Systems to keep water costs and usage down

This is the third part in Hotel Management’s series on landscape design. Check here for part two: Using water sustainably through landscape design.

WeatherTRAK, an irrigation system made by HydroPoint, can lower hotel water costs, according to CEO and founder Chris Spain. 

Several Starwood properties that have implemented the system have saved the hotel brand $2.1 million in direct water costs and 301 million gallons of water, he said. According to HydroPoint, the Phoenician in Arizona saved over $2 million on its water charges and more than 400,000 centum cubic feet of water. 

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Spain said WeatherTRAK assigns a serial number to each water controller to take weather and usage data into account when determining how much water an area needs. On-site managers can even enter calendar events to adjust for optimal watering times (if the water department offers lower rates at certain hours, for example). If the situation changes, the grounds crew can turn the system off remotely with smartphones.

Another option can be found at the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach. There, aquatic design & engineering President Josh Martin's niche design firm specializing in show fountains and pools used a single type of motor for powering both the fountains and the pools (reducing the amount of extra equipment needed), and chose items with long life cycles. Similarly, the automated building-management system can send notifications via email to as many as seven people on-site for immediate repair, fixing pieces before breakdowns cause significant damage.