{"id":176,"date":"2016-02-23T19:54:46","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T02:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/?p=176"},"modified":"2016-02-23T21:06:12","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T04:06:12","slug":"1-hotels-taking-hospitality-to-a-natural-new-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/2016\/02\/23\/1-hotels-taking-hospitality-to-a-natural-new-level\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Hotels: Taking Hospitality to a Natural, New Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

When deciding on a hotel for an upcoming vacation, what factors do you take into consideration? Are you very price-conscious or are you willing to pay more for a high-quality experience? These decision factors vary diversely for consumers with differing demographic, psychographic, and lifestyle characteristics. As a student\u00a0who studied abroad and travelled Europe last year, \u00a0price was my most important decision factor (I was\u00a0on a tight<\/em> budget). However, I also used location (convenience) and user reviews to narrow down my options. As we learned in class yesterday, I did not take the social or environmental externality cost<\/em> into my decision factors when I considered the price charged by each hotel.\u00a0Perhaps, if you fall into the \u201cLOHAS” or \u201cNaturalities” segment<\/a>s\u00a0(sustainability-minded and\/or concerned about personal health) you might consider staying at hotels that monitor their environmental footprint or offer organic products for a premium. But what about consumers who fall under the \u201cConventional”, \u201cDrifter” or \u201cUnconcerned\u201d <\/em>segments, who account for more than 60% of the market? For hotels that hope to add value and target many travellers, each with different attitudes towards sustainability, it is essential to be \u201cGreat First, and Green Second.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"loungearea1\"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Lounge area at 1 Hotels South Beach<\/p><\/div>\n

One hotel that is proving “sustainably and style can coexist\u201d<\/a> is \u00a01 Hotels<\/a>, which currently has two locations\u00a0in Central Park, NY and South Beach, Miami.\u00a0When you think of an environmentally-concience hotel, you might assume that the materials used will lack durability or be of lower quality. However, 1 Hotels is positioned as as a\u00a0luxury hotel (it costs $635\/night to stay at the Miami \u00a0location) that uses the beauty of the environment to \u201ccreate refreshing experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Outdoor Patio Bar at 1 Hotels South Beach<\/p><\/div>\n

Within each LEED certified hotel, you can expect to find: over 24,000 plants; rooms that provide natural lighting, organic towels\/bath products and a triple filtered water system; fresh, organic food menu options; and all furniture, floors, doors, and walls made from reclaimed wood (Full List \u00a0 \u00a0 Here<\/a>). In addition to adding value for green consumers, 1 Hotels caters to other consumer segments (Drifters or Unconcerned) by choosing ideal locations and offering a high-quality experience \u00a0with many amenities (i.e. fully equipped 24 hour gym).<\/p>\n

Given that 1 Hotels is following many of the sustainable strategies for product design,\u00a0<\/em>such as\u00a0<\/em>using\u00a0recycled content, sourcing organically grown materials, and being water-efficient (Ottoman, 2011), I believe that it is an extremely front-thinking<\/em> company. On its website, the company states that is constantly evolving<\/em>, which we have learned is an important component in a sustainable product or service design. In the long-term, 1 Hotel\u2019s goal is to positively impact the environment and “reinvent the industry standard for socially responsible hospitality.\u201d If successful, it is likely we will see more hotels using this model in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A two-bed room at 1 Hotels Central Park<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When deciding on a hotel for an upcoming vacation, what factors do you take into consideration? Are you very price-conscious or are you willing to pay more for a high-quality experience? These decision factors vary diversely for consumers with differing demographic, psychographic, and lifestyle characteristics. As a student\u00a0who studied abroad and travelled Europe last year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13981,"featured_media":196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[289521],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-sustainability-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13981"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alexandrajoyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}