove and wash plates which have never been used.  They build huge lobbies with soaring ceilings and then heat and cool useless volumes of space with no thought to energy consumption.   They serve lousy coffee in china cups which have to be washed instead of paper cups which can be recycled.   They keep bright lights on all night in underused areas of the hotel but want the guests to bring their own nightlight?   The reason they don't change sheets and towels like they used to has nothing to do with water consumption.  It is so they can give the maids more rooms to clean and thereby cut down their payroll.   I don't believe for a minute that the hotel industry has one iota of concern about the environment.  We should do our part to green our meetings by cutting down on paper waste and pointing out to our hotels their hypocrisy anytime they scream "Conserve" to their guests. 

Bruce Egnew

Bruce Egnew
[email protected]