With the construction industry rebounding and creating more frequent and longer projects, more regularly are industry professionals looking to hotels as their “home away from home.” As travel shifts from being a part of the job to a temporary lifestyle, the ability to maintain routines and have homelike comforts, like the ability to prepare favorite meals, unwind in a spacious living area after a long day and have a designated workspace to maintain productivity, naturally increases.
“Extended Stay America’s culture is really focused on giving back to the community, and we definitely thought that being as environmentally friendly and as environmentally conscious as we could was a great way of doing that.”-Ben Simmons,Facilities ProjectManager forExtended Stay America
Responding to the needs of today’s evolving business traveler, in 2012, Extended Stay America chose to update its 682 hotels across the U.S. and Canada to meet the new brand standards. During the process we focused heavily on providing the amenities that travelers desired most to showcase to guests that Extended Stay America was a “New Way to Stay.”
While embarking on one of the largest and most fast-paced renovation initiatives in the extended-stay hotel segment, Extended Stay America sought to go beyond just providing expanded amenities to fulfill its “New Way to Stay.” In keeping to our corporate culture of environmental responsibility, we took advantage of theopportunity to further promote sustainability withan extensive recycling and donation program.
The recycling and donation aspect of the project, describes Ben Simmons, facilities project manager for Extended Stay America, came together somewhat organically. “I think we all realized that we had an opportunity to do something good,” he says. “Extended Stay America’s culture is really focused on giving back to the community, and we definitely thought that being as environmentally friendly and conscious as we could was a great way of doing that.”
The project leaders did not foresee how big of an impact the efforts to donate and recycle would have. To date, an estimated 25 million cubic feet of material diverted from landfills and instead donated for repurpose or reuse within the communities we serve, including nearly 113,000 furniture items that have been donated. “We’ve done more than we ever thought we could,” Simmons remarks. “We’ve been able to team up with great contacts at Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army. No matter where we go in the country, we’re able to reach out to local affiliates and partner up with them by coordinating pickups for some of the recycled furniture items.”
Simmons says the ability to donate and recycle so much material is rewarding. “It is a great feeling to know that those furniture items or really anything we pull out of those hotels is getting a second life and being able to be utilized somewhere else than going straight into the dumpster then straight to the landfill,” he says. By the time the remaining 250 hotels are renovated, Extended Stay America will have diverted thousands more tons of material from the landfill.
Renovated properties focus on providing business and leisure travelers with “a kitchen, a great price, the hotel that’s just right.” Customers can count on ESA as a true “home away from home,” with amenities including elevated soft, upgraded bedding, plush pillows, on-site laundry centers, spacious suites tailored with flat screen TVs, comfortable recliners, premium cable channels and the important differentiator, fully equipped in-room kitchens.
Enroll Now at ExtendedStayAmerica.com
