Hotels save water
The typical hotel can use more than 200 gallons of water a day, for each occupied room.
If you have stayed in a hotel recently, you may have noticed a bathroom card giving you a choice about using your towels for more than one day before fresh ones are brought to your room. Whether or not to have the sheets changed daily also is an option. Changing guests' sheets and towels on a daily basis is customary at most hotels. But this service consumes millions of gallons of water and tons of detergent each year.
Hotels have found that, given the option, about 70 percent of their guests choose to reuse their towels and sheets. Harrah's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas reports that it saves over 70,000-dollars a year by using the sheet cards alone.
To save water, hotels also are installing water-efficient fixtures such as, low-flow shower heads, low-water flush toilet or toilet tank diverters.
In 1996, Green Hotels Association documented the water savings of San Antonio based La Quinta Inn. During a one-month period, the hotel averaged 100 gallons of water consumption per guest for each billing period. The hotel then replaced all of its toilets with low-water flush versions at a cost of $3,250. Within two years, the hotel recouped its costs and continued to save 180,000 gallons of water a year.
Hotel guests and staff are realizing that even the little things we do to save water can make a big difference.