My letter in Today Voices Online on 2nd Nov 2015.
Note: I wrote to the SHA in April 2010. [please see email below].
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“Promote better security, green practices in hotels”
I applaud the Hotel Security Awards organisers for promoting security consciousness in the hospitality industry (“83 hotels awarded for high security standards”; Oct 22, online).
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November 2, 2015 in Today Voices Online
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I applaud the Hotel Security Awards organisers for promoting security consciousness in the hospitality industry (“83 hotels awarded for high security standards”; Oct 22, online).
I hope the Singapore Hotel Association (SHA) will encourage existing hotels to upgrade their security hardware and software to ensure that the safety of hotel patrons is enhanced, and not compromised.
Going forward, the SHA should require hotel owners to have their building plans certified by approved hotel security consultants and the authorities, to ensure that adequate security measures are in place.
Just as importantly, the SHA should promote green practices. Many hotels overseas allow their more environmentally conscious guests to choose to not have housekeeping each day, in return for a discount, for example, in their food and beverage outlets.
It is a win-win situation for hotels and guests. The hotel’s bottom line would benefit from cost savings, the use of less manpower and higher productivity while reducing the use of cleaning chemicals and the harm to the environment.
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My letter, the original text:
I refer to “83 hotels awarded for high security standards’ [Today, 22nd Oct 2015].
I applaud Singapore Hotel Association for promoting security consciousness in the hospitality industry.
Equally of importance is for SHA to promote green-environment practices by the use of less manpower to attain higher productivity.
Many hotels overseas have the no-cleaning of hotel guests’ room policy. They allow their more environmentally conscious guests to choose and support the programme in return for a discount in their F&B outlets.
It is a win-win situation for hotels and guests. The hotel’s bottom line would benefit from cost savings, the use of less manpower and reducing the use of toxic cleaning chemicals that are harmful to the environment.
In our tight labour situation, I hope the SHA will encourage existing hotels to renovate and upgrade their security hardware and software to ensure that the safety and security of hotel patrons is enhanced, and not compromised.
Going forward, the SHA should require hotel owners to have their building plans certified by approved hotel security consultants and the authorities, to ensure that comprehensive and adequate security measures are in place.
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My email to SHA in April 2010:
From: tan kok tim [mailto:tankoktim@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010
To: secretariat@sha.org.sg
Cc: cutwaste@mof.gov.sg
Subject: Hotels – not cleaning of guests’ room programme
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I visited your website and noted that there are 150 hotels in Singapore .
I hope hotels in Singapore have the policy not to clean hotel guests’ rooms as it can improve the bottom-line from cost savings, improve productivity, and help promote the environment go-green efforts.
In Stamford Land Corporation’s website: http://www.stamford.com.au, they have such a policy.
They have saved a few hundred thousand dollars since the programme was implemented in 2006.
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Stamford was probably the first hotel Group in the world to have implemented such a cost-savings and environmentally-friendly programme four years ago.
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While most hotel chains in the world have similar programmes, some only go as far as not to replace bath towels or change bed linen. The saving is minimal. Stamford programme is different.
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Stamford Group has improved on the programme of other hotel chains to go much further by allowing guests the option of not requesting to have their entire rooms cleaned by housekeeping, a world’s first.
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Guests are given the option and if they choose not to have their rooms cleaned, they are given a F&B discount voucher and this helps to draw business into the hotels’ outlets. A win-win situation for both the hotel and the guests.
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This unique programme won Stamford the Golden Green Globe Award from the Sustainable Energy Development Authority in NSW.
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I believe some other hotel groups could have copied the Stamford programme by now. I hope more hotel groups worldwide including those in Singapore will implement this programme for the sake of the environment.
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If you wish to know about this Go-Green programme and to encourage the 150 hotels in Singapore to implement this programme, please visit the Stamford website for more details. The link: http://www.stamford.com.au/packages/grow-a-greener-future
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I hope SHA will inform the 150 hotels in Singapore about this programme as soon as possible.
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My further comments:
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Worldwide, on average 200 countries x 100 hotels x 100 rooms in each hotel = 2 million rooms per day around the world. [Singapore has 150 hotels].
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If on average some 10% of the 10 million rooms per day are not cleaned [an achievable assumption], it would mean lots of savings on labour, materials, chemicals, and pollution.
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If savings is S$10 per day on 200,000 rooms [10% of 2m rooms per day = 200,000 rooms per day] = S$2m of savings a day, or S$730 million savings a year.
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It will be a great contribution by the hotel industry in their go-green efforts to reduce environmental pollution.
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I can see this ‘no cleaning of hotel room programme’ is spreading like wild fire across the globe.
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I am glad to be able to be of use to the hotel industry indirectly on this go-green programme for the sake of all mankind’s efforts in promoting a go-green environment.
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tankoktim 