Eco-Lodging

Updated on February 7, 2008.

IT'S ANOTHER CLOUDLESS day in California's bucolic Napa Valley, where visitors from around the world come to enjoy the finer things in life: vintage wines, gourmet meals and, of course, a luxurious stay in a top-shelf hotel. But here in our room at the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa, luxury is not the first word that comes to mind. Swinging out of bed, our bare feet land on the recycled carpet, already showing signs of wear, despite being less than a year old. Yawning, we shuffle into the bathroom and hit the lights. Mistake! In the harsh fluorescent glare,we look like an extra from a B-rated zombie flick. We flee into the shower and lather up with mystery shampoo from the health-club-style dispenser on the wall. Then we rinse — and rinse and rinse — struggling to get out the last suds with the dribble of water coming from the low-flow showerhead.

Just another morning in the brave new world of green travel. The eco-revolution has officially hit the hotel industry, with everyone from staid business chains to hipper-than-thou boutiques now billing themselves as green. For the Gaia, the first hotel in the world to score the Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, this means everything from solar-powered lighting to a lagoon filled with recycled water. At Kimpton's Hotel Triton in San Francisco, bragging rights go to "Eco-Premiere" rooms outfitted with organic cotton linens and bamboo flooring. In Washington, D.C., the Four Seasons Hotel replaced its chlorinated lap pool with an earth-friendly salt version. In Greensboro, N.C., the Proximity hotel, which opened in November, boasts 100 solar panels and one of the country's first Otis Gen2 elevators, which generates electricity as it descends. And there are more eco-friendly projects on deck. Among them: the much-hyped 1 Hotel & Residences, a luxury brand created by Barry Sternlicht, the man behind the W, which is slated to open in 2010.

Conservation isn't new to the hotel industry. (Who hasn't seen those ubiquitous towel reuse cards?) But the benefits are clear: A basic towel-and-sheet program saves about $6.50 a day per room, according to the Green Hotels Association, while The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa pocketed $61,000 in energy savings last year by switching to fluorescent lighting. But it's the marketing angle that's turned environmentalism into the latest version of the Heavenly Bed. With the green movement becoming a major cultural force — a recent survey by travel Web site TripAdvisor showed 34% of travelers would be willing to pay more for environmentally friendly lodging — hotels are tripping over themselves to appear earth-conscious.

But for travelers, the green regime brings complications. For one, there's no agreed upon national standard, says Glenn Hasek, editor of Green Lodging News, making it difficult for even the most environmentally savvy traveler to tell the green from the "greenwashed," hotels that claim to be more eco-friendly than they are. Then there's the question of just how many tradeoffs guests are willing to make. With the U.S. average daily room rate up 16.5% between 2002 and 2006, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, why should travelers put up with scratchy toilet paper and grimy sheets? "You don't want to be spending $300 a night and feeling like the hotel is going cheap on you," says Hasek.

To see how this movement is playing out in the guest room, we made the rounds of three pioneering green hotels, ultimately devising a fun but unscientific rating system. Each hotel started with five points for the green basics (sheet and towel reuse, fluorescent lights, recycling, low-flow water fixtures and eco-friendly cleaning products), then won a point for each additional earth-conscious innovation we encountered. It lost one for every feature that appeared counterproductive, overhyped or just plain annoying.

At first glance, our room at the Orchard Garden (+5), one of five LEED-certified hotels in the world (+1), looks like any other hip boutique hotel: flat-panel TV, chic bedding and sleek maple furniture, all crammed into a fashionably tiny room. Spotting the room's green features is a bit like a game of Where's Waldo: a fluorescent bulb here, a recycling bin there. But without a cheat sheet, we'd miss plenty. In fact, the furniture is Forest Stewardship Council-certified maple, meaning that it comes from a well-managed forest (+1), the coverlet and carpets are made with recycled materials (+1), and there's a "z-duct" by the window, which allows air circulation while filtering out ambient noise (+1).

Heading into the bathroom, we flip one light switch (nothing), then another (still nothing). Then we remember — the keycard! Backtracking, we find a slot by the door and pop the card in. Instantly, the lights come on and we hear the hum of the air conditioner starting up. While not uncommon in Europe, this setup, in which a keycard-activated switch controls several outlets (+1) and the room's heating and cooling system (+1), is one of the first of its kind in a U.S. hotel. Indeed, we can't get over how convenient it is. Not only does it shut off lights and AC, but we never once lose our card — a first.

But eventually, the cracks begin to show. For one, the keycard doesn't control all outlets; it shuts down the bathroom and closet lights and one bedside outlet but not the TV, phone, minibar, desk lamp or the second bedside outlet. We appreciate the need for some of these, but wish the two lamps and TV were on the grid (-1). And when we indulge in room service, we're pleased to see that the goat cheese on our salad is locally sourced (+1), but with Calistoga so close, we can't understand why the hotel is serving Saratoga water that's shipped from the East Coast — hello, carbon emissions (-1)! General Manager Stefan Muhle says it hasn't found local water in a glasss bottle: "Plastic looks so cheap." Total score: 10.

Compared with the slick modernism of the Orchard Garden, the 107-year-old Lenox (+5), located on a brick-lined corner of Boylston Street in Boston's historic Back Bay, seems an unlikely spot for anything cutting-edge. But the hotel is actually one of the originators of the industry's green movement: According to co-owner Tedd Saunders, The Lenox was the first hotel in the country to institute a sheet-and-towel reuse program (+1), and it's one of the few that purchase carbon offsets for 100% of its electricity use (+1).

Scattered around our room are several plaques reminding us to conserve (+1). The one on the desk reads: "Thank you for helping to reduce waste by leaving your cans, bottles and paper next to the trash bin for recycling." We follow instructions, starting a little mound of water bottles and newspapers next to the garbage can. Still, it takes a while to get used to dropping trash onto the floor (our mom would be horrified), and after we accidentally kick over the pile for the third time, we find ourselves on our hands and knees, scooting our garbage to a less trafficked spot under the desk — not exactly part of our ideal hotel experience (-1).

Hoping for a more hygienic way to save the planet, we pick up the remote and catch a half hour of the documentary on a Cape Cod wind farm that's playing on the hotel's environmental channel (+1). It's not bad, but we have to wonder how much electricity we sucked up by tuning in (-1). For longer attention spans, there are also two green-themed books (+1), one of which, The Bottom Line of Green Is Black, was written by owner Saunders. Though we don't doubt his environmental commitment, we were still turned off by this bit of marketing "synergy" (-1). Total score: 7.

Back at the Gaia (+5), we've recovered from our traumatic morning (-1) and are poking around. The hotel wears its environmentalism on its sleeve, with eco-centric room names (we're in "alyssum," a somewhat obscure plant, but better than our neighbors, who are in "muskrat" and "clam"). And then there's the mural behind the front desk declaring: "Our mission is to change the world, one traveler at a time." While this seems a bit much, we are impressed by the features that contributed to its Gold LEED certification (+1), like the solar-powered "solatube" lighting system that illuminates the hallways — in fact, the Gaia claims that common areas use only solar during daylight hours (+1). Equally cool are the LCD screens in the lobby that show the hotel's current carbon output (16 kilograms) and water (34 gallons) and electricity (23 kilowatts) usage (+1), as well as the interactive kiosk that tracks the hotel's monthly usage (+1). Total score: 8.

But for all the environmental hype, for many travelers, it's still a different type of green that counts. When we bump into Al Case, a business professor from Ashland, Ore., lounging by the pool with his family, we ask what he thinks of the Gaia's eco-policies. "We've certainly noticed, but that's not the reason we picked it," says Case. So what was the deciding factor? "The price."