How to reduce your water consumption effectively

Understand your current consumption
To track your progress, it’s important to start by measuring your current water consumption. This will give you insight into how you use water and where you can start making reductions. Setting a baseline also lets you see how much progress you make over time.

To calculate the water used per guest per night, divide the total monthly water used in your guest rooms by the number of guests for that month. If your utility bill is in cubic metres, you can compare your findings against your bill by multiplying the number of litres per guest by 0.0001.

For more information on how to start measuring your water usage, and to learn about the methodology used by the International Tourism Partnership, visit the ‘Setting the baseline’ section of this guide.

Create a straightforward system
Keep your systems simple. Make it clear to your guests that a towel hung up on the rail or hook means they’ll use it again, while a towel on the floor means they’d like it to be washed.

Think about easy ways for guests to signal to your housekeeping team that they’re happy to skip cleaning today. This can be as basic as a door hanger. Easy for guests to pop on the handle, and easy for employees to spot at a glance.

Prompt guests to consume consciously
Towel reuse and refusing housekeeping are one thing, but research shows guests themselves use more than 2.5 times the amount of water when they stay at a hotel. Put conscious consumption in their hands by asking them to be aware of the water they’re using.

One way to do this is to ask guests to take shorter showers – or better yet, let technology do that for you. For example, startup Hydrao has created a showerhead that uses lights to show guests their water usage in real-time. This gives them a nudge to get out before they start over-consuming.

Keep information simple and specific
When communicating to your guests, use language that is easy to understand. Avoid difficult words and keep explanations as simple as possible. At the same time, be specific – vague messages can be frustrating. Go beyond ‘be green’ or ‘save water’ and give guests clear instructions for what to do.

Try different ways to get your guests on board
What’s persuasive for one guest might not be for another. When writing information about your sustainability initiatives, try using different persuasion techniques that complement each other. Here are some of our suggestions:

Reinforce habits from home
Research suggests that linking an action to what guests normally do at home can work better than environmental messaging. A couple of examples might be: ‘Use your towel again, just like you do at home.’ or ‘Make yourself at home and please reuse your towel.’

Use social norms
Studies have shown that information about how many other guests reuse towels incentivises others to do it too. Think things like: ‘x% of weekend guests choose to skip housekeeping during their stay.’ or ‘x% of people at {property} use their towels again.’

Make people feel good
Show your guests that, by making sustainable choices, they can have real positive impact. This means including information about positive outcomes and writing in a non-threatening way. Make them feel good – not guilty – about their travel decisions.

Consider an incentive scheme
Another way to encourage your guests to reuse their towels – or forgo having their sheets changed so often – is to reward them. Some properties are now offering points that guests can exchange for a free drink or a discount, while others make a charitable donation for each reused towel.

If this doesn’t sound like something you could offer at your property, try getting your team together to come up with solutions that would work for you.

Educate your housekeeping staff
Your housekeeping team will be vital to the success of your towel reuse and cleaning-reduction initiatives – and there are also many other ways they can contribute to your conservation goals. Make sure you put training in place covering your new processes and all the other ways they can help save water. These include not removing towels if the guest has indicated reuse, keeping toilet flushes to a minimum during cleaning, not leaving the taps running and using a mop to wash floors (instead of a hose).

Show travellers what you’re doing
Once you start to implement measures to reduce your water consumption – or if you’ve already got some in place – you can communicate this to travellers.

Have you implemented any of these practices to reduce water use?

• Guests have the option of reusing towels
• Guests can opt out of daily cleaning service
• You only use water-efficient toilets, such as low-flow or dual flush toilets
• You only use water-efficient showers, such as smart showers or low-flow showerheads