Pineapple's Latest Innovations Green Your Hotel

. October 14, 2008

JUNE 10, 2008. Four new products from Pineapple Hospitality - EcoSmart Pillows, Green Key Cards, Buffet Burners and Zero Odor - are the perfect start or a natural addition to Greening your hotel.

There's no shortcut to going green. There's no magic wand you can wave that will make your hotel suddenly 100% environmentally sustainable.

Going green is a process, a mentality, that requires many, many small steps to achieve. Thankfully, Pineapple Hospitality is here to help you along the path to environmental responsibility and improved profitability with four new products to green your hotel:

o EcoSmart Pillows,

o Green Key Cards,

o Buffet Burners, and

o Zero Odor.

Either individually or as a part of a larger greening process, these four products demonstrate to your guests a commitment to clean, green operations - and in most cases, end up saving you a bundle, too.

'As the premier distributor of green products and marketing programs to the hospitality industry, Pineapple Hospitality is proud to serve as a conduit for bringing fresh ideas to the market,' says Ray Burger, President of Pineapple Hospitality. 'With the green trend mushrooming across the United States and the rest of the world, we have the experience and expertise to help hoteliers choose products that are effective, environmentally friendly and green up their bottom lines.

'These four new products can be either a great starting point or another key feature of an existing green program. The EcoSmart Pillows, Green Key Cards, Buffet Burners and Zero Odor all are products proven to boost efficiency, enhance the guest experience and add green to hotel owners' wallets,' Burger adds.

Rest Your Head: EcoSmart Pillows

Having the right kind of pillow can make or break a guest's satisfaction at a hotel. So what can a 'green' pillow do for you?

Made from 100% recycled (polyethylene terephthalate) PET bottles, EcoSmart Pillows provide ultimate comfort and resilience, while at the same time, allow guests to rest easy because they know the pillows are keeping waste out of landfills.

EcoSmart Pillows are hypoallergenic, wash tested and compression tested to surpass all other pillows for resilience, while maintaining the feel of a standard down pillow.

'It's amazing to think that these comfortable and sturdy pillows are made from recycled materials that would otherwise end up in the trash,' says Burger. 'We all have to do our part to reduce waste and keep the Earth clean. EcoSmart Pillows are one way to do that, while providing each of your guests with a safe, hypoallergenic pillow that will allow their body and their conscious to sleep soundly.'

In a recent survey from Louisville Bedding, the manufacturers of EcoSmart Pillows, 93% of shoppers said they would buy eco-friendly pillows, mattress pads and sheets, and 91% of shoppers would buy an eco-friendly product at a higher price. With that in mind, it's not a stretch to think that these same consumers would prefer to stay in a hotel that provides these eco-friendly pillows too.

'Since hotels are constantly changing and throwing out old or damaged pillows, this industry - maybe more than any other - can really make an impact on the environment by recycling P.E.T. and keeping plastic bottles out of landfills,' says Burger.

Unlocking Savings: Green Key Cards

Green-Key is an environmentally friendly alternative to the traditional plastic hotel keycard. Unlike plastic keycards which need to be replaced every couple of days, but will pile up in landfills for thousands of years, Green-Key is a recyclable and biodegradable renewable resource.

Common plastic keys are made of a chemical compound called polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. The production and disposal of PVC causes unnecessary harm to the environment since most guests dispose of the cards at the end of their stays.

'The Green-Key is sturdy and can stand up to day-to-day use from guests, but won't last forever when they are lost or thrown away,' Burger says. 'They have a light footprint on both the environment and on a hotel's budget. Plus, the specially-designed Green-Keys will help you distinguish your hotel as an environmental leader from the moment guests check in.'

Heating Up Green: Buffet Burners

For all types of buffets where food is served heated, electric-powered Buffet Burners are designed to heat your chafing dishes with more consistent control than two cans of fuel.

One burner equals an estimated 5,000 cans of fuel that would be thrown into the trash once they run out. Up to four burners will run on one 120-volt outlet using minimal electricity.

Plus, Buffet Burners provide additional safety, as open flame hazards are eliminated with the Buffet Burner. Food is heated more evenly than with flames, never getting too hot as internal high temperature limit switch cycles off when temperatures get too hot. And you never have to worry about fuel running out in the middle of a meal or guests knocking over the open flames.

'The electric Buffet Burner heaters are great!' says Stephen Tagliatela, Innkeeper at the Saybrook Point Inn & Spa. 'We have better control of the food temperature, reduced fire risk and less heat in the room, which in turn reduces demand on our air conditioning system. The Buffet Burner eliminates the entire waste stream of the delivery, storage and disposal of hundreds of disposable fuel cells every month.'

Fire damage to tablecloths and other linens also is avoided. But best of all, the Buffet Burner will pay for itself in just a few uses. Using just one Buffet Burner with an average one event per day can save you $910 dollars per year, figuring the cost of Sterno fuel versus electricity. Each additional Buffet Burner and event piles on additional savings. Ten Buffet Burners used once per day saves $9,100 per year. Used twice a day and you save $18,200.

Zero Worries: Zero Odor

Pineapple Hospitality now also is offering Zero Odor: A non-toxic, environmentally safe and biodegradable spray that completely eliminates unfriendly odors once and for all. Potpourri just tries to cover up scents and other products in the lodging market use a process called encapsulation that might temporarily shift smells out of the air, but allows them to linger on the floor and in the room.

'These other products encapsulate an odor molecule, usually with an alcohol based additive, and by sheer weight it drops to the floor, or out of the air,' explains Ron Shay, National Sales Director for Zero Odor. 'But after the alcohol evaporates, the odor comes back, albeit in a different location. This requires more product, more applications to again just temporarily mask odor.'

Zero Odor, however, seeks out and bonds with odor molecules of just about every kind, changing them into molecules that can no longer cause odor, eliminating them forever.

'Immediately after spraying, Zero Odor leaves behind a 'Tracer Scent' that helps you know where Zero Odor has been sprayed. A short time after Zero Odor is sprayed the Tracer Scent will disappear, taking the odor away with it forever,' Shay says. 'Unlike other products on the market, Zero Odor's chemical and molecular bonding is irreversible and permanent. The eliminated odor can not come back.'

Zero Odor's safety tests are rigorously performed by independent laboratories. Zero Odor scores "0" on all measures of toxicity and also registers at "0" in dermal irritation tests - meaning it won't cause skin irritation in humans or pets.

Independent studies have also proven Zero Odor also completely eliminates odor. In independent studies, when odors from such things as garlic, onions, smoke, garbage and soiled diapers were sprayed with Zero Odor, a Gas Chromatograph used to measure smells showed results of "0". The uses for Zero Odor in a hotel/motel setting are unending: bathrooms, bedrooms, spas, kitchens, workout areas, pools, garage areas, storage areas, smoking rooms, laundry areas, linens/upholstery/drapery, service vehicles, etc.

Burger had his own take on Zero Odor: 'If anyone remembers that episode of 'Seinfeld' where Jerry's car was ruined by the B.O. of a restaurant valet, this product could have saved the day, and the car. Though that wouldn't have been nearly as funny,' he jokes. 'Seriously, Pineapple Hospitality is proud to offer an environmentally safe, non-toxic and biodegradable product like Zero Odor that can help keep your guest rooms, lobbies, conference rooms and everywhere else smelling fresh and clean, so that your guests stay happy and come back again.'

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