KUCHING: Tune Hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, KLIA-LCCT Airport, Penang, Legian and Kuta in Bali, Indonesia will all turn off their main lobby and exterior lights tonight (March 27) from 8.30pm to 9.30pm to mark Earth Hour.
GREEN EFFORT: Tune Hotels will shut down main lobby and exterior lights tonight from 8.30pm to 9.30pm.
“This is just a small part of our on-going ‘Less waste, more earth’ green initiatives, which we try to do our part to encourage everyone to make smarter choices about the use of resources,” said Tune Hotels Group chief executive officer Mark Lankester in a press statement yesterday.
A guest from the Philippines VV Palarca pointed out that Tune Hotels utilises an affordable pay-as-you-use system for major energy consuming amenities like air conditioning (AC).
“I liked the hotel’s concern for energy conservation. To cut down on energy costs guests pay for the amount of AC used.
“Since we were out most of the time, our prepaid 12-hour AC lasted us our whole three nights stay,” added Palarca.
Optional AC is programmed into guest keycards via affordably priced ‘credit units’ of 12 hours for RM13.49 and 24 hours for RM21.
Ceiling fans are a standard feature in all Tune Hotels rooms for guests who prefer to consume even less power.
Tune Hotels regional head of operations Kishore Suppiah said: “Guests find the small charges very reasonable, yet as with everything, when you are fully aware of what a resource costs you, you tend to be more careful with how you use it.”
Kishore added that each room was only issued one keycard with power access to ensure that power in the room was not activated when guests are out.
“Hallway air-conditioners are set on a timer system so they turn on in alternate sequence to conserve energy and energy-efficient bulbs are used in the properties as much as possible,” said Kishore.
Tune Hotels also reduces water consumption and the flow of laundry effluents into the environment by renting towels, RM5 per piece inclusive of complimentary toiletries, and soon, allowing guests staying for more than one night to choose to have their bed linens changed on alternate days instead of daily.
“At home, most people are quite comfortable with not changing their towels and bed linens every single day; we are just allowing our guests to be just as sensible within our hotels,” said Kishore.
Other on-going efforts include incorporating ‘green principles’ into hotel design such as experimenting with open concept corridors that minimise AC requirements and placing recycling bins separating metal, plastic and paper in the hotels.
This year, Tune Hotels will bring their green efforts to their Danga Bay, Johor, Kota Damansara and London hotels, which have been well received, to date.
A video has also been produced to educate people and is available on YouTube.com at http://bit.ly/b3qt7B.
For more information or bookings, log on to www.tunehotels.com or call the Tune Hotels call centre on 03-79625888 from 9am to 9pm on weekdays (excluding public holidays).