BEST WESTERN PLUS Kamloops jumps at every opportunity presented to them, in order to stay on the cusp of the Green Hotel movement. By putting green objectives at the top of their priority list, BEST WESTERN PLUS Kamloops has become a role model to which we all should pay attention.
Best Western International has written best practices policies into their corporate guidelines. It is then up to the individual hotel location owner which policies they would like to implement into their hotel. BEST WESTERN PLUS Kamloops has picked up this ball and run with it! In a recent phone interview, General Manager Tim Rodgers let me know what BEST WESTERN PLUS Kamloops has been doing to stay green lately:
“The BEST WESTERN PLUS Kamloops Hotel does everything in our power to conserve the environment. We use WAVE dispensers in guest washrooms to eliminate the waste that would be caused by single use amenities. We must still provide guests with the option of using bar soap, but any left-over soap is recycled and sent to third world countries for them to use. We also use a new ozone based cleaning solution called Lotus Pro that contains 95% less environmentally harmful chemicals when cleaning guest rooms. All heat used for public areas, hot water and the pool, is generated with Geothermal Technology which allows us to reduce energy use associated with heating by 35%!”.
Aside from all of these things that BEST WESTERN PLUS Kamloops is doing to stay green at their hotel location, they also promote eco-friendly activities for their guests to partake in, when staying there. Tim Rodgers suggests, “People come to the BEST WESTERN PLUS Kamloops Hotel to stay active. We get a lot of people that are touring the area to visit local golf courses, like the prestigious Tobiano Golf Course (shown right). There are also a lot of other activities going on in Kamloops; it’s an area where people come to go out and do stuff.” Their website details several activities in the area such as: Skiing, biking, fishing, hiking, and sports. By encouraging people to go out and enjoy nature while there, BEST WESTERN PLUS Kamloops is providing an incentive for travelers to care about the environment and see for themselves what’s at stake, should we lose focus of what’s important!