The utilities bills were forecast to be over £300,000 but two years on its fortunes have been transformed following a major refurbishment by Everbright Hotels which has trimmed the total amount to just over £80,000.
The hotel has also installed EV charging points to encourage visitors to reduce their carbon emissions.
It’s a renewable recipe that is now set to be repeated across the award-winning group’s remaining hotels in North Wales, Rossett Hall, near Wrexham, the Wild Pheasant in Llangollen, and in Llandudno at the Belmont where work has already started and the Queens Hotel which is due to reopen next year.
Everbright Hotels Group Operations Director, Darryl Shaw told a meeting of the Net Zero North Wales Network at Conwy Business Center, “When we took over the hotel we were being quoted gas and electricity bills of over £300,000 and that would just not have been viable for the hotel to operate.
“The good news is that our green energy initiatives have enabled the hotel to operate more economically and with a substantial reduction in carbon emissions."
The event at the Conwy Business Center brought together businesses from across North Wales, some of them attending remotely.
Speaking at the event, Shaw said, “We wanted to introduce more technology into the equation and this is what we have done over two stages, the first to modernize the existing systems and the second to decarbonize the business.
“In the first stage we have installed new aluminium and copper radiators which enables the hotel to ... operate at a temperature of 50 to 55C compared to the former system at 65 to 75C.
“We have also introduced multi-zone temperature controllers in all the bedrooms and public areas so management can determine the heating in all areas of the hotel, so we aren’t heating rooms that are empty to the same level as those that are in use.”
“Visitors to Llandudno can also now travel with confidence in their electric vehicles and make use of our state of the art charging stations, including a 50Kw DC Fast charger. Helping our guests to reduce their environmental impact while supporting provision of EV charging infrastructure for the region”
Everbright Hotels was launched in 2015 and their first hotel was Rossett Hall and they now have four in North Wales and two more in Cumbria and the catalyst for their green transformation has been the COVID pandemic.
Shaw explained, “We started thinking about whether we wanted to carry on as we had or could we come up with new strategies which would make a difference and which would be the right thing to do.”
Stage Two of the program will see the Llandudno Bay Hotel equipped with solar panels including thermodynamic panels as an alternative to air-source heat pumps with the electricity generated by the panels being stored in batteries to be used at peak times and also to support the electric car chargers.
“The total cost of the works has been £150,000 and we estimate that we will get payback in two years.
“It’s a treble win because we get the much-needed cost saving, we get a significant decarbonization of 90 tons annually and we get customers because the market is saying that people are choosing to stay in hotels which are environmentally responsible."
The meeting was organized by Ashley Rogers, the Chief Executive of the North Wales Business Council, which runs the Net Zero North Wales Network.
He said, “I’d like to thank Darryl and the rest of the speakers for their inspirational presentations.
“The aim of the Net Zero North Wales Network is to share best practice that others can also learn from and implement to make their businesses greener.
“What Everbright Hotels is doing is a clear demonstration that reducing your carbon footprint also makes sound business sense and that investing in green technology can improve your bottom line, leading to an improvement in profitability."
