Doral Tesoro
Ft Worth, Texas, United States
Comments:
The hotel has fabric shower curtains, helping air quality in guestrooms. They have inlined wastebaskets, saving landfills and reducing the use of petrochemicals. We found that some of the lights had compact fluorescent bulbs, but most didn't. Though their toilets were low-flow toilets, saving water, their showers had doubled-headed shower heads -- seemingly a water waster. One big problem I had wit their housekeeping approach was that their room glasses seemed to not be replaced between guests but merely wiped out with a housekeeping cleaning cloth; we found blue smudges (cleaning chemicals?), towel lint, and lipstick, along with the strong oder of cleaning chemicals. The rooms' mini-refridgerators had a snack section where the light was on 24x7, wasting energy and adding to the heat load of the room. I had to change rooms once because the strong chemical cleaning smell was too much for me to bear.
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Review:
I chose the Doral Tesoro Hotel for a conference is February 2005 because it had a high speed internet connection, was a green hotel by practice, and with its golf course had a park-like setting. It was a quiet location, but very remote from dining, shopping, and other business unless that business is at the raceway across the road. The hotel doesn't promote itself as a green hotel but is taking measures toward that end.
The green actions I saw at the Doral Tesoro were minimal but seemed consistent, something I find to be a plus. They had a sheet and towel re-use which they honored for me; ie, when I asked them to not change my sheets or towels they didn't. I found a few lights with compact fluorescent bulbs. I specifically requested durable service-ware and non-disposable napkins and got them. They had both durable and disposable cups in the guestrooms, the disposable cups being hot cups for to-go coffee. The shower head was a dual-headed so I feel it probably wasn't low-flow. There were low-flush toilets throughout the hotel and conference center. The had durable waste baskets that they wiped out or washed as needed. The shower curtain and liner was fabric. There were non-smoking rooms. There were green plants in the lobby and in the suites, a lovely touch.
However, it seemed to me that the guestroom glasses and coffee cups weren't refreshed with each new guest, merely wiped out each day; among the rooms in my conference group, some of the cups had a strong cleaning-chemical smell to them, some had a blue paste smear, and others had towel lint. To test my theory and concern I checked the cleaning carts and found no glasses or mugs.
There are several areas where they fall down in being. Every guest got a newspaper every day; what a waste. There was no visible recycling at the hotel. They had a guest refrigerator in each guestroom, which I love, but these refrigerators had a snack section in them that had a light burning 24/7. The bathroom amenities were individual rather than bulk. There was a strong cleaning or perfuming chemical smell in some guestrooms, requiring I change rooms to find one I could stay in without getting congested from my reaction to the smell/chemical.
The hotel has made some fine first steps in becoming a green hotel and I honor them for doing as much as they have. I'm hoping they take more steps as they go, thus helping both their bottom line and the environment.
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