As part of our ongoing coverage of the 2013 Luxury Travel Exchange International (LTX), Travel Agent sat down with Barbara Warren, sales manager of the The Westin Dawn Beach Resort & Spa, and learned of two new programs that will further boost the resort's already extensive health and wellness offerings.
The new Westin Lending Gear, which launches September 12, is a new lending program in which the hotel will lend a guest sneakers to work out with if they forgot to bring their own pair. Also, if a guest doesn't pack workout clothes, the resort will lend those as well. Both offerings are available for a charge of $5 per guest.
The resort is also launching a new program that aims to limit the amount of water use at the hotel by encouraging clients not to have their sheets washed every day. Barbara says if guests do not request to have their sheets changed, they will receive a $5 food and beverage credit per day.
Both of these initiatives come on the heels of resort's June announcement that it became the first major resort in the Caribbean to install and utilize solar panels to replace its energy consumption throughout the resort.
The resort’s owner, Columbia Sussex Corporation, enlisted the expertise of Anthony Prall Jr.’s Caribbean Energy Store to design a system to facilitate its 317 guest rooms, restaurants, restrooms, laundry facilities and spa.
Phase one of the solar photovoltaic system has been installed on the resort’s roof and includes 480 Suntech solar panels, with 1,200 solar panels installed by 2014. The resort began taking advantage of the island’s abundance of sunshine in 2007 with the installation of solar panels to heat the water used in the property’s guest rooms.
"First we did the solar project, now we want to encourage guests to stay fit and the sheets program will limit the amount of water and energy we would have to use to wash sheets every day," Warren says. "It's all about our plan to become one of the best health and wellness resorts in the Caribbean."
Phase one of the solar system will produce more than 3,660 Kilowatt hours of electricity per hour. The system will avoid 40 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and 35,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide emissions over the next thirty years. It will also save 4,875 tons of oil, otherwise needed for electricity production, the equivalent of planting 2,500 trees annually.
Visit www.westinstmaarten.com, www.starwoodhotels.com and keep visiting www.travelagentcentral.com for updates from the ongoing 2013 LTX, which runs through September 12.