How important are environmental concerns in your role?

Tatjana Ahmed: I think that it is very important to pay attention to the environment — everything from the waste from the hotel rooms to making use of the latest cleaning technologies.

We have become very savvy in using new environmentally-friendly cleaning techniques, whether it is a microfibre cloth or an enzyme cleaner. It is also down to how you educate your staff. There are lots of things which can and should be done and in the UAE certain things can take a longer time to develop and unfold, but I think environmental issues are of the utmost importance.

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Annette Damz: We have a system where people can tell us if they want their towels changed or not, and this helps with revenue as well as with environmental costs.

You would be amazed how much some of the guests are concerned about the environment — particularly European guests. As they are very concerned with recycling and so on, and they will actually be upset if you change their towels too often because they want to be environmentally friendly.

Dilki Cooray: Sometimes guests participate, but sometimes guests expect you to change the towel wherever they put it. We don’t change the sheets every day, we do it every other day because we are a responsible business, and there have been no complaints at all.

Susana Pereira: I think we are one of the first five star hotels to have implemented amenities dispensers at our two new properties — we have done this in the shower room and at the vanity counter. The key thing was to bring a brand that is attractive that people will know like Bulgari or Elemis.

So far it has not even been mentioned — maybe in the eight months we have been doing this we have had a handful of people who have mentioned it. It isn’t about the cost; I think it is about looking at the impact on the environment. In most hotels, there are thousands of bottles that go out in the garbage.

Javier Ferre: You can save on paper by using the technology available. We have all of our information on the TV screen in the hotel, so there is no need to use as much paper in the rooms — you have all your information in one place and it is also a way to be environmentally-friendly.