Vega Hotel In Mamaia Becomes Romania"s First Eco Hotel

The five-star Vega Hotel in the seaside resort of Mamaia has become the first hotel in Romania to comply with the Eco Hotel Management System and therefore have the status of Eco Hotel, which guarantees that all processes taking place within the hotel are environmentally friendly. Vega Hotel initiated the certification process for the status of Eco Hotel in October 2008.

Vega Hotel was certified as an Eco Hotel following a comprehensive audit performed by TUV Rheinland - Portugal and TUV Rheinland - Romania. The auditors concluded that Vega Hotel had achieved compliance with all the mandatory requirements and 90% of the supplementary requirements. The minimum condition for obtaining the status of Eco Hotel is 100% compliance with the mandatory requirements and 50% compliance with the supplementary requirements. "Vega achieved a very good score, which places the Romanian seaside hotel among the best hotels in Europe," said Nuno Morganheira, Chief Auditor with TUV Rheinland - Portugal, upon concluding the audit.

Vega Hotel obtained the ISO 9001 certification in March 2009 and is planning to obtain food safety certification from TUV Rheinland in September 2009. The status of being an Eco Hotel is brings added value to a hotel and offers a stronger guarantee of compliance with European hotel standards and environmental standards. The Eco Hotel certification does not equal a green label, which only certifies the use of environmentally friendly equipment and products. Additionally, the scope of an Eco Hotel certification also includes a comprehensive environmentally friendly management system.

• Energy consumption down 30%, water consumption down 20%

"We will soon celebrate one year since the official opening of the hotel in August 2008, following an investment exceeding 13 million EUR. At that time, we embarked on a course for redefining the quality of service on the Romanian seaside," said Gelu Enciu, Executive Manager of Vega Turism SA. According to him, the cost of implementing the Eco Hotel project will not be transferred to the tourists, as most of the equipment and construction works were included in the original design of the modernization works implemented in the hotel.

Filis Abdula, Quality Manager of Vega Turism SA, added that, in order to obtain the certification, the hotel had implemented a new management system for water, energy and waste. "We have the kind of equipment that enables us to be environmentally friendly," he said. Vega Hotel has been equipped with a sensor-based lighting system for the public areas and a system of sensors linking windows to the ventilation system. The two sensor-based systems led to a 30% reduction of the energy consumption. Additionally, the hotel commissioned intelligent faucets that reduce water consumption by 20%. The hotel also commissioned advanced equipment for filtering tap water delivered via the town"s water distribution network, thus making tap water even cleaner than bottled water, according to Gelu Enciu.

Referring to the current economic crisis and the decrease in the total number of tourists going to the Romanian seaside, the executive manager of Vega Hotel said: "We have not felt the crisis yet. Naturally, the general economic context compels us to improve the efficiency of our operations, but the volume of business we have had so far has not given us the time to realize that we are facing a crisis."

Vega Hotel in Mamaia has reduced energy consumption by 30% and water consumption by 20%.