Hotel Operations Business Implementing Proposals

Question: Describe about the Hotel Operations for Business Implementing Proposals. Answer: Introduction: Hotels around the world are implementing proposals which are cost effective in nature for lessening their impact on the environment. According to Nicholls and Kang 2012, achieving pertinent and practical targets in areas concerning environmental factors needs proper investment of time and resources in planning, organizing, and offering training and following up in accordance to the requirement. Success in such maters does not come easy and one needs to start from the scratch to put things in order. The first part in such situations should always be to know the starting point and find out the amount of water currently in use. This report will take into account certain environment friendly measures that can be implemented for the Sydney based G Hotel Group in matters related to water consumption. Integration of effective green practices into the daily operations of Geo Hotel: As stated earlier, in everything that one does, the starting point is important along with knowing the current status of such a thing. Before getting started with recommending the measures that will take care of the water consumption in the hotel, it is important to check how much water is getting used in the current scenario through installation of meters and regular readings. The sub meters will help the hotel management to understand the areas where water is being used the most. Cost is another factor that needs to be taken into consideration, and areas need to be identified where the potential cost can be saved related to water consumption. The ground plan needs to be structured regarding costs and environmental saving measures for the water management plan (Jeong et al. 2014). A proper plan and execution of the same would help in bringing in a lot of key stakeholders, thus improving the hotels overall efficiency. The percentage of the worlds fresh water stands at 1%, so a lot of work needs to be done in preserving water with careful consumption. There should be a proper plan that needs to be followed in establishing a water conservation plan. -A water audit should be carried out where major costs related to water should be mentioned along with where savings can be made. -Proper checking needs to be done whether government loans are available for investment purposes in water reduction schemes and new technology. -All the employees of the hotel should be clearly informed about the managements pledge towards water reduction along with the objectives and goals -Staffs should be provided proper training in understanding the need of sensible use of water and maintaining optimal energy-efficiency. Their suggestions on the same matter is also important -Establishing a monitoring and targeting system for regular reports back to stakeholders and staffs Negative Impacts on the environment caused by Hotels operational activities: Reports and survey suggests that hotels do not have a major negative impact on the environment, but in a collective way they consume larger amount of resources which sometimes proves to be wasteful. The waste is in terms of resources which results in needless operational costs. Water is required for survival purposes which include cooking, drinking and cleansing. Tourists who visits hotel this days, have certain perceptions about the hotel environment like landscape gardens, golf courses and swimming pools. Water is also essential for agricultural purposes which in turn support the tourism industry. Generally, tourists demand more water than the local residents residing in the surrounding areas of the hotel. Survey reports suggest that around 100 luxury hotel guests would consume the same level of water in two months which the 100 local agricultural farmers would use for irrigational purposes in three years. The difference is huge, so proper measures are to be focused on to control the water consumption in the best possible way. A hotel comprises of different departments, so the focus should be on the areas where the consumption of water is likely to be the highest. Every plan implemented to save water needs to go through proper conducted tests so that none of the planned and implemented measures compromise with the quality, health and safety issue as the guests should not complain about such measures (Barber 2014). Restroom and Lavatory: - Installation of duel flush toilets can be beneficial where guests can go for a shorter flush (Chan et al, 2014). Changing everything at one go is never possible, so the hotel management can opt for placing a full water bottle in the cistern in order to reduce the water used in a single flush (Shieh, Hu and Sheu 2012). -Installation of water sense labeled showerheads, faucets, and flushing urinals have become important. Certain reports do suggest that these products are 20% more water-efficient than the standard ones (Robin, C.F., Pedroche and Astorga 2016). -The flow of the shower should be not more than 10 liters/min. A bucket and stopwatch can be used to measure such a process. -There should not be any leakage in the washroom; proper maintenance is required in saving water consumption. It has been reported that a leaking toilet generally loses around 750 liters of water a day. -The washrooms attached to hotel lobby and restaurants should have atleast four in hand washing sinks. There should either be flow restrictions or aerators to help reduce the tap flow. This is a short term goal, where investment is to be made at a time on the aerators and water sensor showerheads. However, monitoring and maintenance is required for a longer period of time. Laundry: -As this report is for a 4 star hotel, with around 400 rooms, installing a continuous batch washer (CBW) can be of great help, where rinse water is used for main suds operation and pre-washing facilities. -The rinse cycle needs to be minimized without hampering the quality. -The water flow rates on tunnel washers and CBWs are to be adjusted as per the manufacturers setting recommendation. -Hotels do use a lot of washing machines, whose purchase should be based on good water consumption rating. -The hotel laundry should be best served with ozone laundry systems. In this process the ozone gets injected into water, which forms a union with the laundry chemicals to offer an efficient wash. Swimming Pool: Installation of a swimming pool in a large hotel increases the consumption of fresh water by around 10%, which gives rise to the question of how important a swimming pool is to a hotel. It is, as tourists like chilling out in a swimming pool, especially if it is in Sydney (Barber and Deale 2014). -Regular maintenance to avert any sort of leakages. The best way to check this is by taking water readings the previous night as the last thing and the next morning as the first. -The swimming pool should be backwashed in every two or three days. A backwash system should be installed for recapturing the water and using it for irrigational purposes. Housekeeping: -The housekeeping staff should be given proper training on how they can reduce the use of water. They should be taught certain procedures like the number of times they need to flush the toilet while cleaning, the taps should not be kept open and the staff should be using hose while cleaning floors (Gssling 2015). -A linen reuse program should be put into use where guests should be allowed to select whether they want or not the regular change of their linen. This is a long term goal where the staffs should be given training at certain times to understand the policies of the organization are water consumption process. Kitchens: -I would like to suggest the hotels to go for Energy Star qualified models for products like ice machines, dishwashers and steam cookers. The usage of energy and water gets reduced by around 10% in using these models by reprocessing water throughout cycles. -Efficient pre-rinse spray valves, combination ovens and steam cookers should be put into use which uses relatively less water. -Equipments that are in the habit of discharging water on a continuous basis should be replaced. Users should also be educated on proper dishware prep and loading techniques to diminish the amount of water used. Landscape Watering: -Water-smart landscapes are to be designed which can reduce water needed for irrigational purposes. -A WaterSense labeled program is to be audited by hiring a certified professional to develop the efficiency in irrigation. -WaterSense labeled irrigation controllers should be put into use in order to cut down on loss of water from evaporation and wind. Short-term, Mid-term and Long-term goals: Every process that needs to be implemented should be for long term purposes which require continuous maintenance. The short term goals include company investing in washing machines, steam cookers and ice machines for water saving purposes. Each department in the hotel is responsible for water conservation. Like the beverage department where pioneering procedures are to be applied such as natura water that purifies the water of the tap along with adding carbonation as per the requirement. The Engineering department is responsible for allocating sustainable products and solution. Moreover, Energy Star appliances are being used to reduce water consumption. Advantages of the Hotel going green: -A label of a green hotel is best for business. Educating employees is necessary along with the guests who can help in protection of environment during their stay at the hotel. Big hotels going green or implementing environment friendly measures are seen as good neighbors rather than a large corporation (Baker, Davis and Weaver 2013). -A Brand value that is unique in nature. Environmental friendly hotels have their own demand and people in recent times opt for such a place to enjoy their holiday. -Marketing opportunities becomes more as the hotel will then able to attract a different segment of the travelling population. -Hotels practicing green measures can charge premium rates from their clients. Consumers are ready to pay premium price for such organic measures which are healthier and better for environment (Kang et al. 2012). Travelers are showing more interest in such kinds of hotels. Disadvantages: -Customer Backlash is common if a hotel makes false claims of being environmental friendly. Greenwashing is not the right way, the hotel may suffer - Switching to environmental friendliness products can often lead to costlier products or expensive products like energy saving cookers, water saving washing machines. -The conversion cost of switching to green or environment friendly products is quite high. At the initial level it needs a lot of investment to set things right Both the Board of Directors and the Stakeholder should have proper information regarding all this. They should take into account all the probable implications that these measures can bring about after implementation of such environment friendly activities (Hays and Ozretic-Doen 2014). Only then a successful environmental friendly hotel can be put up for tourists around the globe. Conclusion: As stated in the report the water consumption needs to be done properly, because the amount of fresh water is very less. Hotels do attract a lot of tourists each day where there is a possibility of water getting wasted. Proper measures can work wonders for not only the hotel, but also for irrigational purposes around the hotel premises. The 4 star Geo Hotel is coming up at a place where urban development is in progress. So water is necessary there too. 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