Hospitality with care at the Lot Spa Hotel

Philosophy

“בשעה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא את האדם הראשון, נטלו והחזירו על כל אילני גן עדן ואמר לו, ראה מעשי כמה נאים ומשובחים הן וכל מה שבראתי בשבילך בראתי, תן דעתך שלא תקלקל ותחריב את עולמי, שאם קלקלת אין מי שיתקן אחריך.“ (קהלת רבה ז’)

“At the time of creation, God, took Adam and walked with him amongst all the trees of Paradise, and told him, have a look at my doings, how nice and beautiful they are, and all what I have created I did for you. Put your mind in to it, not to damage and destroy my world. As if you damage it, there is no one to repair after you.“ (Midrash Ecclesiastes 7)

Introduction

The Dead Sea

A world-famous natural health and wellness resort with unique climatic conditions.

The Hotel

A 220-Bedroom Spa Hotel, situated on the shore of the Dead Sea with an annual occupancy of 92%.

Our vision

Our aim is to be a leading hotel in the field of health and wellness tourism at the Dead Sea. A profitable hotel which cares for the needs of its guests, its employees and the environment.

Our People

We believe that people are our most precious and valuable resource

• We do our utmost to create a fair and encouraging working environment for all our employees.
  Fair pay and benefits, reward programs, vocational and academic education and a promotion-within-the-hotel policy, are some of the methods we apply in order to do so.
• We are continuously engaged in several communal activities including educational programs and welfare projects.
• One of our most important achievements was the organizing, sponsoring and leading of a two-year Hospitality Management course for managers and employees working in the hotels in the Dead Sea area.

Utilities Management

The Dead Sea is a dry and hot region which represents challenges and opportunities.
The following will show some of our activities aimed at saving energy and water whilst reducing pollution.

Energy

Air conditioning is our biggest consumer of energy, followed by water heating for showers, swimming pools and the different facilities and baths in the SPA (Dead Sea water pool, Sulphur pool, Sauna, Hammam etc.).

Solar System

• The Hotel planned and built a Solar Water-Heating System, which includes 90 plastic solar collectors, 50 glass/ metal solar collectors, water containers, distribution units, heat exchangers, pumps, control panels, etc..
• Its cost approx. 400,000 NIS and it saves almost 100,000 kg. of gas annually.
• The system has been in use for more than six years without any need of special maintenance.

Pool covering

• The outdoor swimming pool is covered at night when heated.
• The covering (a 5 min. daily activity) saves between 500,000 – 1,000,000 Kcal per night.

Electricity Saving

Saving electricity in a resort hotel is a complex task. It includes:

• Management and employee awareness of saving
• Use of economical lighting
• Room energy control
• Knowledgeable use of modern and well-maintained air conditioning systems
• Control of the air flow in the hotel
• Adjusting temperatures to meet the needs of the hotel guests
• Avoiding usage of high energy consuming units and avoiding usage of electricity at peak times
• Usage of co-generation for water heating

Water

💧 Our efforts to save water include:

• Placing water meter units in various hotel areas in order to control consumption
• Maintaining and replacing water pipe systems (cold water, hot water and air conditioning water)
• Introducing economical irrigation systems
• Shifting between water condensing and air condensing systems according to the climate
• Implementing low flow devices for shower heads and taps in guest rooms and public areas

💧 All these actions have resulted in reducing water consumption from 91,000 m³ annually in 2005 to 78,000 m³ in 2009, despite a growth of 9.3% in in-house guests and 31% in day guests.

💧 Swimming Pool water treatment:

• Filters and circulation pumps have been added in order to achieve higher water clarity and reduce almost half the amount of disinfectors in the water
• Shading is applied over the pool during the summer season in order to avoid quick dissolvent of the disinfectors.

💧 Wastewater treatment:

• In the kitchen, oil and fats are collected for recycling
• We had an experimental process of bacterial treatment for our fat separator tank in order to avoid fat dumping
• We continuously monitor our sewage water for salts, fats, COD, BOD, TSS etc..

Results

• Average annual spending on utilities in hotels in the Dead Sea area is 8.6% of total expenditure
• Lot Spa Hotel spends 6.3% of its total expenditure on utilities
• The difference in spending between Lot Spa Hotel and an average similar sized hotel is approx. 1,300,000 NIS per annum.

Conclusion

• Every hotel has different features, different needs and different capabilities to save energy and take care of the environment.
• High commitment, good professional knowledge and efficient management is important to enable a meaningful reduction in the usage of our resources.

Epilogue

• Lot Spa Hotel has opened its new wing, August 2019.
• The new wing includes: 27 Luxury Rooms, Studio Rooms and Suits. Conference Center, Staff Canteen and Rest Rooms.
• We have taken the opportunity to upgrade our Cooling and Heating Systems. New Chillers, one with Heat Recovery ,2 Heat Pumps, Flow Rate Controllers, Frequency Converters and a Computed Monitor and Control System were amongst the changes introduced to our newly designed Machinery Rooms.
• Results: Despite the vast enlargement of the hotel, in size, facilities and people, the total spending on energy, did not change from the previous year.