Obviously the result of the first objective indicates consumers’ interest in green hotel
practices. This finding strongly supports a previous study by Tierney, Hunt, and Latkova, (2011).
Thus, hoteliers need to understand this trend in the travel and tourism industry and find ways to
adopt and capitalize on green hotel practices as an organizational culture. An innovative hotelier
should recognize this trend and adopt hotel green practices as a strategic move towards a
competitive advantage.
The second objective of this study was to explore what consumers were willing to endure
to patronize green hotels. Table 3 showed that about 78% of the consumers in this study
“somewhat agree”, “agree” or “strongly agree” as a multiple night guest in a hotel to reuse their
towel; 86.31% “somewhat agree”, “agree” or “strongly agree” as a multiple night guest in a hotel
to reuse their linen; 85.94% “somewhat agree”, “agree” or “strongly agree” to prefer a low flow
toilet (less water per flush) to high flow toilet in guest rooms; 58.09% of the consumers in the
study “somewhat agree”, “agree” or “strongly agree” to prefer low flow faucets to high flow
faucets in guest rooms; and, 65.98% of the consumers in the study “disagree” or “strongly
disagree” to prefer low flow showerheads to high flow showerheads in guest rooms. The result of
this study indicates that consumers are willing to conserve water. However, they are not willing
to let go with high flow showerheads in guest rooms. The reason for this particular observation is
not clear. Given this outcome it will be very interesting to see if there is any significant
difference between the impacts of low flow showerheads to high flow showerheads in guest
rooms. One important and interesting finding was how many consumers would choose a “green”
hotel over one that lacked green practices; 53.75% of the consumers surveyed said they would
choose a “green” hotel over an alternative.
In regard to the cost of going green, about 46% of the consumers in this study believed
that hotel owners should pay the initial cost of going green, and about 75% of the consumers
were willing to pay less or the same amount per room in green hotels as compared to non-green
hotels. The study also indicated that over 50% of the consumers in this study preferred guest
reward points or some form of discount in order to support green hotels’ water conservation
practices. Contrary to results of past research (Susskind and Verma 2011), the majority of
respondents in this study believed that a green hotel room should be priced the same or less than
one that is not green. In fact, 50% of the respondents in this study preferred guest reward points
or some form of discount in order to support green hotels. Hence, hoteliers need to be aware that
guests have a perception that a green hotel might be more expensive than a non-green hotel. If
that is the case, that perception could be impeding potential guests from patronizing green hotels.