New hotness or water-saving gimmick?
This Oyster reporter recently got back from a trip to San Francisco, a place we already thought of as green because of LEED-certified properties like the Orchard and Orchard Garden hotels. But while many eco-initiatives happen behind the scenes, water conservation was front and center in the bathrooms of the San Francisco Marriott Union Square, which completed a full top-to-bottom renovation in April 2009.
The Dual Max toilet we found in our standard King Room lets guests decide whether to use a scant 0.9 gallons or still-conservative 1.6 gallons per flush. It’s a system we’ve seen before in Europe but only rarely in the U.S. In the coming years, though, dual flush toilets might become more commonplace, as the fancy commodes are just $100 or so more expensive than standard toilets, making them a relatively cheap way to “green up” rooms.
But as planet friendly as the Dual Max toilet may be, it still can’t compete on earth awareness with a water-saving gizmo at San Francisco’s Good Hotel: An automatic toilet-top sink that recycles grey water on every flush.
by admin on September 3, 2009
Bathroom mirror TV's: Not what we mean by 'radical innovation'
Here at the ol’ Oyster HQ, we like to think we’ve seen it all – but, uh, we haven’t. And neither have you.
No, seriously: have you seen the plans for a hotel suspended over the Grand Canyon? No? Thought so.
Business Week gave us the heads up on a little something called the Radical Innovation in Hospitality Awards, a program aimed to “discover, identify and explore ‘radically innovative hospitality concepts’ that are either currently open and operating, in the development stage, or in conceptual form.”
And these aren’t your typical hotel “innovation” ideas like in-room workout kits or TV’s in bathroom mirrors – oh, no, no. This year’s award nominees (the program is in its third year) are a wee bit more – dare we say – radical. Out there. “Ridic,” as the kids say these days.
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We were leafing through some old travel magazines Wednesday—what happens at your office?—when we stumbled on a cool article in the November 2008 issue of Travel+Leisure. They’d rounded up a bunch of their favorite locally sourced minibar products—and we were inspired to do the same.
Chips from a farm just down the road
What: North Fork Potato Chips, made on an environmentally minded farm in Long Island
Where: Mandarin Oriental New York
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by admin on August 26, 2009
The world's fanciest Starbucks?
‘Twas in a binder on the desk of a Waldorf-Astoria guest room where we happened upon Exhibit A, which suggests that, apparently, old lady Waldorf has the fanciest Starbucks in all the land. Yes, it would appear that this particular outpost of the corporate coffee palace has a dress code.
Though “smart casual” is certainly open to interpretation, we understood it to mean that adding flip-flops to the ensemble we wore the previous night and sauntering into the ‘bucks for our post-dawn venti Americano was not acceptable.
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