Eco-Reservations

04 Mar 2008 I had received a dozen or so press releases about the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa before I checked in. The Gaia Hotel, located about nine miles south of Napa in America Canyon, CA, was the first hotel in the United States to earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification by the US Green Building Council, arguably making it the first truly green hotel in the country.

inside the gaia

According to promotional information from the designer, Berkeley-based firm Todd Jersey Architecture, the Gaia Hotel boasts more than 100 green features including “solar electric systems, daylight in every space, passive heating and cooling strategies, a lagoon that provides habitat for native aquatic birds, an ozone laundry system, high-efficiency Mitsubishi "Citi-Multi" HVAC systems, FSC-certified wood, dual-flush toilets and waterless urinals, and zero-VOC (volatile organic compound) finishes.”

When I booked a room, however, I wasn’t interested in energy efficient windows or low-VOC paint, I was simply looking for a last-minute hotel room in the wine country that wouldn’t cost half my paycheck, and Gaia fit the bill. When I pulled into the parking lot, I was surprised at the location – literally on the side of the highway, right next to a dive bar that has taken the liberty of calling itself a casino thanks to its handful of video poker and slot machines. Not exactly the “wine country luxury inn” it was billed as, but the room was $200, which is a steal for a summer weekend in this part of the country.

A pretty groovy set of gauges on the wall behind the lobby’s check-in counter tracks the hotel’s daily use of energy and water, and a long and wordy letter from the architect and owner detailing the virtues of green building dominates the counter. A copy of the same letter is in each room, as are other, shorter explanations of the hotel’s green building elements.

Trouble was, in spite of the self-promotion, I began noticing the various un-green aspects of the way the hotel was operated. The paper cups in the bathroom for water, the smorgasbord of packaged goods in the breakfast room, the lack of automated lighting and cooling—that whole stick your key in the slot to turn the electricity off and on thing has been commonplace in Europe for decades, why wouldn’t a gold-standard green hotel not go at least that far? I also found the room décor to be more similar to a Holiday Inn than a boutique wine country hotel, which is a classic mistake of green business owners – no matter how environmentally responsible your guests are or want to be, they still typically want comfort and style first from a hotel.