Candlewood Suites Hotels Teams With Furniture Banks

August 28, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on August 2007 InterContinental Hotels Group’s Candlewood Suites hotel brand has teamed up with the National Furniture Bank Association to provide enough box springs and linens for 4,300 needy families.

Candlewood Suites, IHG’s midscale extended-stay hotel group, renovated bedding at 55 hotels this summer, and diverted nearly 260 tons of material from landfills by partnering with the NFBA to direct the used goods from landfills, and also save more than $100,000 in disposal fees.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, during the past 35 years the amount of waste each person creates has almost doubled from 2.7 to 4.4 pounds per day. Reuse is one way to stop waste at the source as it delays or avoids that item’s entry in the waste collection and disposal system.

“We were delighted that 55 local affiliates of the NFBA were able to donate more than 3,200 mattresses and box springs and 4,000 linen sets from our hotels to families in need,” said Gina LaBarre, vice president, brand management, at Candlewood Suites. “Not only did the Candlewood Cares program help local families, but also it diverted waste from landfills and saved our hotel owners thousands in disposal fees.”

Candlewood Suites hotels located far from NFBA affiliates created their own reuse programs. The Candlewood Suites Tulsa donated 100 bedding sets and 120 new books to Tulsa’s Family & Children’s Services during the hotel’s “It’s Not Time for Bed until after You’ve Read!” event. The Candlewood Suites West Knoxville donated 98 bedding sets to Mission of Hope, a local charity that gives beds to those who otherwise slept on pallets.

“The Candlewood Suites partnership with NFBA supports IHG’s overall mission to sustain the environment and the communities in which we operate our hotels,” said Vicki Gordon, senior vice president, corporate affairs at IHG. “We conducted this pilot program with the Candlewood Suites bedding change initiative in order to document environmental, community and hotel operational impact. Our goal was to take the learnings and, assuming positive results, create a template that we could then offer all our brands when they conduct similar refresh activities.”

Based on the positive results at Candlewood, the template will be shared with all franchisees at IHG’s annual Investors Conference in October.