How Hotels Become More Sustainable — Beyond Eliminating Single-Use Plastics

Removing plastic bottles of water from hotel rooms and reducing use of plastic straws and napkins across in-property eateries has been pretty standard hotel sustainability practices for the last few years. What are some other ways you might see your next hotel trying to up the sustainability ante?

Light Fixtures

More properties are swapping out in-room lighting not only for energy-saving bulbs, but they’re also putting in-room lights on timers. This way, no guests waste energy needlessly by leaving all the lights on in their hotel room for hours at a time while they’re out of the room.

AI in Eateries

Some IHG properties are testing AI in kitchens to see where food is being wasted. This way, they can adjust their menus to reflect what customers are most likely to eat and how much of it, resulting in less kitchen waste overall.

Better Bath Amenities

Rather than go through hundreds of tiny bottles of toiletries every day, many hotels are opting to offer travelers full-sized toiletries instead. The refillable bottles are often installed in the shower, so there’s no risk of tampering, and the staff can just refill shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion as needed.

The Key to the Future

Plastic room keys may become a thing of the past. In addition to many hotel brands now offering room access via one’s cell phone, others are switching out the plastic room keys for more sustainable options, such as paper and wooden keys.