How to save water in hotels?
We’ve worked with a lot of hotels to help them reduce their water consumption with 7,5% on average, allowing their guests to donate the litres saved to those who need it most.
By partnering with Made Blue Foundation, these hotels have lowered operational costs while significantly improving their environmental footprint. Read more to find out all the details.
water in hotels: A Major cost
Anyone who’s worked in a hotel knows that daily operations require large amounts of water. Hotel water consumption is a major operational cost and an environmental concern.
In the European hospitality industry, water usage is around 300 litres per guest per night, depending on the level of luxury. This is significantly higher than the water usage of a local resident: 144 litres per day on average.
An easy conclusion to draw from this is that the average hotel guests use more water in a hotel than they would at home. Wouldn’t it be great to bring these averages closer together and save money and the environment?
We help to save water in hotels
We are working with hotels that are participating in the Gift of Water programme, helping them to encourage their guests to be more mindful of their water use.
We’ve been tracking their water consumption for a whole year and have found that guests of these hotels consume an average of 149,25 litres of water per night. Thisis very close to the frontrunner benchmark of 140 litres mentioned in an article about Water management in the European hospitality sector.
Moreover, results show an average reduction in water use of 7,5%. Leading to significant cost reduction for (hot) water and labour.
Average water use in litres per guest per night with seasonal influences and 140 litres being the frontrunners benchmark as compared to the industry average of 250 litres per night.
A programme for water conservation
Hotels participating in The Gift of Water have reported average annual savings of € 6,600 for a 147-room property, demonstrating the tangible benefits of reducing water consumption throughout the hotel.
The table below further illustrates the water savings achieved by some of our partner hotels through the Made Blue program. On average they save 7,5% of water by simply applying our communication materials.
But there’s more, Among the many ambassadors of the Made Blue Foundation there are various companies that can help you save water in your hotel with, for example, water-saving shower heads, smart cleaning (machines), sustainable textiles, interactive IoT-shower sensors, and sensor taps.
Examples of hotels and their water use before and after joining The Gift of Water programme.
The benefit of reducing water use
Hotels not only save on (hot) water but also on labour costs because, for example, bed linen does not need to be changed as often when staying for several nights.
On top of that, they are supporting an important case: providing clean drinking water in developing countries. A 147 room hotel with 75% occupancy rate is providing more than 4 million litres of drinking water in our water projects.
In addition to this, participating in our programme demonstrates commitment to sustainability while involving guests. This ticks a lot of boxes in sustainable quality marks like Green Globe, Green Key, Green Tourism and the EU Ecolabel.
We’re excited to see our initiative to reduce water consumption has been successful, and eager to help many more hotels achieve the same results.
The gift of water
Your hotel guests consume a significant amount of water, resulting in substantial annual costs. Save water, save money, and impress your guests with our program The Gift of Water whilst making huge impact for the 703,000,000 people that still lack access to safe water.
Do you offer water service at your restaurant or provide complimentary water for guests in their rooms? We can offer you sustainable alternatives with a compelling narrative as well.