Lessons learned in sustainablility

• Hotel achieved good results in sustainable management, renewable energy, water consumption reduction, and waste management
• Numerous best practices emerged from the exercise

Chateau Montagne is a city hotel opened at the beginning of 2007 in the centre of Troyan. It is a three-star, 60-bed family hotel with a restaurant, lobby bar, fitness centre, swimming pool, sauna and massage room. It offers room service, tourist information and free parking for its customers. The hotel is also suitable for business tourism with its convenient conference facilities.

Troyan is situated in a mountainous region with a temperate climate where temperatures can vary from 30 plus in summer to minus 20 degrees in winter. The hotel implemented a range of measures to save resources and boost its sustainability.

Key results

• Involving staff in the process is important, for example housekeeping and rooms staff are encouraged to turn off TVs and minibars in unoccupied rooms, and to close curtains in summer and open them in winter.
• Involving guests is also important, for example customers are asked to leave towels that they want to be changed on the floor – otherwise they will be used for one more day, which saves energy and water.
• Preparing the building for extreme weather protects it and saves energy, for example good insulation has been installed to conserve heat loss during the winter and maintain cooler temperatures during the summer, including additional window insulation to prevent energy leaving the building.
• Efficient equipment, such as LED lighting and greener electrical appliances, and using motion sensors to switch on/off lights in the corridors saves significant energy.
• Separate air-conditioning units for each of the 30 hotel rooms saves energy compared to larger, property-wide units that work 24/7.
• Careful integration of renewable energies into the mix for spatial heating/cooling is key; hot water is produced by solar panels installed on the roof of the hotel.