Green Holidays

Have you ever wondered why your hotel or guest-house does the oddest things?

I was recently staying overnight in a well known UK hotel chain and noticed that they had a tiny kettle. My partner thought it was a space-saving ploy - but when you think of it - it makes perfect ‘green’ sense. You only ever need to boil the kettle for 2 cups of coffee max in a 2 person room, so why offer the chance to boil far too much water every time.

It’s nice when somewhere offers you the chance to be green without having to think about it or be too put out. And I cover a few of them here - and a few ideas for the future…….

As Standard:
Nearly all hotel rooms now come with the obligatory notice about towels - saying if you don’t want them washed needlessly then leave them on the rails or wherever. But, some places go that little bit further - and in places you may not have noticed or that aren’t so preached about - like the kettle.

Some things are forced on you though - and are not always appreciated. One classic example is the key to your room being the trigger for the power to work in your room. This way you cannot accidentally leave any lights on while you are out adventuring. However - it also means that you won’t be returning to an air-conditioned room even if you are only heading out for a few minutes.

It also means that if one of your party is heading out, they can’t take the key otherwise you are plunged into darkness and/or tremedous heat! Meaning that you have you be awake or not in the shower when they want to return so you can let them back in.

One way to counter the hot room is to make full use of the thick curtains that most hotels have over the giant windows. Keeping them closed all the time will prevent the sun from shining into your room and heating it up like a furnace! However, some would say ‘what is the point of going somewhere hot if you shut out the sun!’. But it saves on air-con and therefore energy. If you want to be hot - go outside!

Lights Everywhere!
Many hotel rooms also seem to have light switches all over the place. One main light, one either side of the bed, a few over the desk and sometimes another in the small ‘hallway’ area. Why?

Well, it would make sense to give you the opportunity to get the best light for wherever you decide to sit - whether you are on your laptop at the table, resting on the bed or just pottering around - but it also gives you the chance to only have one on at a time rather than lighting up the whole room just to sit in the corner!

So far so good. Find out a few more neat tricks they have up their sleeves in Part 2

Now is the time to get packing and set of on your grown-up gap year!

Due to the current financial climate in many countries at the moment - this seems to be the perfect time to ask your boss for some time off!

It is normally quite tricky to get your company to agree to a holiday longer than 2 weeks - but with many companies tightening their belts and looking at redundancies and pay cuts now is the perfect time to offer your services!

How Can I Help My Company?
Well, if you think about it, your company is probably thinking on ways to save money. This may include reducing staff hours, offering early retirement, reducing expenditure on stationary and staff services like cafeterias etc.

Basically they need to cut back on as much as possible to keep running at an acceptable level. This is where your salary comes in to action.

You could save your company your salary every day you are not at work.

They could save $1000’s on just you alone - say you were earning $200 per day - that would be a minimum saving to your company of over $6000 a month

So if you were to take just 3 months off - that is over $18,000 saved - plus all other work paid contributions that your company pay on your behalf. You will also be saving them a whole host of other costs that are usually not thought about.

These include the cost of cleaning your office; toiletries and water you would use if still at the office and all the stationary and electricity you use on a daily basis that isn’t strictly work related.

Places like the cafeteria will still be working while you are gone, but if catering for less staff they too can reduce their expenses by ordering and preparing cold drinks and hot food. Same goes for car park maintenance and general cleaning contracts.

It all adds up.

They May Even Offer You Longer!
It could be that your company haven’t thought of this as a way of saving money and so you could be the first to offer up the suggestion to your bosses and get the credit!

Usually, companies will do anything to keep their staff for as long as possible as it is very hard to get reliable staff back when this bad patch is over! So letting you have time off knowing that you will be back in X months could really help them out - and may even help to keep your company running!

You may be brave enough to ask for just 3 months off - but if your company are thinking of stalling all new acquisitions or reducing big projects until the new financial year for example - then they may well offer you a longer ‘break’ so you are off until they need you.

You won’t find out until you ask - and it could be the best move you ever made!