Hotels Are Answering a Water Crisis With Showerheads

Hotels have a water problem, and this summer made it hard to ignore. Seven Aegean islands, including Astypalea, declared drought emergencies this year, and France, Spain, Greece and Italy all restricted water use as temperatures climbed to 40°C. The Mediterranean is warming about 20 percent faster than the global average, so the pressure on resort destinations is unlikely to ease.

Tourism accounted for 3.5 percent of global freshwater use in 2021, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. The industry’s answer so far has been modest. IHG says 95 percent of its managed, owned and leased hotels had adopted aerated showerheads by 2025, yet its water intensity fell only 1.7 percent compared with 2019. A study of eight hotels on Samos found low-cost fixtures cut guest water use by up to 26.4 percent.

Costlier ideas exist but are slow to catch on. Ahbstra, a company that pulls water from the air, has raised £7 million and says its system produces 500 liters a day at a price of £150,000 plus roughly €2,000 a year in service. It has 10 orders, about half from villas, and its chief executive says hotel chains want proof of durability first.

For travelers, the tension is on display in the rooms themselves. Premium-paying guests tend to resist being asked to conserve, and some properties are still adding private jacuzzis because they can charge more for them. Expect more aerators and fewer daily towel changes soon, with bigger structural changes arriving only if the economics start to work.

Sources: Skift, Skift (travel news front page)