Green Hotels Growth Continues

Our green hotel guide continues to expand as we near the end of the year. We have over 3,000 places rated and many hundreds more to come. We have recently been adding the rating icon and information to each regular listing as well. So even someone who isn't looking for a green hotel will see it in the city pages and maybe it will spark some thought and consideration.

We are currently getting more and more information on RV Parks that are interested in this as well. We just haven't quite set something up yet for them. Do we include them and just make it an overall green lodging of any kind guide? Or do we keep them separate? One could argue that camping in general is more green. But then you factor in the types of RV Parks out there and the gas guzzlers using them, and it's not so green. But we're not rating guests, just the establishments.

And should we give hotels negative ratings for extreme carelessness? This would probably be made up of golf resorts and casinos at the start.

Let us know what you think.

Walmart Pushing Green Trucks

Wal-mart, with the second largest truck fleet on the road, is pushing semi manufacturers to build a hybrid truck. They hope to be testing the first models in 2008.

We only mention this because of our green view point and the fact that we have our overnight parking guides which includes Wal-mart.

Green Hotel Rating System

AllStays has had a green hotel guide since early 2005. We were the first travel website to do so when it wasn't getting much respect or attention. But now it is getting more and more popular as we add and expand it on a weekly basis. Now we are taking it to another level.

We are currently rolling out our Green Hotel Rating System. It is now being added to our Green Hotel section, which includes motels, bed and breakfasts and retreats. The system breaks down lodging with 24 green aspects and then rates the hotel based on how many of those a property is integrating and running. An icon is added for easy reference, along with the list of the aspects at that hotel. Easy to read and spot what that property is doing to make a difference.

Our green rating system will be expanded and added to all normal section listings over the near future as well. Over three thousand lodging places have been rated so far.

Arizona Green Hotels

We just added 4 green and environmentally friendly hotels today in Arizona.

Under Sedona green hotels, we now have the Bell Rock Inn, Junipine Creekside Resort, Los Abrigados Resort, the Southwest Inn at Sedona and the Wildflower Inn.

As always, when you make your reservation, please let them know you are making your decisions based on their environmental practices. When you are making a reservation at other hotels, ask them what they do to minimize their impact on the environment. Do they use florescent lights or even better, LED lights? During holiday season, do they use LED lights that use a fraction of the power of normal holiday lighting? Do they let you re-use your towel or sheets? Do they use recyclable products? There are many more things that can impact the environment but these are just a few.

Make Your Hotel More Green

How often do you change your sheets at home? How many towels do you use each day at home? Not three? So why let your hotel change every thing out every day you are staying there? We can help make normal hotels more of a green hotel while we are there. Keep your towels and sheets for your three night stay and you save 66% of the hotel's laundry emissions.

Hotel guests use double the utilities at hotels than they do at home. I admit to have taken longer showers and baths, lingering in the luxury at hotels. But the costs to the world are the same. You may be on vacation, celebrating something special, on the company dime or feel what you are paying in the nightly rate justifies using everything...but the impact on the environment comes out the same. And you can impact it.

Use the suggestion box and help make hotels more green:

Allow you to keep your linens for the stay.
Use eco friendly cleaning products.
Use recycled products wherever possible.
Use refillable toiletry dispensers.
Turn down AC and heat in empty rooms.
Use compact fluorescent light bulbs and upgrade exit signs to LED models.
Recycle
Use daylight as much as possible in public areas. Install skylights!
Offer discounted rates to environmental/outdoors related groups for meetings and events.
Don't print the bill when it can be emailed. Give us the option.

Flying Green

There really is no such thing as flying green. Flying is a huge waste of resources and pollution to our planet. But when you think you have to fly, there are a few things to think about.

Fly direct whenever possible. Landing and takeoffs consume the most fuel. Takeoffs can use 25% of the fuel for short flights. Try to avoid flights of 600 miles or less.

Can you take a train instead? It is the best way to go if you can spend the time and enjoy the countryside. Or even a car? The share of pollution for one person on a cross country flight is equivalent to driving a SUV for a full day and night.

Fly during daylight hours. Some studies suggest that contrails, the white water vapor lines in the sky trailing after a jet, trap heat and encourage the formation of high-altitude cirrus clouds which in turn holds more heat in the atmosphere.

Fly newer jets. They are more fuel efficient and if more people made this distinction, it could increase demand for newer planes.

One planet, one home, one future for humanity.

California Green Hotels

We added about 18 green and eco friendly hotels today in California and a couple in Arizona. We have another dozen to add in other states over the next day or two. The movement keeps moving forward as more and more places take action to minimize their impact on the planet.

When you make reservations, please let them know you are making your decisions based on their environmental practices. When you are making a reservation at other hotels, ask them what they do to minimize their impact on the environment. Do they use florescent lights? Do they allow you to re-use your towel or sheets during your stay? You probably don't wash your bedding every single day at home so why do it at a hotel?

Solar Powered Hotel

Did you know that the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto is solar powered? It is the only solar powered hotel in California at this time. With all the roof space out there, we hope that more places will do this as well.

The installation of rooftop solar panels keeps the business activity environmentally friendly. This solar technology uses the sun's energy and illumination to provide electricity for heat, light and hot water, which means less consumption of fossil fuels as well as reduction of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.