Future-proof your business water and reduce costs – hotels

Hotels rely on high water use. Every room has its own bathroom, which requires frequent towel and linen changes, and these all need to be washed. If you can add water for spa and swimming pool facilities to the list, your business water costs could be very high.

• Install water-saving devices
• Greywater recycling
• Leaks
• Emergency water

Luckily, growing environmental awareness has proved beneficial to hotels over the past few years. Even the most luxurious hotels offer guests staying more than one night the option to hang on to their towels to save water by not changing them daily. This has not only helped with hotels’ sustainability credentials and water savings; it has also saved them a lot of money in laundry bills!

Obviously, the whole point of running a hotel is to provide your guests with an experience they’ll enjoy. Water efficiency reminders, such as turning the taps off when brushing teeth or not to overfill the bath can be hard to demand from your guests, so any measures you take, have to be done by you.

Luckily there are a lot of measures you can take that will enable you to save substantial amounts of water as well as reducing costs.

Install water-saving devices

There are several water-saving devices that will save money. These include dual-flush toilets, urinal controls, waterless urinals, and sensor taps, as well as tap and showerhead aerators which can halve the amount of water needed without affecting the quality and enjoyment of the shower.

Greywater recycling

Your hotel produces a lot of what is known as ‘grey water’ - water that you can harvest from sinks, dishwashers and washing machines as well as rainwater collected by the drains. It is possible to divert greywater for alternative uses, such as flushing toilets, watering the grounds, or washing pavements and vehicles. As greywater isn’t clear, you may not want to use it for guest toilets, but you can divert it to staff toilets and the toilets in staff accommodation.

Using greywater can save more money than you’d think, as you’ll also save on your wastewater charges. Reusing water that would normally be flushed directly down the drain significantly reduces the water that enters the sewerage system. As you get charged for all the wastewater you produce as well as the clean water you consume, you could get a swift return on the investment you make in diverting your greywater.

Leaks

Leaks can be as big a problem for hotels as they can for any other business. The problem with leaks is that they can occur underground, so you may be completely unaware of a leak unless it causes flooding or structural damage. So, you could be paying for thousands of litres of clean water that you’re simply not using.

One extremely effective way to detect leaks is to monitor your water usage on a regular basis.

By submitting regular meter readings on MyAccount, you will get an idea of your hotel’s normal usage. This will enable you to assess the success of any water efficiency initiatives you make, and if your water usage suddenly rises with no other explanation, you can begin investigating for a leak. As a good example, we helped Swindon Borough Council detect a large underground leak that saved them an estimated quarter of a million pounds a year.

Emergency water

Although it is unlikely, it is still a possibility that a burst water main in your area could leave your hotel without any water for a while. If this did occur, you could be forced to find alternative accommodation for your guests, which will cost your business money on top of your loss of revenue. Talk to us about our water supply continuity and contingency planning where, if such an emergency did occur, we would deliver bulk water supplies and bottled drinking water to help see your business through the crisis with minimal disruption for your guests.

For more water saving tips, read our helpful Water Efficiency Guide. It’s packed with easy and practical quick wins to help your hotel save water and money.

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