‘Green’ Rooms Still Gold for Business Travelers

Business travelers can take credit for inspiring at least one trend in the lodging industry that has stayed strong despite the bumpy business conditions of the last two years.

That’s the growing environmental awareness or “green” movement in hotels and motels that has affected everything from how often sheets are washed to the kinds of lighting put in guest rooms.

Patricia Griffin, president of the Texas-based Green Hotels Assn., said the groundswell for change that has been going on now for nearly 10 years originated with the most frequent guests.

“The demand for this was strongest to begin with among business travelers,” Griffin said. “Maybe it’s because they’re better educated or maybe just because they spend more time in hotels and they see the waste.

“If you’re in a hotel for four or five days and spending most of your time in meetings, you know the room doesn’t have to be vacuumed every day,” she said. Nor do the towels always need to be changed daily or the sheets washed every 24 hours for guests who stay for several nights.

“We’ve seen a lot of changes,” she said. One of the latest is that more inns are telling long-term guests that sheets will be changed every third day, if the guests agree, she said.

It has become commonplace even for one-night guests to be asked to leave the untouched towels hanging and place the soiled ones on the counter or some other obvious place.

The energy required to wash linens is a major expense in the lodging industry, not to mention a waste of energy if some items don’t need a daily washing.

“The biggest change has been in fluorescent lighting,” Griffin said. The lower wattage involved also is an energy saver and new shapes for bulbs have made that kind of lighting more adaptable to table lamps and other fixtures where they were not seen before, she said.

Another area where waste is being cut is in the switch to pumps and other bulk-filled containers to dispense soap, shampoo and the like in bathrooms, as opposed to individually wrapped soap and single-serving bottles of liquids, she added.

The drop in business travel caused by the economic downturn and the events of Sept. 11 have hit the hotel industry but have not impeded the “green” trend, Griffin said.

“There is even more reason now to save money,” she said.

Details about the association, which provides information to the lodging industry, can be found at www.greenhotels.com.

Elsewhere on the travel front:

* One always entertaining newsletter circulating on the Internet is called “Really Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals.” Where else would you find, as is the case in the current issue, a tip on a Web site that lists and rates public restrooms worldwide--www.bathroomdiaries.com--including “golden plunger” awards for the best of the best?

* American Express Co. says it is adding two free services for travelers check customers--help with replacing stolen or lost passports or stolen or lost credit cards.

It says its offices will connect customers with the nearest consulate or embassy in the case of passports and perhaps provide the documents the customer must file. For credit cards of all types it says it will help customers begin the cancellation and replacement process.