GLOBAL UPDATE
The 35-room Draycott Hotel , located just around the corner from Chelsea ’ s Sloane Square and Kensington , is working to become the most eco-friendly boutique hotel in London .
ECO-CHIC
The 35-room Draycott Hotel is a relatively small luxury property with a big goal : to become the most eco-friendly boutique
BOUTIQUE hotel in London . “ I think a few years ago being green was a fashion statement ,” says General Manager Melissa Stoman . “ Now I think it ’ s a necessity .”
The Draycott has a list of initiatives including recycling cooking oil into biodiesel fuel , donating leftover guestroom toiletries to a local homeless charity and changing light bulbs to energy-saving LEDs . The hotel also promotes a “ Keen to be Green ” initiative that provides guests with walking maps , cycling routes and ideas for green days out . “ We wanted our guests to be able to participate in being environmentally friendly , but not necessarily in the standard way ,” Stoman explains . “ We also didn ’ t want it to look like a cost-cutting exercise .”
Going forward , Stoman hopes the Draycott will launch more community-oriented initiatives in addition to its eco-friendly projects . The hotel already participates in Ayoma Vision , for example , which allows it to collect various items such as beds and other furniture it no longer needs that are then shipped once a year to the Ayoma village in Ghana .
“ It ’ s all about service in a 5-star hotel , as it should be , and like any other business it ’ s about profitability ,” Stoman adds . “ But I think in the years to come we will see people search for hotels that are actively doing something to The Draycott ’ s “ Keen to be Green ” initiative provides guests with walking maps , cycling improve the environment .” routes and ideas for green days out .
VINE NEEDS TO RIPEN
Although there have been a smattering of successful early adoptions by individual properties like the The Cavendish Hotel ’ s # ValentineVine campaign , so far few hotel companies are on Vine . Vine , owned by Twitter , was the fastest-growing mobile application in 2013 and allows users to post 6-second videos .
Vine continues to have robust competition from Instagram Video , where hotel companies have a larger presence and see more engagement . However , hotels may not want to completely write off Vine , but rather watch and wait for a critical mass to build . Cisco projects more than twothirds of mobile data traffic will be video by 2018 , and Twitter is expected to continue refining the offering .
“ Currently we aren ’ t seeing many hotels using Twitter ’ s video social network , and you see minimal activity from early adopters and minimal engagement from their followers ,” says Benji Greenberg , co-founder and CEO , BCV , Chicago . “ However , I do think it ’ s imperative that all hotels start looking at video as a meaningful way to reach customers and generate interest in their product , and it begins with a shift in the way we think of hotel videos . This bite-sized format means you no longer need to spend a fortune to create a good-looking and engaging video . As the customer chooses to spend more time on social media and as video networks mature , hotels have to be ready to take advantage of the opportunity .”
VINE WAS THE FASTEST-
GROWING MOBILE APP OF 2013 , AND MORE THAN TWO-THIRDS
OF MOBILE
DATA TRAFFIC WILL BE VIDEO BY
2018 .
12 HOTELS May 2014 www . hotelsmag . com