Tag: Eco-Hotels
View All TagsEco-Friendly Hotels / Eco-Hotels / Green Hotels / Hotel Gardens / Embassy Suites Hotels / Chicago Hotels / → All Tags
Embassy Suites Chicago Has a New Living Wall
The Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown Lakefront wanted to wear its eco-consciousness like a flashy Lady Gaga getup, so it decided to put up a 720-square-foot indoor living green wall—the largest in Chicago—right in its lobby.
Okay, it may not be as much of a spectacle or as carnivorous as Gaga's meat dress, but the giant standalone wall is made of 3,840 plants, including the hardy neon, rabbit foot fern, aboricola and rex begonia.
Green Hotels / Eco-Hotels / Pacific Northwest Hotels / The New York Times / → All Tags
Pacific Northwest Hotels Get Top Marks From The NYT For Eco-Consciousness
The Oxford Hotel in Bend, Oregon
This weekend, the New York Times' travel section went west in search of eco-friendly hotels. Not surprisingly, the Pacific Northwest was fertile ground and three hotels in the region got the thumbs up from the Gray Lady.
Here's how they impressed the paper with their green credentials:
Everything at The Oxford Hotel in Bend, Oregon--aside from that fireplace--is powered by Columbia River Gorge wind farms and hydro dams, thanks to renewable energy credits through Pacific Power’s Blue Sky program. Tick. Mattresses in the guest rooms are all-natural--they contain no polyester--and are bought local. Rooms are cleaned with a nontoxic solution made from electrolyzed salt and water. Tick, tick.
The hotel will be getting even more marks next summer when its rooftop garden debuts and starts providing the hotel kitchen with herbs and other hyper-local ingredients.
Eco-Hotels / Australia Hotels / Blue Mountains / Green Hotels / → All Tags
Australia's Wolgan Valley Resort May Be The Greenest Hotel On The Planet
Leave it to the Aussies to out-eco everybody. We've been following Emirates Hotels and Resorts' Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa for some time now but it was the property's official designation as the world’s first carbon-neutral luxury resort that really got our attention.
Not only is the resort in the gorgeous Blue Mountains outside of Sydney super-duper green, it's been topping 'Best Of' lists all over the world, including Condé Nast Traveler’s Hot List, Travel + Leisure’s 'It List 2010,' and Luxury Travel Magazine’s 'Gold List Awards.'
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London's New Hotel Rafayel to Open on Friday
How’s this for perfect timing: while the politicos are busy debating climate change in Copenhagen, London’s new Left Bank is about to show the world that green can be trendy, gorgeous, and pretty effortless too.
Hotel Rafayel on the Left Bank is opening (on schedule! Hurray!) on Friday, and this morning it uploaded some photos to its blog that made us feel pretty excited. The good news is that the bedrooms (and bathrooms) are looking big and flooded with natural light and the views are going to be pretty fabulous.
Room categories are named after rivers (Mississippi and Yangtze rooms, Amazon and Nile suites), rainwater is going to be harvested from the roof, guests will be offered electronic rather than paper newspapers, and there will be a no plastic policy – expect your toiletries in big glass bottles, not nickable miniatures.
Hotel Openings / Eco-Hotels / London Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Geek Hotels / → All Tags
An Eco-Hotel For London's New Left Bank
Watch out Paris! You may be all smug with your Left Bank but you have a pretender to your throne. London is about to get its own Left Bank.
Ok, so maybe the French shouldn’t be doing any boot-quivering yet. Because the London’s Left Bank is currently under construction, and is going to be tucked away in Battersea, in south-west London. And last time we were in Battersea, there wasn’t a whole lot going on. At all.
Still, the new Hotel Rafayel on the Left Bank is hoping to up the vibe, and it sounds pretty nice. Opening in December, it’s going to be a five star hotel complete with bakery, champagne bar and Thameside restaurant. So far, so yawn – except this is going to be an eco hotel with rain-water harvesting system, energy-efficient air con and low energy lighting. Which doesn’t sound that impressive, until they say that the carbon footprint of each hotel room will be a whopping 75% less than the London average.
Green Hotels / Eco-Friendly Hotels / Eco-Hotels / Scotland Hotels / → All Tags
The Lovat Loch Ness Promises a Green Stay, But No Monster Sightings
We know Loch Ness for its mysterious monster lore and tranquil scenery, but not so much for its green environmental efforts. Which isn't to say that the Scottish aren't pioneering eco-saving projects overseas, specifically in the hotel sector, but other well-known chains like Kimpton have been ruling the news lately.
We recently stumbled across The Lovat Arms, an unassuming hotel that offers views of the surrounding Highlands (and maybe that elusive plesiosaur), touts itself as being "eco-conscious," and has earned a Silver rating from the Green Tourism Business Scheme, the UK's "national sustainable tourism certification" organization.
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Green Gets Sexy at Cornwall's Scarlet Hotel
Green Hotels don’t usually equal sexy hotels – and if they do, you can generally assume that the eco side is more for effect than hardcore environmental causes. But a big exception to the rule has just opened up in Britain: The Scarlet hotel in boho Cornwall.
It may look like just another chic clifftop Cornish hotel with its slinky furnishings (it’s even a member of Design Hotels), Michelin-starred chef, Atlantic views and “private outdoor space” for each of its 37 rooms, but under all the glitz is lurking a seriously green hotel.
Green Hotels / Eco-Hotels / San Diego Hotels / Kimpton Hotels / → All Tags
The Convenient Truth Behind Hotel Solamar's 'Live Green, Stay Green' Package
Not one to slack in the eco department, even after winning a distinguished "World Saver" award this week, Kimpton continues their quest to greenify the planet, one hotel at a time.
San Diego's Hotel Solamar is already rife with Earth-friendly touches, like recycling bins, low-flow showers, and organic food at the hotel restaurant. For the ultra eco-friendly among us (we're looking at you, hybrid-driving, farmers market shopping readers), Hotel Solamar has just launched a Live Green, Stay Green package to give guests an all-out eco-aware experience.
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The Canopy Tree House Suite: The Best Room in The Entire Forest
HotelChatter love love loves Treehouse Hotels. We don't know why. Maybe we watched the "Swiss Family Robinson" way too many times on the Disney Channel growing up. But either way, we love 'em and this new Canopy Tree House Suite at the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica in Peru has us extremely giddy.
If you're looking to spice up your next hotel stay, you must book this suite which sits 90 feet above the forest floor and offers up close and personal viewing of toucans, monkeys, orchids and fauna. But it's not just a wooden plank that's been plopped into a tree and secured by a few nails. No, the thatched roof and wooden treehouse is not only exclusive but a little ritzy too. Well, as ritzy as you can get in a rainforest.
From the hotel:
The Tree House can only be accessed via Inkaterra’s existing Canopy Walk network and is serviced by a dedicated Canopy Butler reachable via walkie-talkie. Meals, excursions, and sundowners on the Canopy Walk network can be arranged by your butler.
Summer Reading / California Hotels / Eco-Hotels / Interviews / Lena Katz / → All Tags
Seek Out the California 'Sun' at These Four NorCal Hotels
The Bardessono in Yountville, Calif.
As part of our Summer Reading List for Hotel Geeks, once a week, we will review a book about hotels — whether it be fiction, non-fiction, historical, auto-biographical or even just a cool coffee table book with incredible photos. These could be the perfect books to kick back with while laying poolside, or while working the late-night shift at the front desk or while entertaining friends with your high-falutin' aspiring hotelier schemes. Our latest read is of the travel guide variety but we loved these California hotel picks.
As a former long-time California resident, we were excited to learn about fellow travel writer Lena Katz’ new Travel Temptations series of books, SNOW, SIP and SUN – especially SUN: California: Delicious Destinations, Secret Hideaways, Expert Sources , since this HotelChatter contributor moved to the land of Vitamin D deficiencies, a.k.a. Seattle.
We asked Katz to dish on her fave summer vacay destinations in the Golden State. She shared with us four Northern California picks, all known for their emphasis on nature – not artificial materials.
Green Hotels / Eco-Hotels / Starwood Hotels / Element Hotels / → All Tags
Element Lexington Gets an Electric Car-Charging Station
We'll give a thumbs up to this initiative — even though it's just another notch in Element's green bedpost (teehee): Starwood's new eco-friendly, low-priced chain announced today that they'll be installing an electric car charging station at its Lexington property.
Almost as cool as the Charles Hotel's Juice Bar, Carbon Day Automotive has established a partnership with Starwood to split the cost of installing one of their ChargePoint Charging Stations in Lexington, slated to be up and running tomorrow. These stations offer universal plug-ins for electric cars, buses, Segway scooters and bikes, and "subscriptions" are sold in units of "sessions," which the Chargepoint site describes as a "transaction that covers the entire charging sequence from plug-in to plug-out."
As long as you're subscribed, all you need to do is swipe a keyfob to charge your electric vehicle at the station (you don't have to be an Element guest to use it) — and the sweet thing about this particular brand of charger is that you can actually locate a nearby station and check to see whether or not it's occupied — right from your smartphone (as long as it's got Google Maps functionality).
This is another component of Element's green transportation program; recall that these hotels promote green go-go-go-ing by giving better parking spots to people cruising around in hybrid or electric cars, and they'll loan bikes to guests for free.
Green Hotels / Eco-Hotels / San Diego Hotels / Kimpton Hotels / → All Tags
San Diego's Hotel Solamar Doing Lotsa Lil' Green Things
Hotel Solamar in San Diego is a place we usually associate with boutique hotel coolness but recently it's also been getting some press for being green — and, as every HC reader know, boutiqueyness and earth-friendliness together is something we like.
Some of the green touches that are being reported include organic coffee and tea, lots of recycling bins, environmentally-friendly bathroom amenities and cleaning products, and more organic foods once you hit the restaurant, too. In fact, Hotel Solamar's website includes a pretty long list of stuff they like to do as part of their EarthCare program so we can add energy-efficient lighting, low-flow showers and recycling of extra stuff like clothes hangers and batteries to the list. They even give you a parking discount if you show up in a hybrid car.
All of these are little things to do but if you make the list long enough, they've got to be making a pretty good dent, right? We're just a little bit less than keen on the low-flow shower, but we're prepared to do our bit to be green — even if it means a bit of extra shampoo residue hanging around for the day.
Rates start at around $225 a night for the deluxe room, or $275 if you include a spa; add $30 and you can get their Summer Playground package which includes a $25 credit for the restaurant, sangria, a movie and popcorn in your room and a couple of ice creams in the afternoon.
[Photo: PHeede]
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