New Lighting Made Easy program offers 205 members
free GE Lighting audits and easy electronic specifying and ordering of energy-efficient hospitality lighting solutions
LAS VEGAS—Dec. 10, 2002—Members of the expanding lodging organization tagged “The Best Value Inn North America Dollar for Dollar, Coast to Coast,” are just days away from “seeing the light”: $ignificant value hidden in their monthly lighting bills.
Green Suites International, lodging’s leading provider of profitable solutions with environmental benefits, plans to showcase its Lighting Made Easy program — offering hotels complimentary GE Lighting audits and easy electronic specifying and ordering of energy-efficient hospitality lighting solutions — at Best Value Inn Brand Membership Inc.’s annual convention at the
Monte Carlo Las Vegas Resort & Casino Dec. 8-11.
First, The Bad News: According to a recent PKF Consulting report, utility expenses for the typical U.S. hotel rose 7 percent in 2001 — despite a 5.2 percent average drop in occupancy, 9.9 percent decline in total revenue and overall 5.2 percent reduction in operating costs.
Now, The Good News: In every crisis, there also lies opportunity. Lighting typically accounts for 40 percent of a property’s total electrical bill and this portion of the expense pie can be reduced up to 70 percent with new energy-efficient hospitality lighting solutions.
Even Terry Jordan, Owner/Operator of the Best Value El Rancho Motel in Moses Lake, Wash. — where electricity costs just
2 to 3 cents per kilowatt (one-third to one-fifth the rate in many other markets in the U.S.) — has “seen the light” with regard to the inherent value of Green Suites’ Lighting Made Easy program.
“We were using 40-watt bulbs in our exterior lights because higher-wattage incandescent bulbs burned our sockets right out,” Jordan said. “With Green Suites’ Lighting Made Easy program, we were able to retrofit about 35 of these exterior passageway lights with 60-watt compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. We’ve really increased the lumens output and our guests view the increased brightness as increased safety and security.”
Although the compact fluorescent bulbs are approximately 50-percent brighter, they actually consume a little less energy than their old-style 40-watt incandescent counterparts.
“Even though our county is among the lowest in electricity rates in our nation, even we still can save a little money through Lighting Made Easy,” Jordan said. “As other incandescents burn out in our 20 guestrooms, we’re making the switch to
energy-efficient CFL’s ordered simply and quickly through Green Suites’ e-mailable Lighting Made Easy Order/Spec form.
I can only imagine the bottom-line savings that would stem from a switch to energy-efficient lighting for our members located in other areas of Washington, as well as in Oregon, California and elsewhere throughout the country.”
“About 3 months ago, a number of our hotel clients participated in a customer focus group that helped us develop a
user-friendly, environmentally-friendly program to specify and re-order energy-efficient lighting,” said Dan Bornholdt, President and Founder of Upland, Calif.-based Green Suites International. “Hotels were looking for a streamlined purchasing process with customizable, simple-to-use, easy-to-print, -fax or -email monthly lighting re-order forms — and that’s exactly what we’re now delivering through our Lighting Made Easy program.”
Advantages of having each property’s standard energy-efficient lighting information — from model numbers, specifications and drawings, to pricing and quantities needed — all on one form include:
• Saving time and money on the process of purchasing lighting;
• Ensuring ordering errors are virtually eliminated;
• Further automating and expediting inventory restocking;
• Displaying all cost information for more-accurate budgeting and forecasting.
“Our Lighting Made Easy program and its long-awaited electronic order forms cater directly to the needs of the hospitality industry,” said Ray Burger, VP Marketing & Sales for Green Suites International. “Once a customized template of lighting requirements is established, hotels need only fill in the quantities they need by each ‘speced’ energy-efficient lighting solution and then click and e-mail their orders.”
“It’s not rocket science, but that’s why it works,” said Jim Schmidt, GE Lighting’s Market Development Manager. “Green Suites’ Lighting Made Easy program brings it all together for independent hotels, membership organizations, franchisors, franchisees and management companies, so they can easily and efficiently track their lighting needs and place orders.”
Taking a customer-oriented approach, Green Suites International designed the electronic form so that it could be used by the greatest number of customers. Utilizing a simple “click and type” format, it does not require an Internet connection to use, and can be used with virtually any computer system. Once the form is completed electronically, it can be printed for record-keeping purposes, as well as copied and mailed with other supporting documents — or, ideally, e-mailed, shared and saved without paper consumption.
“While this doesn’t change the entire world, we believe it is an important step toward more-efficient paperless purchasing — saving our trees and reducing our clients’ purchasing-related labor and costs,” Burger said. “At Green Suites International, we’re all about developing and delivering profitable lodging solutions with environmental benefits — and our new Lighting Made Easy program fits right into our mission.”
Roger Bloss, Best Value Inn CEO, concurred.
“In these economically challenging times, we encourage all of our members to continue to look for ways to tighten their belts and become more competitive,” Bloss said. “Green Suites’ Lighting Made Easy program offers our members an easy, free way to explore whether they’re capturing their properties’ full value through minimized electricity consumption and related costs. With free audits and ongoing rebates in many markets, energy-efficient lighting can be a zero-risk gamble with a big payback.”
Best Value Inn is a three-year-old membership organization with 205 member properties. The Best Value brand — through Best Value Inn, Best Value Inn & Suites, Best Value Inn Hotel and Best Value Inn Extended Stay — has attracted 205 members operating different-sized properties in variety of market segments in locations spread from coast to coast. In the past year,
the organization has grown its membership 23 percent through conversions and new builds. Adding, on average, one property every 3.5 days — one industry publication recently named Best Value Inns the second-fastest growing lodging brand in the country. For more information on Best Value Inn, and its rapidly growing brand value, services and extremely competitive fee structure, please visit www.bestvalueinns.com or call Membership Services at 888-316-BEST (2378).
Based in Upland, Calif., Green Suites International is lodging’s leading provider of profitable solutions with environmental benefits. Thousands of hotels in every state and more than one dozen countries use Green Suites International’s natural bathroom amenities delivered from elegant dispensers, non-toxic cleaners, air and water filtration systems, and energy and water efficient products and programs. For more information on Lighting Made Easy or Green Suites International, contact Ray Burger, VP Sales & Marketing, at 888-590-2285, e-mail rburger@greensuites.com, and visit www.greensuites.com.
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