Compilation Video of The Gulf Oil Spill

Hopefully, this country will never forget what happened on April 20th, 2010.  That was the day that the BP oil rig exploded and began one of the largest oil spills in our history of drilling and refining oil.  The impact of a tragedy like the Gulf oil spill will be felt for years to come.  At Green Travel Hub, our hope is that a tragedy like this will bring change and awareness towards cleaner energy sources and the advancement of technology to make clean energy more mainstream and affordable.  Here’s a great video from the Environmental Defense Fund regarding the spill:

What Can You Do?

The best way that Americans can respond to the Gulf oil spill is to continue to modify our lifestyle to be better stewards of energy and to support businesses that are turning to alternatie energy sources such as some of the green hotels in our directory.  At home and when you travel, the choices you make will help determine whether we turn to clean energy sources so the chance of large oil spills will be reduced. 

Pack and Travel Light To Reduce Carbon Emissions
Last night I was returning home from a family vacation, and in front of me at the airport was a woman who had one large piece of luggage, a carry-on piece of luggage, a medium-sized duffel bag, and two shoulder/purse bags.  That's five pieces of luggage for one person.  I am not sure where she was coming from or how long she had been staying at her other location, but doesn't 5 pieces of luggage seem a little excessive to you?  My wife and I had one large piece of luggage, one laptop carrying case, and one medium shoulder bag for a five day trip. That's two people with three pieces of luggage versus one person with five pieces of luggage. Throwing aside the eco-friendly considerations, that would be maddening to lug around all of that stuff while traveling.  Packing and traveling light is one of the most common green travel tips you'll read about on the Internet, but we often don't go into depth about why it's so good for the environment.

From an article recently posted on Terra Curve:

A new study released today shows a quarter of us spend between two and three days packing our bags for our holiday, but once there only 16% of us actually use and wear everything we’ve packed.

And the impact is clear. If those who don’t utilize their luggage reduced their items by that 25% it would save 7,537 tons of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere each year. This equates to taking a staggering 2,216 family cars off the road.

• Bring essential clothing pieces that can easily be mixed and matched. A pair of jeans, a pair of khaki pants, a white button-down shirt, solid t-shirts/blouses, an solid color skirts are all essentials that you should pack one or two of to create multiple outfits. 
  
• Plan out what you're going to wear each day and night. If you can visualize and plan what you'll be wearing each day BEFORE you leave, this will cut down on the amount of outfits that you wear.
• Don't be too proud about wearing clothes twice. When traveling to a tropical location, it can often be frustrating because you will wear very light and informal clothes during the day, but you might want to dress up each night.  Just because you wore an outfit to dinner one night doesn't mean you can't wear it again the next night if you go to a club.
  
• Only bring three to four pairs of shoes.  My staple is to bring one pair of athletic shoes, one pair of dress shoes, and one pair of sandals. Girls can definitely get away with one pair of athletic shoes, two pairs of dress shoes, and one pair of sandals.
  
• If traveling with a partner, combine carry-on bags.  Why do you both need a carry-on bag?  You should be able to get all of your carry on items to fit in one bag unless one of you is traveling on business, and the other is along for the ride.
  
• Tone down the accessories.  Bring jewelry that can be worn multiple times, only one brown and black belt, and less socks. 
  
• Download eBooks to read.  If you have an eBook reader or a smart phone with an ebook reader app, consider downloading the book electronically and reading it on that device rather than bringing a heavy book.  Imagine how heavy it is when each passenger on a large airplane is carrying two or three books. 
  

How To Use Social Media To Research Travel Destinations

The Internet has literally revolutionized information. We can get as much information as we want all with a few clicks of a computer mouse. The travel industry should be very thankful for the innovation of the Internet, because now the vast majority of all hotels, car rental, and flight reservations are made online. Not only is booking online the preferred method for travelers, but talking about and researching their upcoming trip is also becoming very popular. The Internet is now becoming a social entity. We no longer consume information one way. We write blogs, make comments, post in forums, share links, and interact on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Here are four steps that social media can help you research your travel destinations.

1. Read Wikis and Blogs

This is why we write a blog on Green Travel Hub, because we want to add value to our customers looking to book travel by trying to help them find the best travel destination possible. Wikipedia is also a GREAT resource for researching destinations to find out the local cuisine, climate, and cultural landmarks.  I also like these sites:

Gadling – owned by AOL, this blog has a wealth of information for travelers.

TerraCurve – a great site for finding green travel news and green destinations and hotels.

The Window Seat – This is Travelocity’s travel blog, and what I love most about it is that it’s not just one big promotion.  There truly are articles that bring value to travelers.

2.  Get Involved in Review Sites

Review sites are some of the most popular websites on the Internet, because there’s nothing better than a personal recommendation.  Traveling to an unfamiliar location is tough, because you have no idea where the good local places are to eat and hang out.  Yelp is one of my favorite review websites for restaurants and entertainment.  The Yelp community is huge, and many of them are a good, honest bunch that gives fair reviews.  TripAdvisor is another great website for finding quality reviews about hotels, restaurants, tourist destinations, and other points of interest.

3.  Connect With Locals On Twitter and Facebook

Twitter and Facebook are great resources for finding locals in the area you’ll be visiting.  Twitter would be the easiest, because you usually don’t need permission to follow another Twitter user.  Plus, a lot of commerce chambers and local businesses have Twitter accounts that you can start following.  Make sure you search your existing Facebook friends to see if any of your old high school buddies or co-workers live in the area you’re visiting.

4. Use Geo-Location Applications

If you have a smart phone, popular geo-location based social networks like Foursquare and GoWalla are great for finding deals and tips from locals.  It’ll also give you a quick list of all of the points of interest within a few miles of you.  Most applications have support for Android, iPhone, and Blackberry. 

RezHub Interviewed By Fox 35 Orlando News About Green Housekeeping Story

On Monday, we received a phone call from a reporter at Fox 35 Orlando wanting to interview us about green housekeeping and hotels offering financial incentives to guests that chose to skip out on housekeeping during their stay. Our very own, Erik Folgate, was interviewed for the piece. It was a short cameo in the story, but it was still some good exposure for RezHub. Thanks to Fox News!

At more than 150 Sheraton and Westin properties in North America, you get rewarded for opting out of daily housekeeping. In other words, if you stay more than one night, every morning you hang that sign on the door and tell the maid to not enter the room, you get a hotel credit for food and beverages or 500 Starwood points. This is only at select Sheratons and Westins. Some other select hotels have experimented with this such as the Seaport Hotel in Boston offering free valet for hybrid and electric vehicles, and the MarMara hotel in Manhattan offering a $20 credit off of your hotel stay for every night you opt out of housekeeping.

While less housekeeping on a daily basis is good for the environment, many people feel that hotels are trying to cut corners and save mone on housekeeping staff. They feel that it will reduce the amount of housekeeping jobs in the hospitality industry. I think the way to prevent this is for hotels to cross train their housekeeping staff so they can transition to other areas of work within the hotel if the demand for housekeeping goes down significantly.

5 Great iPhone Apps For Family Travel
We know that a lot of you will be traveling with family over the next couple of months, and with the launching of our NEW iPhone app, we're in the mood to talk about iPhone apps some more!  Sorry for those of you who do not own iPhones, but we've found that many of the apps offered for iPhone also have an Android and/or Blackberry alternative.  Here are 5 iPhone apps that we really like for keeping families organized, informed, and entertained!

Pack and Go Deluxe

Take out your iPhone, launch Postino, create a postcard and send it! They don't just mean "send an e-card" (although Posting can do that too). They mean "send a real, physical postcard". They print your cards on super high-quality paper, and send them worldwide. How cool is that?  It's something your kids could be in charge of and they'd have a lot of fun doing it, plus the grandparents and other immediate family would be REALLY impressed that you sent them such a personalized postcard! The app is FREE, but each physical postcard you send is $1.99.  That's still not too bad when all you have to do is snap a photo and they take care of the rest!
 
Cost: FREE (for the app)

RezHub.com Launches iPhone App For Finding Green Hotels Near You!

Our first version of our NEW iPhone app has just been approved in iTunes and is now ready for download for FREE!  The RezHub.com iPhone app will revolutionize we search for discount and environmentally friendly hotels.  We have developed the first travel app that allows you to specifically search for green hotels by city or simply near you.  Once you’ve found the hotel you’d like to book, one tap of a button will dial our toll-free number straight from your iPhone so you can book a stay at your selected hotel.  iPhone users can download the app for FREE and search for hotels by city or hotels near them using the iPhone’s built-in GPS locater system. 

Downlod the RezHub.com iPhone App now for FREE!

App Features

• Search for discount and green hotels by city and by locations “near you”.
• Preview photos and amenities of each hotel
• Dials directly to our toll-free number to book so your personal information stays safe and secure
• View the environmentally friendly features offered by our green score rated hotels
• Shows approximately how far away you are from a certain hotel when searching for hotels near you.

Here are some screenshots of the app:

How The RezHub.com iPhone App Will Help You

Have you ever found yourself on a road trip without a hotel reservation in an unfamiliar area?  With the RezHub iPhone app, you can search for hotels near you, select a hotel, call our toll-free number, and book a hotel all from your phone without trying to search and navigate a hotel’s website on your mobile Internet browser.  It also allows you to quickly check the rates for hotels in any city you choose, so you can get a better idea of what your trip will cost you without having to surf the Internet.

Let us know how you like the app and please take a moment to write a review and rate it on iTunes!

4 Beautiful Florida Beaches NOT Affected By The Gulf Oil Spill
There has been so much news about the Gulf oil spill lately, and none of it is positive.  How can it be when we are witnessing one of the worst oil spills in human history.  The Gulf Coast states have been affected the most, because states like Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida all rely on their beautiful beaches for tourism to fuel their economy.  We've been focusing so much on the beaches affected by the oil spill, but we've failed to mention the beaches that HAVE NOT been affected and are perfectly safe to travel to and vacation.  Here are our top picks for Florida beaches to visit this summer and fall. 

Miami, Florida

South Beach may be one of the most famous beaches in the world.  You'll find beautiful art deco architecture, vibrant night life, great Cuban cuisine, and a truly unique experience by staying in Miami and South Beach.  This beach is on the southeast of Florida on the Atlantic Ocean, so it would be very unlikely that the oil ever traveled over here.  Book a hotel in Miami now.

Tampa, Florida

Tampa definitely rivals Miami for having some of the best beaches in Florida, and it's also one of the cities in Florida with the most to do.  It has three major sports teams, plenty of night life, museums, and Busch Gardens theme park! Clearwater Beach is a beautiful place to stay and it's only a short drive into the heart of Tampa.  Book a hotel in Tampa now.

West Palm Beach, Florida

Palm Beach Island is the most famous city in this area where many prominent celebrities live and it's also home to the famous, Breakers Hotel and Golf Resort.  Palm Beach County has several great beaches such as the Singer Island beaches, Palm Island Beaches, and the Lake Worth beaches.  West Palm Beach is also centrally located between Miami and Orlando, Florida, so it's very convenient to stay here, rent a discount car, and travel up to Disney or down to South Beach. 

Key West, Florida

It was believed that oil tar balls had washed up in The Keys in late May, but those were never confirmed to have come from the oil spill.  Still, there have been no reports of oil washing up in the shores of The Keys or Key West, and this is such a beautiful place to visit and escape from reality.  Just a 2 to 3 hour drive from Miami International Airport, and you can be in the Keys experiencing true paradise.  The Keys is also home to many great 4 green branch rated green hotels! Book a discount hotel in Key West now.

The only area of beaches confirmed to be contaminated and should be avoided as of the date of this article being published is the Northwest stretch of beaches from Panama City to Pensacola.  This is so unfortunate, because these beaches are often a short drive for people from the Southeast states to vacation in, and they are home to beautiful white, sandy beaches.  However, that doesn't mean you can't still visit GREAT Florida beaches!

REZ HOT Deals In The Beginning Of July
Are you still in the process of planning a late summer vacation this year?  If so, make sure you check out our discount hotel and cheap car rental deals on RezHub!  Here are just a few highlights to get you started:

Green Hotel and Travel Articles Around the Web
What's happening in the world of Green Hospitality and Tourism?  That's a good question, let's take a look at some of the news happening this week from some of the best green bloggers and websites out there...

Green Hotel and Travel Articles Around the Web
What's happening in the world of Green Hospitality and Tourism?  That's a good question, let's take a look at some of the news happening this week from some of the best green bloggers and websites out there...

BP Oil Spill Causing More Gulf Dead Zones - we all know about the tragedy with the Gulf oil spill, and it's biggest impact is on the environment and the travel and tourism industry in the Gulf states.  Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, and Florida all rely heavily on the tourism industry.  Check out more dead zones that the oil spill is causing. [Tree Hugger]

Travelers Turn Off Green Habits When On Holidays - Don't turn off your "green" mind this 4th of July weekend!  If you're traveling, try to be one of the few people who still thinks about helping the environment while traveling! [Eco Green Travel]

Blimps: The Future of Green Air Travel? - This is something fun to think about!  I wonder how long it would take to get from one destination to another in a blimp.  I imagine there would be some safety concerns by travelers, too, but still a fun idea! [Bliss Tree]

Fairmont Goes Completely Renewable With Wind Power Offsets - The 415-room Fairmont Washington, D.C. has awarded a contract to Renewable Choice Energy to offset 100 percent of the hotel’s electricity use. The three-year contract calls for Renewable Choice Energy to supply the hotel with more than 9.5 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by wind farms across America. Wow, this is GREAT news and a great idea.  Fairmont is definitely a leader in green hotels! [Terra Curve]

Green Earth Guide: Traveling Naturally in France and Spain - Are you traveling to France or Spain this summer?  This is a great green guide to traveling there! [Go Green Travel Green]

Make sure you follow us on Twitter and be our fan on Facebook for green updates, travel deals, and information!

W Hotel In San Francisco Earns Rare LEED Certification On Existing Building

The four diamond rated W Hotel In San Francisco has made history recently by becoming the first existing building from a major hotel brand to earn a Silver LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.  With its Silver LEED certification, W San Francisco becomes only the seventh hotel in the United States to receive the recognition for an existing building. Stringent criteria for an existing building certification measure “operations, improvements and maintenance on a consistent scale, with the goal of maximizing operational efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts,” according to the U.S. green energy Council, which administers LEED.

The W Hotel in San Francisco is also certified by the state of California as a green business, and it began its green program in 2007 with the passion of employees helping launch it. W San Francisco also won a 2008 “Good Earthkeeping” award, recognizing environmental leadership, from the California Hotel & Lodging Association.

Featured Green Amenities Included at the W Hotel in San Francisco

• More than 70 percent of guestroom lighting and 90 percent of back-of-house lighting is energy efficient, using CFLs, LEDs, motion sensors, and other technologies
• the hotel’s HVAC cooling towers were replaced with energy-efficient models, saving 300 kWh/year; motion sensors power off HVAC in unoccupied guestrooms
• ENERGY STAR power management features are activated on all PCs. Management continues to track energy usage and savings with a third-party vendor through the hotel’s utility company, PG&E.
• To further improve energy efficiency and encourage the use of renewable energy, management is considering installing wind turbines on the hotel’s roof -- a first for a commercial building in the city.
• added a green component to the W signature meeting experience, “Sensory Meetings,” where all food and beverage is organic, biodynamic, and local.
• hosts “zero-waste,” carbon-neutral events through a partnership with “Live Neutral” carbon offsets.

Book A Hotel At The W Hotel In San Francisco

Are you planning on staying in San Francisco in the near future?  If you want an amazing San Francisco experience and you want to stay in one of the nicest and greenest hotels in San Franciso, consider booking a stay at the green hotel, The W.  You’ll see that The W Hotel in San Francisco is rated as a 4 out of 5 green branches on Green Travel Hub’s site, and we have the lowest rates that you’ll find!

How To Plan A Fun Stay-Cation For Your Family
The first thing we always think about when it comes to taking a vacation is where we'll be going.  We often think of something tropical and exotic and getting massages on the beach.  Sounds great, right? It's either that, or we think of which family members we'll go visit.  But, both situations end up NOT being true vacations, because we often get home feeling more tired than when we left.  I thought vacations were supposed to be a time to relax, catch up on sleep, and not be stressed out.  Well, often times, traveling long distances, staying in hotels, and being in a place that you're not familiar with can be very stressful, not relaxing.  Have you ever thought of planning a stay-cation?

What's A Stay-cation?

A stay-cation is a vacation that you plan near your home.  You can either stay at a hotel near your house to have a change of scenery or stay at home, but plan a bunch of fun things to do each day.  My wife and I were recently talking about planning something like this, because we live in Orlando, Florida which is a huge tourist destination, but when you live here, you often don't get to do all of the fun things that Orlando has to offer.  We've done many different long-distance vacations that were amazing experiences, but they were more about the experience, and not about it being a relaxing vacation.

Stay-cations Help The Environment!  

By staying close to home, possibly not staying at a hotel, not flying, and not using a lot of disposable items, you'll be reducing your impact on the environment by vacationing close to home.  Many people take about two vacations per year and chose a stay-cation for one of those vacations per year, imagine how much fuel would be saved and how much less waste we would consume!

Some Tips For Planning A Stay-cation

• If you want to stay at a hotel instead of staying at home, choose one within 50 miles of your house.  Choose a hotel that's nice enough to feel like you're getting pampered a little bit, but not something that breaks your bank.  Also, it'd be best if the hotel provided a complimentary breakfast, so that meal is taken care of.
  
• If staying at home, make sure you UNPLUG yourself from the rest of the world.  Unplug your phones, give your cell phones to your neighbors, and if only keep the Internet running.  But, if your work can be done on the Internet, make sure you don't find yourself checking work emails.  Treat it like a vacation even though you're at home!
  
• Take the entire 5 work days off, so you have Saturday to the following Sunday off.  Plan something fun to do for the first five days that you normally wouldn't do in your area.  Then the next 4 days, plan relaxing stuff like going to the spa, playing golf, going to a matinee, or just playing in a nearby park for the day. 
  
• At night, pick a restaurant to eat at that you've been hearing is really good, but never got the chance to go to yet.  Don't go to your "regular" restaurants of choice.  Pick something different. 
  
• Don't do anything that feels like you're at home while at home.  Don't do any chores, and if you don't want to cook, don't do it.  If you act like it's just another day at home, it won't feel like vacation!
  

Green Hotel and Travel News In June

Green Key Partners with Hyatt Hotels - Hyatt Hotels will be launching a new eco-rating program for its properties in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean.  They will have the help of Green Key Global to create a comprehensive tool to measure environmental performance across the hotel’s brand portfolio.  This is just another large hotel chain that has now adopted a green hospitality program. We always love to see this, because the more hotels that are thinking about the environment, the less impact there is on the Earth. 

Ritz Carlton Commits to Reducing Plastic Bottle Use – The leadership at Ritz Carlton has recognized how much waste is produced from the millions of plastic water bottles used at hotels around the world, and they have committed to using more environmentally friendly bottles at their North American properties. “Plastic bottles are made from crude oil, take a significant amount of energy to produce, and less than 20% are sent to recycling facilities,” said Cooper. “Even when recycled, these bottles cannot be used to make the same quality of plastic,” Cooper said.

The State of Tennessee Starts A New Green Hospitality Program – Florida and many other states have already started their own green lodging certification program, and now Tennessee is on board.  It’s good to see this trend continuing, and hopefully every state in the union will have this soon!

Everything You Need to Know About Green Luggage – This is a great article about helping you pack light and find luggage that’s eco-friendly.  Did you know that they make luggage scales now, so you can help save the environment and save money by not paying extra for heavier bags!

5 Green Initiatives that Hotels Should Focus On The Most

When looking at the steps that hotels are taking to become more environmentally friendly, I often think to myself “Why are they spending so much time on that when they could be doing this”.  It’s not my decision to make, and every hotel makes decisions based on what they think is best for their particular individual hotel or chain of hotels.  However, the green initiatives that hotels choose to focus on are often an indicator of how dedicated they are to truly lessening their impact on the environment and benefiting their hotel guests.  Here are 5 green initiatives that we, Green Travel Hub, think that hotels should focus on if they are serious about “going green”.

1. Energy efficiency. The amount of energy used by hotels is the single most used resource by hotels.  Hotels will probably spend the most money on upgrades for a more energy efficiency property, but it will also produce the biggest return on investment in the form of a small utility bill.  Hotels can use alternative energy sources such solar power and wind power for heating and air conditioning.  They can also replace all of their lighting with more energy efficient bulbs and replace appliances with Energy Star rated appliances. Just an overall strategy to be more strategic and efficient with a hotel’s operations can save a lot of energy.
2. Offering organic and locally grown foods. This is more of a benefit and amenity to the hotel guests.  More and more people are becoming more conscious of where their food is coming from and how it is prepared and grown.  Offering food that that’s in season, bought from local farmers, ethically raised, and free of pesticides is something that carries a lot of value with many hotel guests. 
3. Using environmentally friendly cleaning agents.  Hotel guests will appreciate that you’re looking out for their health and safety, and you’ll be polluting the outdoor and indoor air less.  Also, using environmentally friendly landscaping pest control practices around your property is something that is also highly valued by hotel guests. 
4. Giving back to your local community.  In the last few years, many large corporations have been exposed for their greediness and unwillingness to give back.  If you want to make a huge change in this world, the way to do it is to be generous with your earnings and give back as a sign of appreciation for being blessed with a successful hotel business.  Giving to charities, supporting local causes and environmental causes are all great ways to get started.
5. Water efficiency. We often don’t think about the finiteness of clean drinking water on this planet, but only about 1% of the Earth’s fresh water is readily accessible.  The rest of it is locked up in polar ice caps.  There is an abundance of salt water, but it is very expensive to process salt water and turn it into suitable drinking water.  That is why conserving water should be important to hotels and important to consumers that frequent hotels. 

At Green Travel Hub, we hold the green hotels that we rate to a high standard, and these green amenities are all part of our rating system. If staying at a hotel that is eco-friendly is important to you, check out our huge list of green hotels at RezHub.com

HOT RezHub Hotel Deals In The Caribbean
It's getting hotter and hotter outside, and that means the BEACH is where most people want to be, and there are no better beaches than the ones in the Caribbean islands.  You can literally see everything going on in the ocean, because the water is so clear.  With world-class resorts, friendly natives, and great prices, the Caribbean is always a great spot to visit during the summer.  Sandals resort has a great presence in the caribbean, and Green Travel Hub is a big fan of Sandals and their green initiatives as a resort chain.  Here are some great deals going on for hotels at RezHub:

Visit Historical Savannah, Georgia For A Beautiful Vacation
If you live in the Northeast or out West, you may only think of Florida being the only Southern state worth vacationing in, but there are so many other hidden gems in the South.  Savannah, Georgia is one of those hidden gems.  It is located in the Southeast corner of Georgia, and is only a few miles away from the Atlantic Ocean and borders the Savannah River.  If you want a healthy dose of Southern charm, great food, American history, and a laid-back atmosphere, you should visit Savannah, Georgia. 

Where To Stay

The best places to in Savannah are in a hotel on the River Walk that over looks the river and great shops and restaurants or in the heart of the historical district in a bed and breakfast inn.  Whatever you pick, you'll still be close to everything! My suggestion is to stay at a bed and breakfast that borders the famous, Forsyth Park, which is a huge park that you and your family can play in, and the bed and breakfast hotels are GREAT in that area.  To search for hotel deals, check our hotel list in Savannah.

Best Restaurants

• Lady and Son's - This is Paula Deen's restaurant, and you'll need to visit the restaurant during lunch service to get a reservation for that night. 
  
• The Olde Pink House - This is a tourists favorite AND a favorite by the locals.  It's in a historical building in the heart of the historical district.
  
• Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room - From what I've heard, come hungry to this place!  It's only open for lunch during 11am to 2pm, you eat on picnic tables in a courtyard, but the food is AMAZING and plentiful.  If you want a true taste of Southern cooking, this is the place to go, just make sure you take a nap afterwards!
  

• Explore the River Walk area - You'll find great places to eat, shop, and there's great nightlife there, too.
• Trolley Tour - get a great overview of Savannah to give you a better idea of which museums and art galleries to hit up.
• Haunted Walking Tour - Go out on a haunted walking tour at night, because Savannah was rated by Travel channel to be the most haunted city in America, Oooooo.
  
• Take a trip to the beach - It's only a few minutes away from Savannah, and the Atlantic Ocean is very warm in the South!
  

Summer Road Trip: Orlando, the City Beautiful

The minute you step off the tarmac of your airplane at Orland International Airport, you might think that you’re already at Disney World.  The Orlando airport is more like a mall, and you’ll see displays of Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld everywhere!  Orlando draws millions of tourists each year for its world-renowned theme parks and attractions.  It’s funny, because Florida’s biggest tourism draw is its thousands of miles of beaches, but Orlando is smack-dab in the middle of the state.  This has never hurt Orlando, because there’s so much to do that you’ll forget about the beach!  Plus, it has numerous water parks, lakes, and natural springs to keep you cool!  Here’s my quick guide to Orlando.

Green Hotels

Want a green hotel?  You’re in luck, because Orlando has over 50 green hotels in our database.  Click here to book a green hotel in Orlando.

Things To Do Other Than Disney

• Wekiva Springs.  Float down the beautiful natural springs of Wekiva Springs in a tube, cool off, and experience all of Florida’s wildlife.  Don’t be surprised if you see an alligator basking in the sun on the bank or a Central Florida native floating down the river with a cooler of be…soda.
• John F. Kennedy Space Center.  There’s so much to do here for the entire family, and you’ll learn about our rich space exploration history.
• Discovery Cove at SeaWorld. Do you want to swim with Dolphins? Go to Mexico.  Do you want to experience the fullness of life as a Dolphin, swim with them, learn about them, and be a part of their life for a day?  Go to Discovery Cove!
• Charter a boat. Like to fish?  There’s beaches within an hour of Orlando and lakes full of bass EVERYWHERE around Central Florida.

Best Time To Visit Central Florida

The best time to visit anywhere in Florida is November through April.  Florida has a mild winter with very little rain and temperatures usually in the 70’s during the day and 50’s at night. As I write this article in June, we’re experiencing record high temperatures at 97 degrees with a heat index of 105 degrees!  So, try to schedule your stay during a time when it’s not so hot in Orlando!

Dining and Shopping

If you’ve rented a car,  I strongly suggest checking out Winter Park’s quaint downtown area on Park Avenue.  You’ll find great bistros and ethnic food, great wine bars, shopping boutiques, and a great park to relax.  It’s only 25 miles down I-4, just north of downtown Orlando, and it’d be a great afternoon or night trip to get away from the tourism.  There’s also a GREAT Farmer’s Markets every Saturday morning in downtown Winter Park.

Getting back into the car and heading up to the Northeast coast of Florida to St. Augustine and Daytona Beach.  Don’t miss my visitor’s guide to these great Florida tourism cities!

5 Tips For Saving Money On Summer Airfare

Bing Travel recently came out with an estimation that airfare would increase by 22% this summer.  The average price of an airline ticket for domestic travel in the U.S. will be $303 dollars.  That’s $1,200 for a family of four!  The economy isn’t as bad as it was a year ago, but many families are still recovering from lost jobs and reduced salaries, so if airfare really does increase this much, travelers will notice and it may cause them to drive to their summer destinations rather than fly.  But, if you still need to fly, there are some things you can do to reduce your airfare costs and the costs of traveling in general. 

• Use alternative European airports for multi-country visits. When planning a multi-country tour, shop less popular airports as your starting point. For example, fares to London and Madrid are typically $200 less than tickets to Paris and Rome. This summer, Madrid is seeing the smallest year over year increase in airfare of European destinations, averaging $1,039 per ticket, while Amsterdam is seeing the largest year over year increase in airfare of European destinations, averaging $1,351 per ticket. Also, Europe has great discount airlines such as Ryan Air and Easy Jet, which have many great fares for one-way travel.  But, you must consider that they fly into smaller airports outside of larger cities, so you may have to take an hour bus ride to get into the city.
• Watch for cheaper fares in late summer. Domestic and international fares start to dip lower for travel in September. For travelers who aren't held to a school schedule, September fares are up only 2 percent year over year, averaging $282 per ticket. The second half of August is also more reasonable, averaging $290 per ticket. Consumers planning to book a late-August trip should keep in mind that airlines traditionally launch big end-of-summer sales in early to mid-July.
• Travelers should buy now if they see a good fare. The likelihood of fares continuing to increase as the summer season nears far outweighs the likelihood of fares dropping significantly. Travelers with specific dates for travel should buy early and jump on the next good fare available.
• Pack light to avoid additional fees. When shopping for flights, remember that many airlines charge hefty baggage fees, increasing the total cost of your trip. Be sure to consider the airlines' baggage fees, and when packing, remember that less is more. Many airlines charge for first, second and overweight bags.  Southwest gives you your first bag free, and SkyMiles Gold credit card members also get their first bag free.
• Pack snacks with you.  Airlines have really cut back, and most of them now charge for meals, so try to pack a sandwich or some heavy snacks that will fill you up if you are on a flight that’s longer than an hour. 

Our mission at RezHub.com is to find you the best deals and it’s our 110% guarantee that we will! We want to be your one-stop shop for your hotel and travel reservations. In fact, we guarantee that our Hot Rate Hotels are the best prices available online. If you find a lower rate on another website for the same room, at the same hotel, on the same dates, within 24 hours of making your booking with us, we guarantee you that we'll match it PLUS pay you 10% of the difference in price.

How You Can Help With the BP Gulf Oil Spill

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico really hits home for the folks at RezHub.com, because we’re located in Florida and we’re an online travel agency.  Florida and Louisiana have some of the most fascinating and complex ecosystems in the world.  Florida alone has thousands of miles of coastline and each coast is distinct with its animals, coral reefs, and other wildlife, and their beaches are one of the biggest revenue producers in the state.  Even if this oil spill is cleaned up somewhat effectively, it’s going to affect Florida, Louisiana, and Texas for years to come.  So, here’s another situation where we all sit there and wonder, “what can we do to help?”.  It’s so easy to feel helpless and feel like your contributions won’t make an impact, but they do.  Here are some resources that you can contribute to and volunteer with that will help the cause from Yahoo’s green section. 

Report incidents and submit suggestions:

Louisiana Bucket Brigade Oil Spill Crisis Map
Collects information from citizens of the Gulf Coast about the impacts of the oil spill and documents stories of those who witness it. Submit an incident.

Deepwater Horizon Unified Command
Accepts incident reports and suggestions on how to stop or contain the oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

Donate or volunteer to help threatened wildlife:

General

Greenpeace USA
Defends our oceans and protects our environment from toxic pollution like the recent oil spill. Donate to Greenpeace USA. Find volunteer opportunities with Greenpeace USA.

Oxfam International
Works closely with local residents and community groups to immediately mobilize for recovery efforts and to help vulnerable communities prepare for the coming challenges. Donate to Oxfam International.

Louisiana

Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana
Maintains a list of volunteers prepared to help with this response including wildlife recovery, monitoring and photographing oil movement, and providing boats and drivers for response activities. Donate to Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. Register to volunteer with Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.

Louisiana Wildlife Rehabilitators Association
Advocates for preserving Louisiana's battered coastal ecosystem. Donate to Louisiana Wildlife Rehabilitators Association.

Volunteer Louisiana
Connects Louisiana's citizens and out-of-state volunteers with volunteer service opportunities available in all communities throughout the state. Sign up to volunteer.

Florida

Emerald CoastKeeper
Gathers volunteer crews ready to help clean-up efforts. Donate to Emerald CoastKeeper. Find volunteer opportunities with Emerald CoastKeeper.

Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida
Ready to mobilize and provide appropriate care to injured or orphaned indigenous wildlife. Donate to Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida. Find volunteer opportunities with Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida.

National Wildlife Federation Gulf Coast Surveillance Teams
Looks for volunteers to track and report impacts of the oil spill, support wildlife rescue and rehabilitation efforts, and restore damage to delicate coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico. Donate to the Gulf Oil Spill Restoration Fund. Sign up to volunteer.

Of course, the other obvious thing we can do to help is by continuing to reduce our dependence on oil as much as possible, and this is the entire reason why we set up the Green Travel Hub.  We know you can’t avoid travel, but you can support hotels that reduce their energy consumption, rent hybrid cars, and support airlines that reduce their carbon footprint as well. 

Top Green Hotel Deals For June

The Hotel Felix in Chicago, Illinois from $139/night
 

The Hotel Felix Chicago is situated near area attractions like Adler Planetarium, Art Institute of Chicago, Comiskey Park, John Hancock Observatory, Lincoln Park Zoo, and McCormick Place.  It is conveniently located in the heart of downtown Chicago, and you'll feel VERY good about staying here because its rates are from $139/night and it's a 4 out of 5 green score branches. This hotel prides itself on being a leader in green hospitality, offering earth friendly housekeeping, organic food, alternative energy sources, and a fresh-air exchange system.

How To Be Greener On Your Summer Road Trip

Yesterday on our Green Chat we discussed ways to save time and money on your upcoming summer road trips.  Traveling isn’t the most green thing to do, but we all need a getaway, and if you’re driving, you can make many decisions that help conserve energy, resources, and help you save money along the way! There were a lot of great ideas and insight to help you save on gas, make your car perform more efficiently, and reduce your waste while on your trip.  Here are some of those ideas and tips:

• Bring two trash bags with you.  One for garbage and the other for recyclables so you can put them in a recycling bin at a later date.
• Rent a hybrid car for fuel efficiency and less wasteful on energy and gasoline.
• Use cruise control to moderate speed on flat terrain and do not use it when in mountainous areas or areas with sloping hills.
• Don’t drive like a maniac.  Aggressive driving means speeding up quickly and braking quickly, and this eats a lot of gas.
• Drive the speed limit. Lower speed equals higher fuel efficiency.
• Use higher quality gas.  Your car may perform better with higher octane fuel.
• Bring snacks and water bottles with you on the trip.  You’ll save money and avoid buying multiple plastic packages throughout your trip.
• Pack light.  Your car will be lighter and get better gas mileage.
• Don’t idle for too long.  Bringing with you a GPS may help reduce the amount of time you idle, because you can find a detour if there’s an accident or road construction.

Myths about saving on gas:

• Checking tire pressure.  This is more for your safety and to reduce the wear on your tires.  It has no significant increase in fuel efficiency, according to Edmunds.com.
• Turning off the A/C and putting down the windows.  When not idle, keeping the A/C on does not significantly increase fuel efficiency. 

To read more about the study performed on Edmunds.com that debunks some fuel efficiency myths and helps support other ideas, click here.  If you want to read the transcript from our Green Chat from yesterday, you can click here. 

If you’re looking to rent a car this summer for a road trip or for your vacation, make sure you check out our car rental reservation section on RezHub.  We offer discount rental cars and green, hybrid rental cars for all of your needs around the world!

How Should The Hotel Industry Respond to the Gulf Oil Spill?

The oil spill in the Gulf is one of the worst in recent history since oil companies have been drilling offshore and transporting oil overseas. We are still a long way from knowing the permanent and long-term damage that it will have on our environment and the eco-systems in the Gulf and on the shores of the Gulf states. The industries that will be affected the most by this disaster are the fishing industry and the hotel and tourism industry of Louisiana, Texas, and Florida. Living in Florida, this state thrives off of its tourism, and even if its shores are not greatly affected, the stigma of knowing that there was an oil spill near its beaches will harm the tourism here for years to come.  So, how should the hotel and tourism industry respond to this disaster?  First, they need to make an initial reaction and pump out as much information as possible to consumers to keep them well-informed. 

Websites updating about the oil spill

Green Lodging News - It's always a great resource for all things related to the green hotel and hospitality industry.  They just reported on the Florida Keys Tourism Council and its efforts to keep visitors to that area updated on the impact of the oil spill in the Keys area.

Living Green Mag - This magazine has done a good job on its website of updating us on the oil spill and how it is impacting the tourism industry.

EPA Website - The Environmental Protection Agency has also established a website to inform the public about the oil spill's impact on the environment and the health of the nearby residents.

Should Tourists Be Concerned?

At this point, there is no evidence to suggest that tourists should be weary of using the great beaches of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.  The tar balls that were found in the Keys a few weeks back turned out not to be from the BP oil spill.  However, I would be cautious about eating seafood that comes from the Gulf of Mexico.  Even though the the oil spill is the size of a thimble in comparison to the size of the Gulf, there are also contaminants being put into the water to dillute the oil spill. 

How Should The Hotel Industry Respond?

Information is the key to preventing the hotel industry from being vastly affected by this disaster.  The more the tourist is informed, the less they will be cautious of visiting.  Hotels, tourism councils, and the industry as a whole needs to step up and start being more vocal and transparent about what's going on.  The element of the unknown is what will keep tourists away.  Also, the hotel industry needs to continue to seek out alternative energy sources, because this will only set an example for other industries and continue to lessen our dependence on oil as the sole means for energy. 

Best Green Articles From The Month of May

  One thing I love about the environmental movement is that there are so many great resources on the Internet with great articles every day.  Whether it’s a blog, an organization, or a community, you can find all of the best news, tips, and opinions about being green and the environment.  Here are some of the best green articles from the month of May.

Australia’s First Public Electric Charge Station is Go. Is this the future for fueling?  I am eager to see which oil company will start offering public charging stations at their gas stations.  That’s the sign when hybrids and electric cars will become mainstream. [Tree Hugger]

Does Wildlife Have A Negative Impact on Conservation? I love the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, but I’ve never really thought about the impact it has on conservation and wildlife.  [Terra Curve]

Best Green Travel Credit Card Yes, you can even help the environment by picking the right credit card! [Go Green Travel Green]

How One Sentence Can Save You $600 on Utility Bills. The Summer is coming, and it’s already getting HOT in Florida.  Since you’ll be using air-conditioning more to cool your house and your utility bills will be higher, there are other ways you can save money on your utility bill. Here’s how. [The Good Human]

How Green Is Your Green Conference? I always wonder this when we attend Green Conferences.  If you’re going to be holding a conference about environmental topics, you better make sure that the conference you’re holding is not negatively impacting the environment. [Triple Pundit]

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

If you’re looking for an easy way to connect with us, follow us on Twitter and become a fan of our Facebook page!  You’ll get all of the latest news and information, and no our Twitter page, we tweet great hotel deals periodically. 

Discount Orlando Hotel Deals This Summer

 Are you thinking about visiting Orlando this summer?  I've lived in Florida almost my entire life, and many tourists make the mistake of visiting Orlando later in the summer.  The best time to visit Orlando late May and June.  The days are warm, but it doesn't rain as much, and the humidity isn't as bad as it is later in the summer.  Plus, August and September are considered the peak of hurricane season in Florida, and the last thing you want is for your vacation plans to be ruined by a storm.  So, now is the time to visit Orlando, and here are some great hotel deals going on right now.

More Examples Of Green Hotel Rewards For Traveling Green

The other day I wrote an article about whether or not hotels should share in the savings they receive from going green and asking guests to act more eco-friendly.  Someone who is already environmentally conscious will already opt out of housekeeping, turn off all of the lights when they leave, and bring their own soap and shampoo.  But, the average traveler doesn’t do these things.  Hotels save anywhere from $20 to $30 per day for every room that doesn’t receive housekeeping services, and we think that hotel guests should be rewarded when they help save money for the hotel and help save the environment.  What rewards should those be?  Well, that’s what we’re trying to figure out.  The obvious one would be a monetary credit that either goes toward the cost of the room or one that can be applied to future stays. 

We mentioned in the last article that Starwood began offering a $5 restaurant credit for every day that guests opted out of housekeeping, and we think that’s a great start in the right direction.  Here are a few other ideas for rewarding travelers that we thought to be interesting.

Seaport Hotel Offers Free Valet To Hybrids

The Seaport Hotel in Boston is experimenting with offering free valet for one night for all hybrid and electric vehicles staying overnight at the hotel.  They’ll also offer a free hook-up for electric cards to re-charge overnight.  This is for a limited time, but I think we’ll start to see this become more of a trend.  I am not a big fan of giving priority parking to hybrid vehicles, because hybrid vehicles have not become affordable enough for the common consumer, but I DO like the idea of waiving valet and parking fees in big cities. 

Danish Hotel helps guests lose weight, produce electricity, and get FREE food!

Yes, you read that title right.  There’s a Danish hotel that offers guests to earn a $36 meal voucher by generating electricity for the hotel from riding an exercise bike for 15 minutes.  This is such an innovative idea, and I would totally do this if a hotel in the states offered it.  Bravo to this hotel for coming up with such a great idea that’s green, promotes good health, and rewards guests with a handsome meal coupon.

We also posed this question to our Green Chatters on Twitter yesterday and you can read the full transcript here.  Green Chat Transcript from May 19th

Travel Greener With a Stay-cation This Summer
There are many different ways to travel green including picking a green hotel, continuing to live an environmentally conscious lifestyle while on vacation, renting hybrid vehicles, and choosing to do business with companies with green initiatives.  However, one of the most green ways to travel is to stay close to home.  This doesn't always mean that you'll have less fun, because most people live near some GREAT attractions and fun cities.  Here are four ideas for "stay-cations" to think about this summer instead of traveling long distance. 

• Visit The Big City - Most of us live near a big city, but we often try to avoid it like the plague because of the traffic, the crime, and it can wear you out quickly.  But, big cities often offer a lot things to do such as cultural attractions, amusement parks, events, and big parks.  Driving into the city, staying in a really nice, green hotel, and walking to all of the tourist attractions is a great way to spend a green vacation! 
• Go Camping - For many of us who work hard the entire year, going camping doesn't sound like much rest and relaxation.  I'm not talking about roughing it to the point where you get a total of 5 hours of sleep the whole weekend, but rather, find a great park with log cabins that has everything you need to feel comfortable, but has the feel of being in the great outdoors.  Swimming in the river, canoeing, short hikes, are all really fun for the entire family.  Even with the explosion of urban living, most of us live within a 100 miles to a state or national park.  
• Rent a Lake House - Just like you probably live near a state park, you probably also live near a beautiful lake.  Many of us dream of owning a lake house or living on a lake, so make your dreams come true for a week and rent a house on a lake near your primary residence.  With being on a lake, there are so many fun things to do, and if it's a tourist attraction, there will most likely be a lot of different activities for the entire family around the lake as well. 
  
• Make A Vacation Schedule At Home - For a week, treat your house like it's not yours.  Don't do any chores, no yard work, and just don't lift a finger.  Hand your cell phones and laptops over to your neighbors so you're not tempted to work while at home.  Plan a fun event to do with the family every day that gets you out of the house during the day.  At night, fire up the grill and cook some foods that you normally wouldn't cook.  Then, bust out the board games or your favorite movies.  Staying at home can really be relaxing and fun if it doesn't feel like the normal daily grind.  

Should Hotel Guests Be Rewarded For Choosing Green Options?

The green hotel trend is rapidly increasing every day.  More and more hotels are choosing to “go green” and help reduce their carbon footprint.  Many of them are doing this by performing upgrades to reduce energy and water consumption, recycling, composting food, buying from local food and supply vendors, and overall, being less wasteful.  But, our question is, what does the hotel guest get out of this?  They are asked to opt out of housekeeping for the day, conserve energy, and be eco-friendly to the environment, but there are few rewards for this.  Of coure, there’s always the intrinsic and altruistic reward of feeling good that you’re doing your part to help the environment while traveling, but the hotel is also being rewarded by reducing their fixed and variable costs.  I don’t think hotels do it solely for the cost savings, because there’s usually a large up-front cost to make the green improvements and changes, but it is a nice long-term. monetary reward for going green.  However, some of this relies on the hotel guest to comply with their new practices, so we think that there should be a reward for the hotel guest. 

Starwood Rewards

Recently, Starwood hotels started rewarding hotel guests for choosing green options such as skipping the daily housekeeping, and they give each guest 500 reward points or a $5 credit at the hotel restaurant.  While this may not seem like much, at least hotel guests are getting something back for their willingness to be more eco-friendly.  Some of the thoughts in this article suggest that Starwood saves about $22 a day for every room they don’t have to clean, so a $5 restaurant credit is not much of an incentive, and they’d like to see Starwood give $5 or more back on the cost of the hotel room. 

Green Reward Options

• Tie in incentives with existing reward programs
• Create a “green” card that loads monetary credits onto the card every time a green option is chosen.  The credits could be used for future hotel stays, restaurants, valet, or other paid amenities at the hotel.
• Straight up refund on the existing room rate.
• point towards gift cards for participating restaurants and/or retail stores.

Wouldn’t be cool if airlines and rental car agencies got in on this too?  What if there was a master “green” card that you could become a part of with various participating companies?  With airlines, they could reward you for choosing direct flights or for packing light. With rental car agencies, they could reward you for choosing a hybrid vehicle or driving under a certain amount of miles.  We think that rewarding travel customers for choosing eco-friendly options is the future, not because we MUST be rewarded in order to be greener, but we should share in the savings that green hotels enjoy by helping the environment.  At RezHub, we have big plans in store for this very concept, and we’ll be revealing them in the near future!

What are your thoughts?  Do you think these incentives would catch on?  Would it help cause people who are not as environmentally conscious to participate in greener practices as well?  Share your comment below!

5 Things Most Green Hotels Are Not Offering yet

Sustainable hotels have come a long way in the past decade.  Many green hotels around the world are more energy efficient, conserving water, reducing waste, reducing carbon emissions, and supporting their local economy, but they often forget about the consumer when offering “green” amenities.  Some environmentally conscious consumers would like the hotels to offer things that benefit them and their personal well-being.  Here is my list of 5 things that most green hotels are not offering yet, but would be beneficial to their customers.

Organic personal care products

Many eco-conscious travelers would like knowing that their shampoo, body lotion, conditioner,and soap does not contain harmful chemicals and artificial fragrances.  These chemicals can sometimes be irritating to the skin.  If a hotel would like their customers to truly feel pampered the “green” way, this would be a great step in the right direction.

Organic Linens and Clothing

Choosing bed and bath linens made from sustainable materials such bamboo or organic cotton would be a nice extra touch in a higher end hotel.  Also, offering organic cotton bathrobes to customers would be appreciated as well.  Cotton is the most intensive pesticide-use crop in the world, accounting for approximately 25 percent of all insecticides used worldwide.  Customers would appreciate knowing that the cotton they are wearing or sleeping on is free of pesticides.

Green Dry Cleaning

Many hotels, especially those with a large business clientele, offer dry cleaning services as an amenity to their guests.  As a hotel trying to go the extra mile to be sustainable and greener, looking for and partnering with a green dry cleaning service would be an added benefit.  The chemicals used in the dry cleaning process are very harsh, and even if they don’t affect you, you’ll feel good knowing that the workers in the dry cleaning facility won’t be exposed to those harsh chemicals, which have been known to cause serious physical ailments due to prolonged exposure.

Green Landscaping and Pest Control

Landscaping equipment is heavy duty, and its carbon emissions is high.  Also, a lot of harsh chemicals such as fertilizer and pesticides are used to make the landscape look more beautiful, but your guests could be affected.  Using organic fertilizers and natural pesticides will be greatly appreciated by guests with sensitive skin and young children. 

Indoor Air Quality

The air we breathe is the one thing that we consume every second of the day, and we must have it to sustain life.  The better the air quality, the better lives we will live.  Wouldn’t it be nice staying at a hotel knowing that the air is filtered?  Clean air exchange systems, upgraded air filters, indoor plants and shrubbery, and radon gas ventilation systems are all great upgrades that hotels could make to improve their indoor air quality. 

Can you think of any other green amenities that you often don’t see at hotels with a sustainable initiatives?  What things would you like to have that directly affect you, not jut the hotel?

Recently Added Green Hotels Sporting The RezHub Green Badge

We’re adding new green hotels every day to our database, and it’s great to see more and more individual hotels and hotel chains take the next step to being more sustainable, preserving the environment, and helping their community become more sustainable as well.  Recently, one of our partner hotels, Holiday Inn at Buena Park, was rated by us as a 4 out of 5 green branch score.  They will be able to achieve the 5 out of 5 green branch score if they pursue a well-recognized green hotel certificatio such as Green Globe.  Holiday Inn is continuing to strive as a chain to become more green and sustainble, and we will continue to recognize their achievements when we’re made aware of it.  Here are some of the things they have done to become more sustainable:

• Implement strategic environmental practices in the operation of our hotel
• Manage resources consumed in an effort to reduce use of electric, gas, water and waste usage wherever practical
• Educate and engage our owners, team members, guests and vendors in our ongoing efforts to protect the environment
• Consider our commitment to the environment when making business decisions
• Purchase low energy lighting throughout the hotel
• Turn off non-essential equipment and lights when not in use
• Implement a hotel recycling program to the full extent of our hotels' municipality
• Purchase supplies made with recycled content and products that can be used more than once and/or recycled.  Purchase Energy Star® labeled appliances and equipment
• Discard toxic materials and products that contain them properly (flourescent bulbs, batteries, chemicals, etc).  Discard only things that cannot be re-used or recycled. 
• Use electronic or digital communications (email, telephone, text messages) before using paper/print based communications (fax,prints)

They strongly believe that their efforts to conserve energy and resources today will benefit generations to come.  This hotel is conveniently located near Disney Land and Knotts Berry Farm near Anaheim.  It’s a great place to stay for families and/or business travelers.  If you’d like to support this hotel by booking a stay, click here for this green hotel. 

Would You Like Our Green Badge Displayed On Your Website?

Visit our green self-auditing system for hoteliers that allows you to update the green amenities that you provide, validate that you’re authorized to represent the hotel, and grab the code to display the green badge on your hotel’s website.

Green Hotel Amenities: Buying From Local Farmers

Hotels rely on dozens of vendors to supply the various goods and services they need to operate in an industry where the customer comes first, and running out of soap or toilet paper is NOT an option.  Many hotel chains and even individually owned hotels buy from suppliers from across the country or even international suppliers.  Maybe the cost is cheaper or the vendor already has a stronghold on the hotel industry, but is it really necessary? When hotels first decide to start an initiative for being more sustainable and green, they often think of the obvious changes they can make such as recycling, composting food, changing old light bulbs, and seeking alternative energy sources, but they often forget about the impact they have on the environment when buying from a food vendor hundreds or even thousands of miles away. 

The Impact of Buying Overseas

One pound of asparagus from Chile to New York uses 73 pounds of fuel energy and releases 4.7 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Think of how many upscale hotels in New York City offer asparagus as a side dish at their restaurants.  The amount of carbon dioxide being released just to get asparagus from Chile is astounding when you add up the numbers.  Buying locally grown foods saves energy by eliminating the need for costly food transportation.

What Green Hotels Can Do

• Buy from local farmer’s markets and food co-ops. 
• Establish a relationship with local farmers to have fresh foods delivered to the hotel.  (they will be more than happy to do it, believe me!)
• Prepare your restaurant/room service menu based on the season.  Only offer fresh produce that is in season to your local area.

What You Can Do

• Support your local farmers by shopping at farmer’s markets and food co-ops
• Make suggestions to hotels that you stay at to buy locally and offer organic foods
• Choose green hotels that already offer organic foods and locally grown food.

Locally grown products are healthier, because they haven’t lost nutrients in a lengthy shipping process.  Many of these products are organic or at least grown with minimal pesticide use.  You’ll find that many small business farmers raise grass fed cattle, chickens and pigs are treated humanely, and the produce and soy beans are not genetically altered.  You can also spread the use of locally grown foods by asking your local supermarkets to stock locally grown foods on their shelves.  Most businesses will respond to consumer demand if it’s high enough.  For hotels, if you want to be green, consider going local with food and other products and services that you buy to run your business. 

Central Florida Earth Day Video and Clean The World

We had a great time at the Central Florida Earth Day event, and the best part was meeting the faces of potential customers and building lasting relationships with people in the community.  It was a beautiful day and because of our fun obstacle course car game, we had a lot of cute kids at our booth! Here’s a short video montage of some of the highlights from the event. 

Clean The World

We recently did a volunteer trip as a company to Clean the World, and I wrote about Clean the World and their efforts to make hotels more green.  Clean the World is located right near us here in Orlando, and we love their charity.  They help hotels become more sustainable and green by recycling old soap and shampoo, sanitizing it, repackaging it, and shipping it out to local areas and other countries in need of better hygiene to prevent diseases.  We were so impressed by them and had such a great time with them that we set up a separate landing page for them.  Anyone that visits their unique landing page and books a hotel, car rental, or flight, a portion of that booking revenue will go directly to Clean the World to support them!

Support Clean The World Now!

The Advantages To Booking A Green Hotel

As a discount online travel agent, we often discuss and ponder the motivations, tastes, and preferences of the traveling consumer.  We want to get into your head as much as possible, so that we offer what you want at the price you want.  Our company culture is to do our part when it comes to helping the environment and reducing our carbon footprint, and that is part of the reason why we developed the Green Travel Hub.  The other reason we developed it is because our research indicated that you desired to be informed about making your travel more sustainable and eco-friendly.  However, there are still some consumers that don’t see the benefit in choosing a green hotel over a hotel that does not make the effort to help sustain the environment.  Here are three big reasons why booking a green hotel is beneficial to you as a travel consumer: 

It does not cost extra to travel green.  Choosing a green hotel does not equal paying more money.  Many travelers could think that if they choose a hotel with green initiatives, that hotel might raise their rates to compensate for the extra money they spend on reducing energy usage and waste.  This is exactly the opposite.  It’s true that many hotels that decide to improve their properties to make them more sustainable do make a large initial investment, but this initial cost is quickly offset by the savings the hotel experiences in reduced energy costs, reduced waste management costs, reduced water bills, and reduced labor costs when housekeepers aren’t turning over rooms every day.  In our booking path, we highlight the green hotels right along side the other hotels, and you’ll often see that being “green” has nothing to do with the price of the hotel, but rather the brand, type of hotel, and the amenities offered are still the main indicator of price.  But, take two similar hotels, one green and one that’s not, and you’ll see that they are extremely close in price.

Doing your part.   Very few people would say that they don’t care about being a good steward of the Earth.  It’s a no-brainer that we want to preserve this Earth and keep it as clean and sustainable for as long as possible, but many of us don’t have the time or direction to do our part.  By choosing a green hotel, you’re doing your part, and you’re encouraging other hotels to invest in eco-friendly initiatives.  The more people that choose green hotels, the more it will encourage the hotels already doing their part to stick with it and motivate other hotels to follow suit.

It makes you feel good about your travel. Have you ever taken a step back at what you do on a daily basis and realize how much you wasted and how much your actions affected the environment?  You shouldn’t ever feel guilty about getting some much-needed rest and relaxation, but I’m sure that you could look back on past vacations and think about all of the unnecessary wasteful things that happened while on your trip.  Choose a hotel that you already know has a system in place to be environmentally responsible.  Then, when you look back at your trip, you’ll feel good knowing that you supported a company that cares about being good stewards of the environment. 

We aren’t ignorant to the fact that finding great deals is still and always will be a big priority when you’re looking to book a hotel for your next business trip or vacation.  That’s why we offer extremely competitve rates for all of our hotels, car rentals, and flights.  We hope that you’ll consider a green hotel, because you can feel good about where you’re staying and still get a great discount on a hotel.  Click here to book a green hotel now.

Green Travel Hub At The Central Florida Earth Day Event

This past Saturday, the crew at RezHub and Green Travel Hub took it to the road to attend the Central Florida Earth Day event held at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando, Florida.  It wasn’t much of a road trip for us, because our headquarters is located near downtown Orlando, but we were very happy that we made the decision to be a vendor at this event.  I must admit, I wasn’t expecting the amount of people that came out for this event!  My guess is that there were 20 to 25,000 people that came through the event area that day! Here are a few photos of our booth:

The event was full of great eco-friendly vendors, delicious vegan food, and great live music.  It lasted from 10am to 6pm, but there were still people hanging around after 6pm! We had a great time introducing ourselves to new RezHub customers. Many of them were very impressed by our commitment to educating travel consumers about all of the great green hotels around the world and the fact that we donate 20% of our profits to non-profit organizations.  We were giving away free bookmarks, our GREAT looking t-shirts and even a Nintendo Wii and Avatar DVD’s! The kids really loved our booth, because we had our fun hybrid car race game out for them to test their driving skills!

But in the end, there was only one RezHub fan that could win the grand prize for our car race game, a Nintendo Wii!!  He maneuvered the mini Toyota Prius through our obstacle course in 7.9 seconds!

The CF Earth Day was a great experience for us, and we were very encouraged to know that the people we spoke with were very interested and excited about learning about an online travel agent that helps them make their travel more green.  We want people to feel good about their travel, and we think that the people that visited our booth felt better knowing that they now have more alternatives when they think about booking a green hotel or hybrid rental car.

3 Top Green Hotels In New York City

New York City is often considered the greatest city in the world.  Whether you go there in the winter, fall, spring, or summer, there’s always something to do there.  But, hotel availability is hard to come by, which makes staying in New York City very expensive.  If you’re going to spend a lot to stay in Manhattan or the surrounding area, you might as well help the environment while you’re at it and choose a green hotel.  Here are five that we recommend.

70 Park Ave Hotel

This Kimpton hotel is a 4 out of 5 green branch score in our green hotel directory.  It is centrally located in the heart of Manhattan, and you’ll be close to all of the most popular attractions, broadway shows, and restaurants. It is located at the corner of Park Avenue and 38th Street, in Murray Hill, a charming and friendly residential enclave that is set in the heart of midtown Manhattan.  You’ll get all of the amenities of a large hotel, with a boutique hotel feel, plus it boasts great green amenities such as offering organic food, giving back to non-profit organizations, and using non-toxic cleaning agents. Book a room at 70 Park Ave Hotel.

Grand Hyatt of New York

This hotel is also centrally located, very close to Central Park, Grand Central Station, 5th Avenue shopping, and the Empire State Building.  It is perfect for tourists or business travelers. It is also a 4 out of 5 green branch score in our green hotel directory.  Book a Hotel At The Hyatt

The Benjamin

The Benjamin is a quaint hotel located near mid-town Manhattan and Central Park.  If you want the feel of being in a historic building and the charm of old New York City, this is the hotel for you.  It boasts green amenities such as recycling, fresh-air exchange system, green housekeeping practices, and water conservation.  It’s a 3 out of 5 green branch score in our green hotel directory.  Book a room at The Benjamin.

RezHub Volunteering At Clean The World

This past Tuesday, we visited the operations over at Clean the World, a great charity organization very close to our headquarters in Orlando, Florida.  Clean the World collects millions of pounds of soap and shampoo from hotels that were otherwise going to discard it into our landfills.  They sanitize the soap and shampoo, re-package it, and distribute it all across the world to children and families in need.  It was founded in February of 2009 by two businessmen, Shawn Siepler and Paul Till.  These men traveled a lot for business, and they always wondered what happened to all of the partially used soap and shampoo after they left the hotel.  Then, they were made aware of the thousands of children that die every day of preventable diseases such as diarrheal disease and acute respiratory infection simply due to poor hygiene.  This fueled the idea for them to start Clean the World.  We love this organization because it directly impacts the travel industry, it’s helping environment, and most importantly, it’s helping save the lives of children around the world. 

Important Facts and Statistics about Clean the World and Their Cause

• According to the World Health Organization, acute respiratory illness and diarrheal disease are the #1 and #2 leading causes of death among children under the age of 5, worldwide.
• Poor hygiene the main cause for children contracting these diseases
• Clean the World recycles soap from 75,000 hotel rooms daily.
• In 2009, Clean the World accept $750,000 in in-kind donations
• Clean the World has recycled over 4 million soap bars and 200,000 pounds of shampoo and conditioner.
• They’ve eliminate over 380 tons of waste from our landfills.
• Deliveries have been made all over the world including the United States, Haiti, Mongolia, Mexico, Uganda, Ethiopia, Albania, Sri Lanka, and Guatemala.

A Video About our Experience as Volunteers. 

To learn more about volunteering for Clean the World, visit www.cleantheworld.org and contact Brett Smith, their volunteer coordinator. 

Conclusion

We could not believe that this organization has only been operating for 14 months.  Their staff was wonderful, their operation was smooth, and they are growing at an exponential rate.  It was evident that they will be growing out of their current warehouse facility VERY soon.  You could really tell that these people believed in the cause, too.  They weren’t just there to punch the time clock.  They knew that what they were doing was literally helping to save the lives of thousands of children every day.  If you’re a hotel manager, please contact them to start donating your soap and shampoo to them.  If you live in the Central Florida area, please take a few hours out of your busy schedule to “clean” some soap!

Earth Day Giveaway: All Revenue On Earth Day Will Be Donated To Second Harvest Food Bank

At RezHub, we like to practice what we preach, and we strive to be a sustainble and eco-friendly company just like all of the great companies in the travel industry such as JetBlue, Starwood Hotels, and Kimpton Hotels.  We thought long and hard about what we wanted to do to make an impact and a bold statement this coming Earth Day, and instead of going out and planting trees, we decided to give back to our local community.  Sustainability is not just about recycling newspaper and conserving water.  It’s also about being socially responsible and supporting your local community.  When you buy from a local farmer, not only are you buying organic food, but you’re helping and supporting local, small business, which stimulates your local economy.  We will donate all the revenue we generate from our website on Earth Day, April 22nd, 2010 to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.  Central Florida has been ravaged by unemployment over the past two years, and there is no improvement in sight.  The amount of people who cannot afford food for themselves and their families continues to rise, and we want to do our small part to help feed those people while they go through a temporary downtime in their life.  We chose to donate to the local chapter in our area, because we wanted to make sure the money impacted our local community, not a national organization. 

About Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is a private, nonprofit organization that collects, stores and distributes donated food to more than 600 partner agencies in six Central Florida counties: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia and is located online at http://www.foodbankcentralflorida.org.  In its 2008-09 fiscal year, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida distributed over 21 million pounds of food through 600 local distribution sites; which averages to over 30,000 meals provided per day.  They are a very reputable and established charity in the Orlando and Central Florida area, and we’re proud to be partnering up with them for this giveaway. 

How Can You Help?

There are two ways that you can help us.  If you’re looking to book travel for your upcoming summer vacations, please consider booking with us on April 22nd, 2010!  Every dollar we make from your booking will go directly to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.  You can feel good knowing that your travel arrangements helped feed someone in need!  If you aren’t familiar with us, we are a full-service online travel booking agency, and you can book your air travel, hotels, and car rentals with us in just a few easy steps.  We provide the best green hotel directory, so you can also feel good about where you’re staying.  Any hotel you see in our hotel directory with an “eco-friendly” icon and a green branch score has been rated by us based on the green amenities the hotel provides, and we list those green amenities for you to see.

If you have a strong influence on the web, you can help us get the word out about our Earth Day giveaway!  If you have a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook profile, or any other source for generating content on the web, we’d love for you to help us spread the word!  If you’d like to write about this giveaway and/or if you’d like a sweet looking banner graphic to place on your site, please email us at info@rezhub.com.  We’ll send you the press release and the files of the banner graphics.  Also, please feel free to re-publish this blog article or grab any content from it!

Bookmark us and set yourself a reminder to book your travel on April 22nd!

Rate Your Green Hotel With Our New Green Auditing System

Periodically, we get requests from hotels to become green score rated on our website.  Our green score is a points-based system, which awards hotels points for each green amenity provided as part of their sustainable practices.  Hotels with a green initiative are always looking to promote these initiatives, and showing up in our search results with a green score is a great way to do it. RezHub.com was the first online travel agency to identify green hotels in the booking path and remains the only OTA to list the green amenities provided by the hotel and the ability to filter by and sort by green score.  These tools, provided directly in the booking path, enable green hotels to stand out from competitors.  Prior to now, our system for interacting with hotel managers to gain information about their eco-friendly practices was a manual process.  We now have a fully validated, automated sytem in place that will streamline the process of hotels joining our green hotel directory.

Perfect For Hotel Managers

Visit: http://www.rezhub.comhttp://www.rezhub.com/green-audit.aspx

Hotel managers and other verifiable team members can access the Hotel Green Audit at the address above and you will follow and easy, step-by-step process that will guide you through finding your hotel in our directory, updating your green amenities, validating your property, and obtaining our green badge.  RezHub.com has put in validation measures to ensure the most correct information is published to the internet before committing the audit to its live directory.  The audit is validated in one of three ways; by a dynamic green hotel badge placed on the hotel's website, a unique file place on the root of the hotel's website or a fax sent on official hotel letterhead.

The Green Badge

The green badge is where it’s at!  But seriously, we’ve created a great looking badge for you to show off your green score with RezHub.com. The green badge you see in the upper left corner of this article is one that is displayed on the Lakewood-Denver Holiday Inn website.  You can take a look at it live on their site by clicking here. According to the CMI Green Traveler Study of 2009, customers will look a hotel’s website first for information about eco-friendly practices, so that’s why the green badge makes great addition to your website.  Don’t feel like putting it on your website?  That’s okay, we’re cool like that. We’ll still display your green branch score in our search results even if you don’t display the badge on your site.  We want our customers feeling good about where they are staying for the night, knowing that they are contributing to the solution of a more sustainable Earth!

No Strings Attached

Hotel managers and representatives, there is no catch.  Simply registers for a new account, find your hotel, update your green amenities, and validate your hotel.  We ask for nothing in return.  This is a service that adds value to your listing in our travel search results, and it adds value to the experience of our customers looking to feel good in a hotel during their travels.  If you have any questions about the green audit system, please email me at efolgate@rezhub.com.

Green Hotels Recently Added To Our Directory

The Bardessono Hotel

The Bardessono is located in Yountville, California in the heart of Napa Valley.  The Bardessono has 62 luxurious guest rooms in downtown Yountville, each designed for private in-room spa services. A restaurant based on local, farm-fresh ingredients. A rooftop pool for lounging and dining. Carbon fiber bicycles, on-site producing gardens, and the inspired taste of artisan-crafted coffee. Bardessono is all this as well as a significant national model of green building and operating practices.  If you want to feel good about your travel, this is the hotel to visit!

Book a Stay At the Bardessono

The Casa Laguna Inn

If you’re looking for true elegance and the feel of being at home, this is the hotel for you.  Their commitment to sustainability and green initiatives is hard to find in the hotel industry. Laguna Beach is one of the most beautiful areas in Orange County, so make sure you check out this beautiful hotel! It was built in the 1920’s as a private residence, and used ever since as a refuge and unique vantage point on California’s sea coast. The Casa Laguna Inn offers luxury to its guests in a one-of-a-kind setting.

Book a Stay At The Casa Laguna

Cheyenne Mountain Resort

If you love the outdoors and you love being in a secluded area, then the Cheyenne Mountain Resort is the place for you, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  And you’ll feel good about helping the environment, because Cheyenne has a great sustainability program. Tucked away quietly amid breathtaking vistas awaits 316 finely appointed guest rooms and suites arranged in eight residential lodges across Cheyenne Mountain Resort. Surrounded by extraordinary mountain backdrops and picturesque views, each room has been designed to provide the ultimate escape from the everyday. Modern amenities and supreme comfort are perfectly paired with an understated Rocky Mountain inspired décor for the ideal setting for rest and relaxation.

Book a Stay at The Cheyenne

Eco Hotels of the World Joins RezHub As An Affiliate

We are proud to announce that we have partnered with Eco Hotels of the World to provide more information to you, our valued customers, about environmentally friendly hotels around the world.  "Eco Hotels of The World" is a free online guide created to showcase the most environmentally-friendly hotels in the world.  All the hotels featured have been personally selected by their editors to ensure that they meet the standards required to be considered an eco-friendly hotel.  We were especially attracted to EHOTW’s unique list of eco-friendly hotels, because they have rated some very unique proerties that many travelers may not know about.

How They Rate Their Hotels

They created a form that is split into 5 different categories:

• Energy
• Water
• Disposal
• Eco-Active
• Protection

They also believe that a real eco hotel should fulfill most of the following criteria before being submitted to their rating system:

• Dependence on the natural environment
• Ecological sustainability
• Proven contribution to conservation
• Provision of environmental training programs
• Incorporation of cultural considerations
• Provision of an economic return to the local community

Their rating system ranges from one green star as the lowest to 5 green stars as the highest score possible 

Their List of Green Hotels is Unique

Eco Hotels of the World has many hidden treasures that many people may not know about.  Their list of eco-friendly hotels is not the regular, run-of-the-mill Marriott and Hilton hotels.  Some examples of fascinating hotels in their list that have 5 eco stars are the Alaskan Ridgewood Wilderness Lodge , Amazon Yarapa River Lodge, and the Couran Cove Island Resort.  We have 26 of their eco-start rated properties to our hotel directory, and we look forward to our relationship with them in the future!

Green Hotel: The Hotel Blue Earns a 4 out of 5 Green Score

We continue to add new green hotels to our green hotel directory, and we love it when we add hotels in all areas of the United States, such as Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The Hotel Blue is a reasonably priced hotel located in the heart of Albuquerque and convenient to the local airport.  The Hotel Blue offers Tempur-Pedic beds, complimentary continental breakfast, complimentary shuttle service, free high speed Internet, free parking, and an outdoor pool with a courtyard setting. These are just a few of the many extra touches you will enjoy at The Hotel Blue.

Green Amenities From Their Website (Green Score: 4 out of 5)

• Our staffs are trained to conserve water and energy; the environmental committee plans and monitors water and energy conservation and recycling activities.
• We offer water conservation program to our guests providing them an option whether they want us to change the linens on a daily basis or not. We only collect the towels from the floor; we leave the towels on the rack for them to reuse
• We have installed water conserving toilets throughout the hotel
• We have installed new water efficient showerheads
• We have changed all incandescent light bulbs with CFL bulbs, which consume less energy
• We recycle papers, cardboards, plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans.
• Our rooms are equipped with amenity dispensers providing you more varieties of quality products and avoiding individual packages reducing the waste.
• Our breakfast area uses dispensers than individual packets as far as possible.
• We have brand new climate controlled Heating and cooling unit by Amana with digital thermostat in all the rooms.
• We donate used linens to local communities and to the staff in need. We also donate room nights to local communities.
• We use all certified environmental friendly products for laundry and guest room cleaning.
• We buy only Energy Star labeled equipments and appliances.
• We buy recycled products where possible.
• We also store electronics and hazardous materials and recycle them periodically.

This hotel looks like a great place to stay if you’ll be staying in Albuquerque, and their commitment to green practices will help their business grow, lower fixed costs, and attract environmentally friendly travelers.

RezHub has rates for The Hotel Blue as low as $66 per night! Click here to book a stay at the Hotel Blue.

What Does Sustainable Mean To You?

We often throw around words that become popular within a certain niche, and in the “green” community, the word “sustainability” is often used and talked about.  It’s a word that hasn’t been used much, except in recent years, and my question to you is, “What does it mean to you?”   Here are the definitions of sustainability.

Definitions:

1: Practices that would ensure the continued viability of a product or practice well into the future
(Green Glossary)
2 : Methods, systems and materials that won't deplete resources or harm natural cycles (Rosenbaum, 1993)

Sustainability in Pictures

I found a great photography website where a bunch of amateur photographers submitted photos of what sustainability meant to them.  I love describing words in pictures, because sometimes pictures say so much more than we could ever say in words.  To look at all of the photos submitted, click here.

Here are two of my favorites:

What Sustainability Means To RezHub

We think of sustainability in terms of the travel and lodging industry.  We want to see the travel industry continue to make strides to make their systems, products, and services more sustainable.  The trend with hotel chains beginning to make their buildings more environmentally friendly is a step in the right direction.  Hotel chains have made the biggest efforts in sustainability, in our opinion.  Airlines and rental car companies still need work.  Airlines can do things such as upgrading their air fleet.  Many airlines still fly aircraft from 20 years ago, when sustainability and energy conservation were not on the forefront of technology. We no have the ability to create cleaner and more efficient aircraft, it’s just a matter of getting airlines to fully switch over these new products.  As consumers, we must continue to demand higher standards from the travel industry to provide more sustainable and eco-friendly products and services.  The benefits for them are there, it’s just a matter of helping them realize the benefits and the demand. 

So, what does sustainability mean to you?  If you have any photos that depict it best, feel free to post them on our Facebook Page.

Measuring A Green Hotel’s Return On Investment

The obvious trend for the past few years in the hospitality and lodging industry has been green amenities and sustainable buildings for green hotels, meetings, and conventions.  This trend is due in large part to the rising demand of consumers requesting greener hotels and feeling good about their travel. Many hotels have responded to this rising demand, and they have worked hard at improving the sustainability of their hotels, and some chains have even started building new LEED certified hotels.  Environmental upgrades come with a price, and hoteliers are running a business, so they must look at every cost from a business standpoint.  It’s great to have dozens of green amenities, but if those amenities are causing your business to fail, then you need to re-evaluate the expense.  Fortunately, the return on investment for green amenities can be quantified and measured. 

Cost Savings

Aside from being committed to helping the environment, hoteliers are often drawn to the idea of green amenities reducing fixed costs such as energy and water bills, waste management bills, and overall production costs.  However, installing solar panels or a food composting center don’t always translate into savings.  Hoteliers must manage their green amenities with efficiency, choose the right amenities that fit their brand and business needs.  If your hotel spends a lot of money heating an indoor pool, solar panels may be a good option.  The way to measure the ROI for green upgrades is to weight the up-front cost with the long-term cost savings.  If the upgrade costs $25,000, but the yearly savings is $8,000, it would only take about 3 years to recover the cost of the upgrade. 

Government Rebates

Sometimes the cost savings is not too significant, and it could take over 10 years to recover the initial investment of an upgrade to a green amenity. One way to pay for big-ticket energy-savings items is through government rebates. From the federal government to local utility companies, incentive programs can make green affordable. This web site, dsireusa.org, which is a database of programs for renewable energy.

Environmental Savings

Sometimes your return on investment isn’t quantifiable by traditional methods.  When your business or hotel decides to become a green hotel, the intrinsic value of such an effort is very strong.  Customers that value such amenities and initiatives may choose your hotel over another hotel, because of your green program.  In order to record this, ask guests to fill out a short survey or train the desk agents to ask the guests if your green amenities were one of the reasons they chose your hotel.  This will help you quantify your green program by knowing how much of your business is being attracted by your green amenities.  If you’re a consumer reading this, make sure you take the initiative to let the hotel manager know that you chose their hotel because of their environmentally friendly program.

Committing to a solid green amenity program is really a win/win situation for a hotel.  They save money and help the environment.  And even if they don’t save much money, they’re efforts will be appreciated by the public, which could lead to increased hotel bookings. 

Green Hotels and the Triple Bottom Line

More and more hotel chains and independently owned hotels are becoming more sustainable and more energy efficient due to the rising trend of green lodging and green amenities.  More travelers are seeking green hotels, and hotel brands are picking up on this customer preference.  Eco-efficiency is what many hotels are focusing on with their green amenities, which is simply the practice of doing more while using less resources.  Producing less waste, using less energy, and in turn, producing less pollution is the name of the game for hotels, and their bottom line is improving because of it. 

This chart shows what many people refer to as the “Triple Bottom Line”:

When combined, environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and economic prosperity work together to positively affect the bottom line of a hotel that with these three characteristics.  Guests of hotels are seeking out green hotels with amenities that promote environmental stewardship and programs that promote social responsibility, especially on the local level.  Of course, these two factors can and will produce economic prosperity, but sometimes an element of economic success must already be present to be able to offer green amenities.  Installing solar powered heating systems, energy efficient appliances, food composting facilities, and offering organic foods come at a high cost, so only hotels that have already achieved a level of economic success will be enticed to invest in new, greener technologies.

Still not convinced that your hotel should go green?

A study by A.T. Kearney, Inc, found that in 16 of the 18 industries studied, companies committed to sustainability outperformed industry averages by 15% over the six months from May through November 2008.
“Our study indicates that the market rewards specific companies,” said Dr. Daniel Mahler, author of the study. “We find common characteristics among the leading companies that show that sustainability goes far beyond the narrow definition of being environmentally friendly.”

Giving back to the community and your customers

More consumers and travelers are looking for companies that give back.  We are in an era where corporate greed is abundant, and we don’t need the government to punish these corporations.  We can punish them more severely by not using their good and services.  You can still maximize profit while being a generous hotel and giving back to your community.  There’s a hotel in New Jersey that donates all of its older linens to the homeless, instead of throwing it away.  That’s the kind of program and way of thinking that separates one hotel from the next, and travelers notice and remember those kind of programs. 

What are you doing to positively affect your bottom line?  If you’ve already committed to providing green amenities as a green hotel and you’d like to be rated by our website, please visit our green auditing system.

Composting And Why You Should Do It

Today on Green Chat, we’ll be talking about how to compost your food and recycle food efficiently.  We’re in the business of helping you find green alternatives to travel and make your everyday travel more environmentally friendly, but being green is a lifestyle.  We understand many of our customers that look for green travel are also looking for more ways to make their entire lifestyle more sustainable and eco-friendly.  What we eat, what we don’t eat, and how we dispose of it directly affects our environment, and we feel that it’s really important for you to understand the alternatives to throwing your unused food scraps in the garbage.  Yard and food waste makes up roughly 30% of the waste stream, so that makes it extremely important to recycle our food waste.

What Is Composting?

Composting is nature's process of recycling decomposed organic materials into a rich soil known as compost. Anything that was once living will decompose. Basically, backyard composting is an acceleration of the same process nature uses. By composting your organic waste you are returning nutrients back into the soil in order for the cycle of life to continue. Finished compost looks like dark brown soil, crumbly and smells like a forest floor.

Types of composting:

• Backyard composting — If you have a yard and a balance of browns (fallen leaves or straw) and greens (grass clippings and food scraps), you have all you need to make compost.
• Worm composting (vermicomposting) — If you have a tiny yard or live in an apartment or have an abundance of food scraps, this type of composting is for you.
• Grasscycling If you have grass clippings and don't want to use them in a compost pile you can leave them on the lawn to decompos

Composting Resources

• www.compostmania.com
• www.cityfarmer.org
• http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Composting_homepage.html
• http://www.solidwaste.org/compost.htm

We will have some more great information after today’s Green Chat, so I will post the transcript on our Twitter profile and Facebook page once it’s over.

Green Home Improvements Tips From Green Chat

Yesterday, we had a great green chat on Twitter talking about green alternatives for home improvements and home improvements that make your home more sustainable.  If you still haven’t joined us on green chat, you can do that by visiting our Twubs page which aggregates all conversations on Twitter with the #greenchat hash tag.

Here is the transcript for yesterday’s green chat, just in case you missed it: February 17th, 2010 green chat transcript

Our Top Twitter Contributors and Green Friends from Yesterday:

1. @KidBean - 43
2. @RezHub_Will - 42
3. @GreenTravelHub - 38
4. @easyecotogo - 23
5. @IttyBittyImpact - 18
6. @lilgreentree - 18
7. @newhomegreen - 17
8. @thegreenbeanie - 15
9. @VandWsMommy - 9
10. @efolgate – 6

Some Topics We Chatted About:

• Tankless Water Heaters: tankless water heaters, such as the Rinnai, have gained a lot of popularity for their water and energy saving possibilities.  They are about two to three times more expensive than traditional water heaters, but we believe they are a good long-term investment to save on your utility bill and make your home more eco-friendly.  Some of the users in green chat have tankless water heaters, and they were overall satisfied with the performance.  Once it is rolling, it virtually never loses hot water, so you could have the washer on, the dishwasher, and be taking a shower and never lose hot water.
• Insulation Upgrade in the Attic:  upgrade your attic insulation to a higher grade, and your heating and cooling system will be much more efficient in the hotter and colder months.
• Improve your outdoor landscaping with native plants:  Planting native plants will reduce the amount of water you need to irrigate your landscaping.
• Concrete countertops: Granite countertops are beautiful, but the process of excavating it from the earth is so invasive and not good for the environment.  Concrete countertops, if done right, look beautiful and have the solid-stone look.  There are also countertops on the market that are made of recycled paper.
• Use recycled materials when creating an addition to your home.
• Solar Panels:   Use them to heat your water or your pool.
• Use low or zero VOC paint:  Sherwin Williams and other major brands are now creating more eco-friendly paints made of less harsh pollutants. Look for zero VOC paint, and you’ll be breathing easier!

Do you have any tips for greening your home improvements or making home improvements that make your home more green?  Submit a comment with us to keep the green chat conversation going!

Check Out These Elite Green Hotel Certification Programs

The hotel industry is finally starting to catch up with the increasing consumer demand for sustainable, eco-friendly hotel accommodations.  We want to know that our travel is greener, because we choose hotels with green amenities.  At RezHub.com, one of our missions is to make travel more affordable to you and make it easier to find green hotels around the world.  But now the question is, which hotel properties are legitimately environmentally friendly?  A few elite green hotel certification programs have sprouted up, and we recommend them as credible and legitimate sources for certifying hotel properties to be green and sustainable. 

The Ultimate List of 60 Tips for Green Travel
There are many different articles and lists floating around about ways to make your travel more green, and we are in the business of doing everything that we can to help you engage in eco-friendly travel. So, we compiled a master list of tips for green travel. Feel free to bookmark and share this article for future reference. More... (Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:06:02 GMT)

Get Out Of The Cold And Into the Sun With These Great Caribbean Deals
Great deals on Caribbean destinationsMore... (Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:59:25 GMT)

The Movie “Food Inc.” and Green Chat

This past Wednesday we talked about the movie “Food Inc.” by Robert Kenner on our weekly Green Chat that happens every Wednesday on Twitter at 2pm eastern standard time.  We had a great discussion about the movie.  I watched it last week for the first time, and I must say that it was a huge eye opener for me in terms of how little consumers think or care about how animals are raised for consumption and the manufacturing process that occurs.  As consumers, we must stick up for ourselves and fight for what is right.  A few large companies are dominating the food industry, and they aren’t treating workers humanely, they aren’t treating animals humanely, and they’re genetically engineering crops to be resistant of herbicides.

Some of the Major Issues Brought Up In the Movie:

• Inhumane and unsanitary treatment of animals
• Inhumane and unsanitary treatment of workers
• Genetic altering of plant crops (specifically soybeans)
• Mass production of food leads to cheaper prices and unhealthier options for lower income families
• Monopoly on the food industry by few companies
• Corn being used in virtually everything we find in the supermarket

To see the transcript of our Green Chat, click here

Here’s a great video from ABC News Nightline about the movie Food Inc.  I like it because they interview the other side of the spectrum of people who work for governmental regulators and big agriculture companies, which is something the movie fails to do.  They claim that they contacted the companies mentioned in the movie and government officials but no one wanted to be interviewed for the movie.