How large and small hotels approach laundry sustainability

If you own a hotel and want to trim operating costs, finding ways to cut down on utilities and energy use should be top-of-mind. It was for Jacques D’Rovencourt, GM of the 1,200-room Hilton Americas-Houston, who had the hotel install a water-recycling system.

According to D’Rovencourt, the system was installed in September 2015 for $166,000, and through October 2017 the system saved the hotel $763,217. The system cleans wash water so that it can be reused in the laundry up to five times.

“It wasn’t a hard sell because the payback was fairly quick and we did our homework to ensure the rollout would be a success,” D’Rovencourt said. “The longer we have it, the better the savings.”

But what about smaller hotels? The 126-room Limelight Hotel Aspen in Colorado takes a unique approach by offering coin-operated laundry machines for guests and keeping three small commercial machines in its back of house to handle towels and rags. The rest of the hotel’s laundry is shipped off property.

When asked why the hotel opts to handle specific wash loads on property, Donn Williams, director of engineering, said the hotel’s operators decided the hotel’s needs didn’t warrant the cost of completely outsourcing.

“We have smaller PAR levels [Periodic Automatic Replenishment], and we also wanted to provide a convenience for guests,” he said. “Lower PAR levels simplify a lot of this, and the way the property is set up, we wanted a means to handle what we can and provide in-house services for guests.”

For some hotels, water savings is a necessity. Rafael Avalos, director of housekeeping at the Hilton Santa Fe (N.M.) Buffalo Thunder, said his resort recycles 500,000 gallons of water daily that is then transformed into grey water and used to irrigate the resort’s golf course.

“The water is used, cleaned and reused before it is diverted into the grey-water system,” he said. “Grey water goes through all 27 holes, and it doesn’t go anywhere else.”