Rafayel Hotel London

Location

UK, London

Description of the hotel

Going green is rarely associated with luxury hotels. A tall building in London, one of the busiest cities in the world, hardly brings to mind sustainable practices. Yet this is exactly what Rafayel hotel is – one of the first 5-star eco-friendly hotels.

65 luxurious rooms and 23 apartments + boardroom, conference lounge, and roof terrace. The hotel occupies four floors of a 17-floor building.

Goal

Create an environmentally sustainable 5-star hotel where being green doesn’t compromise style, luxury, or comfort.

In their mission statement, the management clearly states that they “see (themselves) as establishing a culture, and a movement of change”. The hotel made a 20% carbon footprint reduction thanks to all the innovative solutions that they implemented right from the architectural design stage up to continuous daily improvements.

Step by step (how they did it)

The hotel was designed in the first place to minimise the use of resources. Other green measures have been added over time.

Awards

The hotel was awarded the Wandsworth Overall Green Business Champion 2011 Award, winner of Best Environmental Innovation, and runner-up in the Carbon Reduction Achievement and the Best Green Business category.

Check out what Rafayel Hotel has done, and browse through our resources – some will be useful for your business!

SMART BUILDING – Rafayel hotel was designed from the very beginning to be as sustainable as possible.

For instance, the building uses only low-energy LED lighting, which is up to 80% more efficient than halogen light bulbs. The hotel’s low-energy air-conditioning management system transfers heat from warmer to cooler parts of the building. This leads to big energy savings. Additionally, the room automation system installed in the hotel gives guests control of their lighting, heating, and air conditioning. The system allows each room to use an individual setting.

Start with small changes in your building

You may not have the luxury of designing your own building from scratch and installing state-of-the-art systems and solutions. Nonetheless, replicating some of the Rafayel Hotel’s most distinct features could help you make great steps towards sustainability.

Start by checking what light bulbs you use and start installing only energy-efficient LED lamps. If you have individual thermostats in every room, place information in guests’ rooms about setting the right temperature and closing the windows (download the brochure) and instruct your cleaning staff to set the thermostats back to standard levels as part of the actions they do every day when cleaning each room.

Read our article about lighting and simple changes.

MAKE GOOD USE OF THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE IN YOUR LOCATION: Rafayel Hotel is known for its rainwater harvesting system, which captures water from the hotel’s rooftop terraces and car-park-cover. The water is used for the irrigation of green areas.

Make good use of rainwater or used water

If your hotel is located in an area where it rains regularly, you might consider installing a rainwater harvesting system.

If, on the other hand, water is scarce in your area, an alternative is to consider installing greywater recycling systems to reclaim the water used in the showers, sinks, and dishwashers. This is particularly cost-effective when done as part of major renovations.

The recovered non-potable water can then be used for toilet flushing or irrigation.

For more information, read the best practices on rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling.

Use less to generate less waste

One of Rafayel Hotel’s goals is to cut waste. In order to accomplish this goal, they introduced a NO PLASTIC policy. No plastic containers are to be found in the hotel – Rafayel serves drinking water in glass bottles. They limit printing to the necessary minimum (which not only means saving paper, but also using fewer ink cartridges), and guests have access to digital newspapers. All waste that cannot be avoided is recycled.

While replacing individual plastic bottles with glass jars may seem like a decrease in comfort for your guests, the exact opposite is true – large hotel chains in the world and luxury places like the Rafayel have been keen to sell this change to their customers as a step forward in reducing their carbon footprint. With the correct marketing, a switch from plastic bottled water to glass jars of tap water can become an exceptional (even considered exclusive) positive point. Convince more guests to stay at your hotel by demonstrating that you care about environmentally sound practices.

Another way to reduce waste is to investigate and identify which areas of the hotel generate waste. Try buying detergents in bigger containers and replacing single-use toiletries with refillable dispensers. Choosing toiletry products of outstanding quality (e.g. with green credentials such as the EU Ecolabel) will ensure that your customers do not feel that their comfort has been reduced. Additionally, if you buy these quality products in bulk, you can purchase them for less while maintaining a luxurious standard of toiletry products. In the long run, you can even end up saving on toiletry costs.

For more ideas, read our article about moving towards zero waste.