How Sustainable Are Your Hotel Compendiums

 

The majority of the world’s population today, believe in needing to be more sustainable in day to day life than ever before.

Being sustainable is to be “able to be maintained at a certain rate or level”. In regard to the environment, this means people do not want their daily routines to have a negative effect on Earth, but rather at worst case scenario, be maintained at its current level, if not improved.

The majority of the developed world have already responded to becoming more sustainable in day to day life, with at least these following examples:

Recycling Soft Plastics

Most supermarkets in Australia now allow people to deposit their used soft plastic from food packaging and other consumables frequently purchased as supermarkets. This results in more recycling and reduces significant amounts of plastic from going into landfill. Since 2011, the REDcycle program from Coles Australia has saved 715 million pieces of flexible plastic across Australia, from going straight to landfill.

Reusable Coffee Cups

Many coffee shops now allow customers to bring in their own reusable coffee cup, with some even offering a discount. Globally, there are 16 billion (with a B) disposable coffee cups used every year, each being coated with plastic to laminate the inside and use plastic lids.

Internet Data Servers

Most internet data centres are now running on renewable energy. These include servers from Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft all running on 100% renewable energy. Many other internet services also either run on renewable energy and/or buy back renewable services from energy providers.

A cross-generational study led by Southern Cross University, found 93% of Americans and Australians have a general concern about the environment and 77% of them are keen, to learn more about humanity’s impact on the environment and what they could do, to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

Focusing on just renewable energy, 74% believe we should use as much solar energy as possible and 70% agree we need to produce 100% of our electricity from renewable sources including solar and wind, in the near future.

In your property’s guest rooms, there are several every-day appliances and resources that can benefit from sustainable resources, including but not limited to:

• TVs (including DVD Players etc.)
• Lights (ceiling and bedside lamps)
• Alarm Clocks
• Kitchen/Kitchenette Appliances (Toaster, Kettle, Electric Stove)
• Powerpoints (to charge guests own devices)
• Toilets

Another one to add to this list is the hotel compendiums for guest use.

You may be asking yourself now, how is that so?

Here are the most common hotel compendium types and how they may not be as environmentally friendly as you think.

Printed Compendiums

These are commonly provided to guests in leather or plastic folders with several printed pages within them, promoting the properties facilities and services available.

Going paperless has been the trend over the last few years for both businesses and consumers.

A single sheet of paper requires 1.5 cups of water to produce.

Minimizing paper usage (including recycled paper) not only helps save trees, but also helps cut down on the carbon pollution, energy and water used to create and transport the paper.

Green Printing inks that are not petroleum based are available, but rare to find, compatible with very few printers and overall is not as cost-effective.

TV Compendiums

Some properties provide their digital hotel compendium details via their in-room TVs. These systems generally have the bare minimum of details and require guests to navigate with the TV remote, like you would be finding a movie on Netflix on your TV.

Compared to the battery life of the average smartphone being at least 5 hours of screen on time, standard LED TVs use the same amount of electricity, in only 7 minutes.

TVs are great for watching movies and TV shows particularly with multiple people watching at the same time.

However, when your guests read your compendium details, they all like to go their own pace and view the specific details they each want too.

In-Room Hotel Tablets

A small selection of properties provides a hotel tablet for guest use in each room. Each room typically also has a separate charging dock, in addition to the hotel tablet.

No properties that provide these tablets allow them to be used outside of the guest rooms, for the purpose of reducing theft and damage, theoretically turning them into a resource that caters to very few use cases.

These devices, including the one you are reading this blog post on, is typically made up of any number of or all of these resources and variants of them:

• Lithium
• Graphite
• Copper
• Glass
• Plastic
• Tin
• Cobalt

Many of these resources are becoming harder to source, resulting in businesses like Apple aiming to create a closed loop for minerals to then manufacture future devices.

These hotel tablets are also yet another device to always keep charged, with batteries being on average 2–3x larger than the average flagship smartphone available today.

The Sustainable Alternative

With over 3.7 billion smartphones and tablets used regularly worldwide, we had to ask ourselves “why not use the guests own devices?”

Our own smartphones serve multiple purposes, hence the smart name. They let us make phone calls, do instant messaging, social media, streaming video, play games, take photos and so much more. Anyone can literally download an app from the App Store or plug in an accessory into their smartphone and/or tablet to increase its functionality, especially well after the initial purchase.

It was with this understanding, we ventured to create a sustainable guest digital compendium called Hinfo.

Hinfo is available via our mobile app and website and is accessible on your guests own devices.

Here are several ways our Hinfo service is more sustainable than other guest compendium solutions:

1. Sustainable Data Centres

Both Apple and Google’s data centres run on 100% renewable energy, of which they’re responsible for allowing your guests to download our Hinfo app. We also deliberately choose servers to power our Hinfo service that run on renewable energy and/or energy buyback programs.

2. No Additional Electricity On-Site

Even if your property does not get its energy from renewable sources (e.g. solar and wind power), no additional electricity is required for your guests to access your property details and services, since they are already charging their own devices during their stay.

3. Copy for Every Single Guest

With all guests using their own devices, your property no longer has to restrict yourself to one paper compendium, TV compendium or hotel tablet in every guest room and provide the single dedicated resource to allow for this.

4. No Damaged Resources/Devices to Replace

When providing printed compendiums and hotel tablets, your property is always running the risk for each of them being damaged and/or stolen. Allowing your guests to use their own devices, completely eliminates this issue from ever occurring.

5. No Additional Resources to Update Information

Printed compendiums require you to reprint all of the sheet that have updated information, such as addresses, phone numbers, websites etc. for future guests. Our guest digital compendium allows you to update details via our Hinfo CMS (Content Management System) for all guests in all rooms to receive instantly. On-top of the resources our solution eliminates/reduces, this also saves your property additional time, effort and cost.

Hinfo was always designed from the beginning, to minimize the resources your property needs to deliver these important details and as illustrated above; no other compendium solution can physically be as sustainable as ours.