29 Lights is 28 Too Many

Hotels' excessive lighting isn't luxury -- it's wasteful



I am currently in a lovely small suite at the Inn at Lost Creek in Telluride's Mountain Village. Getting here (where it hasn't been snowing) from the Front Range (where it snowed a storm) was an odyssey that I might blog about some other time. Unfortunately, despite my constant asking about it after I had been reticketed to Cortez instead of Telluride, my checked bag is still in Denver and will (hopefully) join me tomorrow.



The folks at the inn could not have been nicer, more sympathetic and more dismayed at my luggagelessness, but when I opened the door to my room, I got annoyed. Really annoyed. The foyer, the living area, the kitchenette and bathroom have, among them, twenty-nine (29) light bulbs, and every single one of them was on -- and had been for who knows how long. Twenty-eight of these bulbs are incandescent, including five on a table lamp. Only one, above the kitchenette, is fluorescent. And the TV is turned on to an audio station.



The inn is a congenial boutique property with 29 suites. If every one is occupied, 29 x 29 = 841 light bulbs burning for countless hours when no one is in the rooms in this property alone -- and that doesn't count lights in the lobby, hallways, underground parking garage, restaurant, spa and elsewhere --to say nothing of Christmas lights that will doubtless appear soon . IMO, it is a misplaced notion of luxury. And the little refrigerator, which the inn had thoughtfully stocked to tide me over, was cranked down so far that the half-and-half and eggs were frozen, and the appl

and pear had the consistency of popsicles.




This is not the first time I've been appalled at excessive use of electricity -- and it's not the first time I have complained about it. I have been told that hotel rating services require some of this nonsense in order for properties to earn that extra star or diamond. This is a wasteful and outdated practice. I have a sign on my mantlepiece asking me to opt in or out of fresh linens every day in the interest of environmentalism. There should be something comparable when it comes to lights. I'm calling housekeeping tomorrow to ask them to restrain themselves.