Hotels and Motels Use CalMAX

by Maggie Coulter

Air Conditioners at Barnabey's Hotel
In September of last year the 122-unit Barnabey's Hotel in Manhattan Beach needed to get rid of 24 nonworking air conditioners. General Manager Jeff Solenberger had heard about CalMAX from a colleague at a Chamber of Commerce gathering. Solenberger called CalMAX, got a catalog, and then placed an ad for the AC units.

"I got a lot of calls," Solenberger said, "but I wanted them to go to a nonprofit, to somebody who needed them." Although it took several months, a caller from the Riverside area contacted Solenberger about getting the units for his non-profit organization that would rebuild and use them. After pickup, the units went on to a new life in July.

The Barnabey's also has an active recycling program for paper and cardboard. "We couldn't find anyone to take the bottles and cans," said Solenberger, so the hotel is arranging to have one of its employees take them to a recycling center. The hotel donates its worn blankets and sheets to local charities. Lots of Barnabey's customers also choose to participate in the In-Room Green Program through which they can request that their sheets and towels not be laundered every night.

Solenberger said he may be using CalMAX again in the near future if his hotel decides to go forward with a major renovation it is considering.

Contact:
Jeff Solenberger
General Manager
Barnabey's Hotel
3501 North Sepulveda
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
(310) 545-8466

Sheets from the Napa Valley Budget Inn
Although the 58-unit Napa Valley Budget Inn was recycling cans, bottles, paper and cardboard, they were throwing away about two sheets a week that had been stained or worn too thin to reuse. When the motel did a major overall of its bedding in June, it suddenly had hundreds of sheets headed for the landfill. Fortunately, motel general manager Joseph Burch had recently gotten a flyer about CalMAX in the local Chamber of Commerce "hot sheets" mailed twice a month to members.

Burch put an ad in CalMAX via the Internet and about a month later got a call from a man in Sacramento whose business would make rags from the sheets. The businessman drove to Napa and Burch gave him the sheets for free. "This was an excellent way to make further use of these sheets," explained Burch, who was happy to see them as much use as possible.

Prior to getting the call through CalMAX, Burch had contacted local homeless shelters and was able to give them several hundred sheets. In the past, the motel also has donated used bedspreads, blankets, and pillows to local homeless shelters. Burch plans to continue giving motel discard sheets to the homeless shelters.

In addition to recycling, the Napa Valley Budget Inn also provides its customers who stay more than one night in a row the opportunity to help save resources by requesting that the sheets not be washed every night. A number of customers do participate in this program, which saves water and energy and prolongs the life of the sheets.

The flyers Burch received were part of the City of Napa's outreach on CalMAX jointly funded by the city and a CalMAX mini-grant. Seven other local jurisdictions also received funding under this grant to promote CalMAX to their local business communities. Other cities have also helped local businesses know about CalMAX through inserts in license and utility bill mailings.

Contact:
Joseph Burch 
General Manager
Napa Valley Budget Inn
3380 Solano Ave
Napa, CA 94558
(707) 257-6111
nvbinn@aol.com
www.napavalleybudgetinn.com/

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Last updated: August 01, 2008