The Refinishing Touch Blog

Last week we were happy to announce that we completed a refinishing project for the historic Bancroft Hotel in Berkeley, California as part of a large scale renovation that the hotel is undergoing. As you may have seen previously, we were excited to announce this news as we are very proud of this particular project.

The Bancroft Hotel, built in 1928, was designed by noted Bay Area architect Walter T. Steilberg and has come to be known for its historic charm, personalized service and eco-friendly practices. Located directly across the street from the University of California at Berkeley and next door to the Berkeley Art Museum, the Bancroft is part of the rich and diverse history of the Bay Area.

Our work with the Bancroft involved us renovating key pieces of the Bancroft’s furniture while preserving the character and style of the original designs that were drawn up for the hotel in 1928. Specifically, we refurbished armoires, transforming them into desks to save them from landfill and to fit the newly renovated hotel rooms.

We were thrilled to engage with the Bancroft on this particular project because of the hotel’s drive to remain in line with its historical roots while promoting sustainability in the hospitality sector. For the past 15 years, the Bancroft Hotel has brought comfort and sustainability to its guests. Here’s to the Bancroft and to another 15 years of bringing green hospitality to California travelers.

We’ve shared our thoughts several times about the potential for the US Government to save costs and reduce landfill waste through furniture refinishing and recycling – after all, it owns one of the largest furniture assets in the world.

An article on this topic written by our CEO, Mario Insenga, titled “Maximizing the Old,” has just been published in this month’s edition of Defense Communities (September/October edition). In it, Mario shares his thoughts on the benefits of having more military installations utilize refurbishing in order to save budgets and the environment at the same time. Instead of throwing away old furniture, government agencies could save up to 80% of new furniture's cost by choosing refurbishing rather than continually purchasing new furniture. Changing the Government’s policies is no easy task, but surely the savings it could produce should make it an easy decision.

We are delighted at the opportunity to appear in Defense Communities, a publication that reaches over 4,500 military housing professionals and managers in related areas. It represents a huge section of people who have the potential to help us advance the sustainability initiatives of the Government. We hope the readers take it to heart, and help us to make a big change.

If you would like a copy of the article, please contact us at marketing@therefinishingtouch.com

This past Tuesday we announced a recent project that we completed with the historic Bancroft Hotel in Berkeley, California. We were thrilled to see a great piece from Kristen Geis on TerraCurve.com detailing the project, and were especially proud of the work we did for the Bancroft because of the property’s history, the story of its furniture and the shared commitment between the Bancroft Hotel and all of us here at The Refinishing Touch to make the project as eco-friendly as possible.

Illegal logging of rare and endangered species has always been a problem. The use of such wood to make hardwood floors and furniture, which are highly sought after by some unscrupulous – and some simply ill-informed consumers, has given a huge incentive for loggers to continue with their activities, even in the face of huge fines and possible prison sentences.

There are several challenges. Firstly, the trees felled are rare and endangered species and as a result of the logging soon to be extinct. Secondly, millions of people depend on these trees for their livelihood. Finally these activities result in a heavy financial loss for governments, who are missing out on tax revenue that loggers do not pay, as well as a loss of revenue to the tune of more than $10 billion according to World Bank estimates.

Even though laws currently exist to combat the illegal trade of timber, one of the biggest problems that faced environmentalists in the fight against illegal logging was the difficulty in determining the source of illegal timber. This, however, is set to change with the development of a new DNA-based technique that could accurately track down where a particular piece of timber comes from.

Double Helix Tracking Technologies (DHTT), based in Singapore [link], extracts DNA samples in the forest and builds databases. Later DNA tests allow them to identify which forest a piece of furniture comes from, says Shankar Iyerh, Head of research, development and operations for DHTT.

This provides environmentalists with a new tool in their fight against illegal loggers, but they can only do so much. The real source of change ultimately rests in the hands of the customer. As long as there is a demand for endangered wood based products, illegal logging will continue to be a problem. Customers need to be more aware of the sources of the products that they are buying. If customers actively decide to stick to certified sources, illegal logging will diminish.

We at TRT are committed to only utilizing sustainable sources. We applaud the advent of Double Helix Tracking Technologies DNA tracking system and hope it will provide invaluable help in the fight against illegal logging.

As we alluded to in Tuesday's post on the difficulties hotels are currently facing, the rough seas of the economy might be calming for the industry, and its lifeboat may not be far away.

Analysts are expecting the hotel industry to bottom out near the end of this year. This week Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, stated that he believes the recession is ‘likely over’. And as the economy trends up, so too inevitably will those travel and hospitality-related budgets.

Other good news: PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) forecast, also announced this week, talked of improved economic conditions and expectations that lodging will stabilize throughout 2010. Occupancy is expected to rise 1.1% from 2009 levels (compared to a 5% decrease from 2008 to 2009). Despite continued pricing pressure, PwC expects demand to rise again and RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) will be fairly constant.

The hotel operators that weather the economy will find themselves in a tremendous position for growth and the opportunity to pick up discounted assets and as the economy continues recovery throughout 2010, they will be able to profit.

And there’s money out there. For example, the Starwood Property Trust raised $810 million in an IPO a few weeks ago [link] that it could invest in just those assets, LaSalle Hotel Properties has raised $260 million which could be used to make deals and Host Hotels & Resorts has more than $1 billion to throw into the ring. And Hyatt is looking to join with a planned $1.15 billion IPO.

Major chains are getting ready for the opportunity that is presenting itself, so the hospitality industry should take note: help is on the way, just hold tight.

As consumers cut back and companies slash their travel budgets, many hotels are left wrestling with mounting debts. A number of these issues were discussed at last week’s RealShare Hotel Investment Summit. One serious issue broached at the Summit was what should happen when a hotel is slipping into ‘financial malaise’- and possible exit strategies for hotel operators. Various outcomes were discussed – from tactics to increase asset value through to hotel closures.

In a related article, Lodging Hospitality reviews the difficult end-road faced by some hotel owners: default on loans or file for bankruptcy while better-capitalized enterprises ride the storm by writing off debt, restructuring operations and waiting for the markets to turn around.

Sustainability is one of the first casualties in budget cuts. But more hotel operators and owners are coming to terms with the fact that sustainability is a necessity. Public awareness is higher than ever, and customers are looking at an establishment’s sustainability track record as a deciding factor. Not only that but with new emerging technology which is both becoming more effective and cheaper to deploy, the savings that sustainability can bring about can no longer be neglected. In order to stay ahead of the curve, businesses are going to have to invest in it or risk losing more of their already dwindling customer base.

Keeping a business afloat while also integrating sustainable practices has never been easy, especially now. But those able to succeed in both, will undoubtedly have a huge lead when the market turns. After three decades of working with the hospitality sector, The Refinishing Touch team knows that the hospitality industry will recover from this, greener than ever.

Analysts expect the hotel industry to bottom out at the end of this year and then things will get interesting as debt loosens up, capital becomes available, and operators keen to make new acquisitions - and new fortunes - will go on a spending spree. More of this in Friday’s post.

This week the U.S. Senate passed an important bill that will create jobs and support international tourism. The Travel Promotion Act (TPA) was approved on Wednesday with a 79-19 vote, months after it was originally removed from Senate consideration. Prevalent grassroots lobbying and calling campaigns carried out by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) convinced the Senate to take a second look and approve the bill.

The TPA is a critical initiative that will boost the American economy by increasing tourism, creating thousands of new jobs for Americans and increasing revenue by billions of dollars. By encouraging visits from international and overseas guests, the TPA intends to significantly improve the tourism industry, which has seen a sharp decline amounting to losses of $140 billion for American businesses and $23 billion for the U.S. government since the September 2001 attacks.

The Refinishing Touch, as a member of the AH&LA, is committed to improving and enhancing the tourism industry, and we hope that the bill will be approved by the House of Representative before being signed into law.

This past August, U.S. government agency NASA has made a commitment to sustainability by breaking ground on a new $20.6 million structure at Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. Amongst its sustainable endeavors, the structure has been designed to consume no net energy and use 90 percent less drinkable water than similarly sized buildings.

NASA, whose research has led to some of the world’s most cutting-edge technological discoveries, is taking its technologically advanced intelligent control system, originally designed for NASA spacecrafts, and using it in its “Sustainability Base,” making it the agency’s most environmentally friendly building to date.

The intelligent control system is a computer within the Sustainability Base, and is designed to take into account current environmental information, such as the weather, to tailor the conditions within the building. The system can predict the number of people within the building by accessing electronic calendars to properly adjust the heating and cooling systems, the windows will open and close based on the computer’s analyses of surrounding breezes and temperatures, and instead of air conditioning, the structure will access geothermal wells that will be used to cool the building with naturally chilled water from underground.

NASA’s building, which is aiming for a LEED platinum plus certification, is a shining example of how new technology can be used across the spectrum to benefit the environment. Although many of these technologies have been used or even discovered from within the stars, NASA is making the most of them by bringing them back to Earth and utilizing them here. Although the building is not expected to be finished until 2011, we here at The Refinishing Touch are eagerly awaiting its completion and hoping to see many more of its kind in the future.

Consumers looking for a quick weekend getaway this fall or winter are going to be in luck. Airlines such as Southwest and American are cutting prices this year for these typically slow travelling seasons. Although blacked out dates include those around Thanksgiving and Christmas, airplane fares are at an all-time low, with some one-way seats starting as low as a staggering $59.

These low prices could give a real boost to the hospitality industry. As we previously blogged, many hotels are undergoing a facelift with renovations either in the works or already completed, so these new low airfares come at just the right time for these hotels to bring in new customers to take advantage of their freshly updated facilities.

All this encouragement for consumers to travel may be complemented by a warming in the economic climate as this week the Federal Reserve published the minutes of its August 11-12 policy meeting, which stated that the Feds were ‘more confident that the steep downturn in the economy was coming to an end’.

We’ve said time and time again that the hospitality industry can be amazingly robust. With its ability to adapt across its broad spectrum, the industry responds rapidly to and endures through difficult times.

Here’s to the Feds, a promising economic future and consumers jumping at the chance to travel and support the US travel and hospitality industries.

Today we’re continuing our series to spotlight global sustainability initiatives by looking at unique organizations in our own country that have gone the extra ‘green mile’ by adopting cutting edge techniques to go green.

Perhaps most notably, one hotel has caught our attention with near unparalleled strides made to protect the environment and has erased its carbon footprint entirely. The Legacy Hotel and Meeting Center in Rockville, MD is powering 100% of its facilities with wind energy, making it one of three hotels in the nation that has been certified by the EPA as 100% green powered and placed on the 100% Green Power Purchaser list. On top of running its facilities on wind energy alone, the hotel further promotes sustainability by utilizing organic, biodegradable detergents and cleaning solutions and provides recycling baskets in each of its guest rooms.

Another hotel using advanced technology to reduce its carbon footprint is the Hilton Asheville Biltmore Park in Asheville, NC, which has been using solar power to generate energy used to heat more than half of its hot water supply and creates enough hot water to provide its guests with hot water even on overcast days. Using a 58-panel system, the Hilton Asheville generates over 2,300 gallons of hot water every day, eliminating 25 tons of carbon dioxide and saving the hotel $10,000 per year. Low-flow toilets, showerheads and sink fixtures also aide in keeping water usage low and sustainability high.

Creating a balance between sustainable practices and guest comfort can be an enormous challenge for hotels. Here at The Refinishing Touch, we applaud The Legacy and the Hilton Asheville for being shining examples of hotels that have found a way of doing both with a little help from green technology.