How to Save Water: Real Tips for the Hospitality Industry
The hospitality industry is thirsty work. From luxury resorts to rural arts festivals, from travel blogs to AI marketing prompts — our industry runs on water. A lot of it gets used. Unfortunately, a significant amount also gets wasted.
The preservation of water is reaching global crisis mode, yet so many travel articles are still rehashing the same tired advice: “Please reuse your towels.”
This guide shares real, practical tips on how to save water — including how we market, how we automate, and how we meet.
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Water, Water Everywhere
Water stress isn’t coming — it’s already here.
Rivers are hitting record-low levels. Rainfall is generally down. When rain does happen, it rushes over dried-out land with no way to be absorbed. Climate catastrophes linked to drought and global warming are steadily increasing. Everywhere.
The independent, Netherlands-run (and OECD-facilitated) Global Commission on the Economics of Water released a staggering report late last year. It warns that the global water crisis could slash world GDP by 8% within 25 years, with poor countries facing up to a 15% drop.
And yet — there’s been only one global water conference in the past 50 years. No coordinated plan. No unified response. Just floods, drought, overuse, and billions of poor people paying more for access to water than the rest of the world. (Source: The Guardian, Global Commission on the Economics of Water)
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TLDR: Want to Save Water For Real?
Most guides stop at “reuse your towel.” This one goes further — covering AI use, email bloat, event swag, and cultural storytelling.
Ready to Take Action?
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Why U.S. Hospitality Can’t Ignore Drought
Drought isn’t just a global issue affecting far-off places. It’s happening here. In cities and states across the region.
In late November (2024), Drought Monitor’s reporting found the reflected the greatest number of states in drought in the history of its record-keeping.
“The U.S. saw a huge expansion of drought for the fourth week in a row… Drought is present in every U.S. state except Alaska and Kentucky.” — U.S. Drought Monitor
It’s easy to point fingers at pools and golf courses — or casually tell guests to reuse towels. But the truth is: operations are part of the problem too.
The choices we make — from meetings to marketing to messaging — all have water footprints.
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Water is Sacred
For many Native nations, water is a living relative — central to origin stories, songs, prayer, and daily life. Land acknowledgments have become more common in cultural tourism, but water recognition is still lagging. The good news? Indigenous communities are leading the change — sometimes by giving local waters the legal rights to protect themselves.
Indigenous-led efforts include:
💧 In 2019, Northern California’s Yurok Tribe granted legal personhood to the Klamath River.
💧 The White Earth Band of Ojibwe adopting the Rights of Manoomin to protect wild rice and the freshwater sources it depends on.
💧 New Zealand granted personhood to the Whanganui River as part of a treaty agreement with the Māori.
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Origin Stories Aren’t Just Ancient History
Water is quietly central to every origin story. It played a large role in our nation’s origin story – waterways were the original highway system, powering trade, migration, and settlement. And thus, a bearer of growth for many of those cities.
This is great fodder for cultural tourism destinations. But water is not just a story of the past. It continues to shape the stories of modern economies.
💧 Consider Hollywood.
Many international visitors are surprised to learn that Hollywood is not an independent city. It’s just one of the many neighborhoods that make up the City of Los Angeles.
Why? Water rights.
Before 1910, Hollywood (like West Hollywood and Beverly Hills) was independent. But then L.A. finished building an aqueduct from Owens Valley (itself another story, as the water travels some 300 miles to hydrate Los Angeles.) The city controlled then controlled the water for the region. Access to water required Hollywood annexation. No water, no growth.
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How to Save Water (For Real)
Saving water doesn’t just mean telling visitors what to do. It means walking the walk. Just like carbon offsets, water-saving actions work best when you track them, talk about them, and make them part of your destination story.
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Watch Your Digital Footprint
Saving water isn’t just a physical act. Your marketing, meetings, and even AI prompts leave a footprint too. Digital tools feel invisible — but behind every click is a data center that requires power, cooling, and yes, water.
Here’s how to make smarter choices online.
Cut Prompt Pollution
Artificial intelligence is a huge -and surprisingly under reported – perpetrator of high water usage. AI runs on massive data centers that require enormous energy and water for cooling.
One single 100-word AI prompt can use as much water as a 500ml bottle.
What’s more, Bloomberg News found that two-thirds of data centers are being developed in locations that are already gripped by water stress.
A single 100-word AI prompt can use as much water as a 500ml bottle.
– Monica Poling
Since AI doesn’t appear to be a going anywhere soon, what can users do?
Keep prompts short. Longer prompts and follow up questions in long chats increase water use exponentially.
Start new chats instead of expanding old ones
Ask tighter, more focused questions
Skip generating that second Ghibli-style image just so you can look a little younger.
Skip the thank you (or I love you). ChatGPT doesn’t need your appreciation. (Take your real BFF out for a drink at a local restaurant instead.)
🎥 Go Camera-Optional on Video Calls
Video meetings are also big energy users, which means big water users. Zoom uses up to 9 liters of water per hour due to the energy and cooling required by cloud infrastructure.
Encourage audio-only for internal meetings and quick updates.
Explain why. Set a new standard.
📩 Send Fewer (and Better) Emails
Yes, even emails use water — indirectly, through the energy required to send, store, and deliver them. This is especially true for email marketing platforms and automated campaigns, which rely heavily on cloud infrastructure.
Do you really need a 12-part welcome sequence when three strong emails can equally build trust?
Could hotel booking engines survive — and even thrive — with fewer daily promotional blasts?
Hospitality industry open rates are already alarmingly low. Maybe fewer, better emails could solve two problems at once: low engagement and high resource use.
Saving water doesn’t just mean telling visitors what to do. It means walking the walk. Just like carbon offsets, water-saving actions work best when you track them, talk about them, and make them part of your destination story.
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Save Water Behind the Scenes
Towel reuse campaigns are great — but water stewardship shouldn’t stop at the guest room door.
This section is about your offline actions. The internal choices you make — what you print, ship, hand out, or throw away — all carry a water footprint. Here’s where to tighten up.
🧾 Rethink the Visitor Guide
Printed visitor guides seem helpful, but most end up in hotel drawers, airport trash bins, or stacked in storage long after the event ends.
And they’re not water-neutral. Paper production consumes water. So does the shipping. So does the landfill, when discarded brochures break down and release toxins into groundwater.
If most guests are looking things up on their phones anyway, consider reducing your print run or switching to digital formats. A smaller, more intentional print job often works better — for your budget and the environment.
🗑 Say No to Swag
SWAG. It used to mean Stuff We All Get. Now it means Stuff We All Give… to Housekeeping.
We all know how this story ends: the plastic pen with your logo, the stress ball shaped like a buffalo, the 300th branded travel mug. Most of it ends up in the trash before visitors even check out.
What we call “swag” is usually made from cheap, non-renewable materials that are expensive to ship and hard to recycle. Swag is often produced in places with minimal labor or environmental protections. And most of these items wind up keeping your visitor guides company in the landfill — also contributing to leachate, the toxic runoff that pollutes groundwater.
Swag should reflect your story — not end up as someone else’s trash.
If you must produce swag, ask yourself: Will someone actually keep this? Then create one-of-a-kind pieces that support local artists. Or partner with printers and makers who specialize in renewable materials, ethical sourcing, and items designed to be reused — not tossed
🌱 Choose Local, Useful, or Digital
Skipping swag doesn’t mean skipping gifts. Just choose ones that align with your values — and your destination.
Locally made snacks, seed packets in plantable paper, or even digital thank-you notes or itineraries are often more meaningful (and useful) than another tote bag. Guests don’t just want more stuff — they want connection, and they want to feel like their visit made a difference.
Make your giveaways reflect that. Less waste. More meaning. Lower water use.
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Help Your Visitors Become Water Warriors
Help your visitors make better decision by incorporating authentic water-saving tips on your website, and in your guides, checklists and itineraries. But remember, visitors are quick to spot greenwashing, so skip the marketing spin and fact-check what your partners tell you. Offer real, practical suggestions written with genuine care.
🚲 Champion Walking and Biking Adventures
Encourage visitors to explore on foot or by bike. Help them get around by providing walking times and sharing highlights like shaded routes or bike rack locations.
⛳️ Highlight Water-Wise Golf Courses
Golf courses get a bad rap for water use, but the reality isn’t quite as dire as it seems. (Or at least so says the US Golf Association)
A year of golf course irrigation across the U.S. accounts for only 1.5 days of total U.S. water withdrawals.
– — U.S. Golf Association
Still, celebrating courses that use recycled water, native plants, or dryland landscaping helps visitors make better, more informed, water-conscious choices.
🌾 Spotlight Sustainable Farms and Local Food Stories
Sustainable farms and the restaurants supporting them offer visitors authentic experiences — better for the environment and rich in storytelling.
For example, Oatman Flats Ranch thrives in Arizona’s dry Sonoran Desert. Recently featured in Civil Eats, the ranch uses Indigenous farming practices that has helped it save more than a billion gallons of water over the past five years. The ranch recently earned recognition with the first Regenerative Organic Certified farm designation.
Oatman is now training other farmers — and could become a model for agri-tourism experiences.
🍽 Promote Thoughtful Dining Over Buffets
Buffets might seem fun, but they often generate up to 50% food waste, increasing water use through extra dishes, prep, and cleanup.
Encourage plated meals or curated picnics with sustainable packaging — better for guests and the planet.
🍖 Celebrate Better Food (Or Highlight Local Eats)
Industrial beef is a heavy water user, with one pound of beef requiring up to 1,799 gallons of water to cultivate.
Highlight restaurants that offer better meat and smart sourcing — think dryland farming, low-water cooking techniques like smoking or dry rubs, and simple, local ingredients.
Sustainable picnic options can also cut water use and waste while offering a uniquely local visitor experience.
Eating local connects visitors with your community’s food traditions and supports the local economy — a win-win.
👕 Promote Outfit Re-wearing
Swapping clothes daily or more on vacation, especially in dry places, wastes water unnecessarily. Encourage guests to pack light, re-wear outfits, and skip hotel laundry when possible. Better yet, launch a “#IWoreItTwice” campaign to highlight your commitment to saving water.
Saving water doesn’t just mean telling visitors what to do. It means walking the walk. Just like carbon offsets, water-saving actions work best when you track them, talk about them, and make them part of your destination story.
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Spotlight Water Heroes
Real change starts with highlighting the people already doing the work.
Tribal stewards. Sustainable farmers. Hoteliers. Cultural tourism pros.
They’re not just behind-the-scenes players — they’re often the very reason people visit. Their efforts protect the land, carry forward stories, and create the authentic experiences today’s travelers crave.
Numbers alone won’t inspire action. But their stories will.
Saving water doesn’t just mean telling visitors what to do. It means walking the walk. Just like carbon offsets, water-saving actions work best when you track them, talk about them, and make them part of your destination story.
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Water Runs Through it All
Cultural tourism is about protecting what’s sacred: land, story, and people. Water connects all three. It gives life. It links generations. It carries stories.
It demands respect, awareness, and responsibility.
Help your visitors — and your team — find ways to honor water in every step of their journey.
If cultural tourism is about protecting what’s sacred, then we can’t afford to ignore water. Not in our stories, not in our swag, and definitely not in our strategy.
– Monica Poling
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Customers Want to Know
FAQ: How Can We Save More Water?
A: Switch your internal Zooms to audio-only by default. It’s low-effort and sends a clear signal that you’re thinking differently.
A: No. Just use them smarter. Consolidate, simplify, and track. Better tools, fewer clicks, more impact.
A: Be specific. Talk about your actions, your partners, your community. Don’t make generic pledges, especially ones that put all the work on visitors.
A: Water is more than a resource — it’s cultural, ecological, and personal. “Sustainability” is vague. “Stewardship” asks for relationship.
A: Connect the dots between values and visibility. Water stewardship isn’t just the right thing — it strengthens your story, your guest experience, and your funding case. Start small. Track wins. Then share the impact.
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Quick Wins
How to Save Water Without Overhauling Everything
Create a “Camera Off” Culture: Normalize audio-only meetings for internal calls. Add a note to your agendas: “Water-Saving Mode Encouraged.”
Set a Prompt Budget: Cap your daily AI use by number of prompts or word count. Make it a challenge with your team.
Audit One Email Sequence This Week: Choose your welcome series or top promo flow. Can you say more with less?
Swap Swag for Story: Replace one conference giveaway with a story-driven gift. (Locally made, reused, or digital.)
Add a “Water Stewardship” Line to Your Website: A single sentence about how you’re conserving water can build trust — and nudge others to act.
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