HotelChatter

Thing is, going green isn't a fad for Hotel Parisi. From the start, the 10-year-old hotel had features like sky lights in the lobby and rooms to make use of natural light. Later it added double-paned glass windows with a UV-resistant coating and energy-saving light bulbs. In the bathrooms, the hotel uses low-flow toilets and shower heads and organic bath products that come in big refillable dispensers, rather than plastic travel-sized bottles.

Plus the hotel encourages reusing towels and linens in a program where guests have to request fresh ones by putting the soiled towels in the shower and a placard on the bed for new sheets. And of course, the laundry is washed with biodegradable detergent.

The hotel also gets eco-friendly with its food offerings. It makes use of local fruits, veggies and honey. And owner Sue Wagener supplies the homemade strawberry jam.

Wagener says guests have been happy with the measures the hotel has taken. "We don't have any complaints that people don't get to take home the bath products or anything like that," she says. "It's worked out well."

The hotel is about to get Audubon Green Leaf certification, which recognizes hotels' commitment to water quality, water conservation, waste minimization, resource conservation and energy efficiency. But the certification that Hotel Parisi is really vying for is the granddaddy of them all, LEED certification. The hotel's making LEED certification a long-term goal, as it'll take several years to get it.

The guest rooms will be renovated in January and the hotel plans to keep its greenness a priority. If for some reason the eco-friendly aspect isn't a major selling point, the hotel also offers other perks: free continental breakfast, free parking and an on-call psychologist (we're not kidding). The tree-hugging hotel's rooms go for $219 a night.

[Photo: Jennifer Kester]