Six Environmentally-Friendly Hotel Deals
These hotels are fun to stay at and are good for the environment.
April 14, 2010— -- Looking to explore a new place and help to save the environment on your next vacation? The travel industry has heard your demand and adapted.
Eco-friendly hotels have sprung up around the world offering guests a more green way to vacation.
Gabe Saglie, senior editor at Travelzoo, said that while more travelers are becoming environmentally-conscious, many do not stay at green hotels due to the cumbersome process of researching hotels' eco-practices. Others said it is difficult to find green hotels within their budgets.
So for Earth Day's 40th anniversary Travelzoo put together a list of outstanding eco-certified hotel deals .
All of the properties have been LEED-certified, which means they fit the U.S. Green Building Council's standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED.
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The building council's program evaluates hotels for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality to ensure a whole-building approach to sustainability. LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification for environmentally responsible hotels.
Here are six of the best deals at environmentally-friendly hotels from Travelzoo:
The Avalon Hotel & Spa, Portland, Ore.: This elegant boutique property was Oregon's first hotel to receive LEED Silver Certification. The hotel is perched along the Willamette River and inside Cottonwood Bay, a protected green area and features its own protected natural area (which doubles as a butterfly refuge), a full-service spa and upscale Italian restaurant. Through April, the hotel is offering rooms from $84 a night, 40 percent off the normal rate. The deal includes free breakfast for two and 20 percent off spa services.