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| SHEILA MASSON/ADVANCE Interior of a double room at Inn Marin showcasing the bamboo floor, bamboo bedspreads and fluorescent 23-watt lighting. |
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July 1st, 2009
Inn Marin goes green with makeover
By Paul Jones
Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:12 PM PDT
If the majority of American businesses have spent the last few months cutting costs, not every sector has had a choice to let expansion plans bide. Novato’s Inn Marin, for example, just spent $2 million on room renovations in order to keep pace with larger area hotels such as Marriot, Sheraton, and Embassy Suites.
But while the smaller Inn Marin lacks the budget and brand name to challenge its competitors head-on, owners John and Robert Marshall have found a different way to stay ahead of the curve.
Inn Marin’s renovations take full advantage of the public obsession with “green” technology and design.
“We had to do some research to figure out what we could do. There are challenges when we have a property that is 60 years old,” said Robert Marshall, who also manages the hotel. “Renovating is kind of a repetitive process. We could have gone three more years on our previous interior and décor, but with the other hotels going forward (we had to keep pace). They have deep pockets; the Embassy Suites in San Rafael spent $6.5 million, and Sheraton spent $4.5 million.”
With a smaller $2 million budget, Inn Marin’s owners had to innovate to get the most return for their money. Marshall said green technology and design seemed like a competitive angle.
However, he said implementing it in the renovations wasn’t as easy as checking product labels.
“The industry is definitely pushing towards green,” he said. “The challenge is finding stuff that’s truly environmentally friendly. Some companies market a standard product as green just because it’s in a biodegradable package. You have to look at that, and we’ve done some studying on it.”
In addition to ensuring “green” products actually matched client expectations, the owners had to decide how to incorporate them in a way that actually improved the comfort of the hotel for clients.
“One of the things we came up with was we needed to add hardwood floors. We wanted that look, but also a green product,” said Marshall. “So we worked with Mill Valley Bamboo. Bamboo has a three- to five-year turnaround; it puts out three times more oxygen than your traditional tree. Also, they never have to tear up land to replant; they harvest (stalks), and it regrows.”
Insulation is also a common energy-efficiency modification. For the Marshalls, it coincided well with their goal to replace the hotel’s brick-wall interior.
“The hotel was built with a slump stone structure. That’s a Spanish brick, and it’s a good solid wall, but we wanted something more modern and up-to-date, more Mission style,” said Marshall. “So we sheet-rocked it and gave it an adobe color. We painted it with low-volatile-organic-compound paint, which is environmentally-friendly.”
Interior designer Alex Ray, owner of Five Senses Interiors, said she worked to incorporate a natural look into the redesign, in order to compliment the ecological merits of the hotel’s modifications.
“I wanted to make it a cozy, warm and green place. I didn’t want a cold contemporary look,” she said. “Green for me means comfortable and unpretentious. We’re customizing a scent for the room, and dealing with natural materials wherever possible. As for the colors (the owners) had strong opinions about red, especially burgundy. I originally came to them with (colors that were) green and zingy and fresh, but they went with the warmer colors.”
Emphasizing a natural feel would distinguish the business in the minds of visitors, said Ray.
“(The Marshalls) are redoing the lobby, they’re trying to do get away from the Best Western look, with its clinical check-in check-out style,” she said. “I want to take it to a Spanish-mission style, warm and friendly.”
In addition to the visible changes in the rooms, Marshall said the hotel had also added new technologies with reduced negative environmental impacts.
“We redid the bathrooms with low-flush toilets and new Grohe faucets and showers,” he said. “We also put in light fixtures with compact-fluorescents.”
Reducing chemical usage is another direction the hotel has taken.
“Our current laundry system is based on an enzyme, not a chemical, and we’ve cut down from five hot-water cycles to three,” said Marshall. “I’m looking at a company right now from Corte Madera, and they’re doing green soaps and dispensing systems, instead of the little one-ounce bottles.”
According to Marshall, the innovative redesign is less of a gamble than it might sound. Inn Marin’s several previous upgrades have garnered the hotel higher ratings and more business, a sound proof-of-concept.
“Our AAA-ratings have gone up each time we’ve done stuff, and we’ve seen a much greater penetration into the business community. It’s about 60 percent business travel, 40 percent leisure stays now,” he said.
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