6 Must-Read Resources for Hospitality Firms Wanting to Save Water
Most hospitality firms already understand the benefits of building sustainability into their business.
However, effective water stewardship is a critical part of this and perhaps deserves more attention, particularly when the UK’s hospitality sector is one of the country’s heaviest users of water. The good news is that taking action often requires only small changes that can lead to significant savings.
Reducing your water use not only results in significant cost savings but also helps attract environmentally-conscious customers.
With Britain’s 10,000 hotels typically consuming 1,500 litres of water per room per day1, the annual water bill for an average hotel can exceed £174,0002.
Similarly, the UK’s 54,000 pubs and restaurants use an average of 4,000 litres of water every day, costing more than £5,400 annually3.
If you’re a hospitality business wanting to save water here’s a round up of some must-read resources to help you take action today.
1. A Great Tool to Assess Your Hotel’s Water Use
You can’t manage what you can’t measure. That’s why the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (WSHA) has created the Hotel Water Measurement Initiative (HWMI). This methodology and tool enable hotels to calculate the water use in their properties, measuring the amount of water used per occupied room per day and per area of meeting space per hour.
2. Out-of-the-box Thinking on Tackling Water for Restaurants and Bars
The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) recently formed a working group to look at how restaurants are tackling water scarcity and published this excellent set of recommendations. Their water-saving tips range from installing water-efficient devices to communicating with customers and rethinking supply chains. There’s also some out-of-the-box thinking such as an excellent case study of how the award-winning restaurant Pensons set up their own on-site laundry to reduce their environmental impacts. This included a system in which rainwater was captured, filtered and stored on-site, providing 75% of the water required.
3. Three Practical Water-Saving Tips for Hotels
Ireland’s Sustainable Tourism Network has some excellent practical tips for hotels, with a focus on spotting and fixing leaks and taking action both inside and outside your property to put in place water reduction measures.
4. Global Hospitality Water Management Research
With water being a key focus of many of its Sustainability Goals (SDGs), it’s no surprise that the UN has a wealth of resources to help the hospitality sector understand the problem and take positive action. Take your pick from its extensive research library dedicated to sustainable water practices in hospitality. It includes sustainable tourism guidelines and authoritative assessments of the sector’s overall impact.
5. Water-Saving Devices Checklist
Water Plus claims you can cut down everyday water use by 20-30% by taking a few simple steps and has some excellent tips on everything from auditing your water use to fitting water-saving devices. It also has a downloadable checklist of top water-saving devices you might want to consider installing.
6. Water Leak Detection and Prevention
Finding and stopping water leaks is one of the fastest ways hospitality businesses can save water and positively impact the environment.
Around 30% of the water supplied to hotels, bars and restaurants is lost to undiscovered leaks within those businesses4. That’s about £52,000 poured down the drain annually for a typical hotel or £1,620 for a small restaurant or pub. This is before considering the costs of repairing damage caused by leaks or lost revenue when businesses are forced to close.
It makes both business and environmental sense to take water leaks seriously.
Watergate provides real-time monitoring of water systems to detect possible leaks early and prevent significant damage. By automatically shutting off the water supply during abnormal use, our system protects your property from extensive water damage, reduces repair costs, and maintains a safe and pleasant environment for guests.Learn more about how Watergate is helping hospitality businesses to reduce water bills, lower their insurance premiums, and comply with regulations and water safety standards.
- Source: World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance ↩︎
- Source: Watergate analysis using average annual water and waste water charges for UK businesses 2025-30, based on 87 room hotel with 81% occupancy ↩︎
- Source: Watergate analysis using average annual water and waste water charges for UK businesses 2025-30, based on average water consumption of 4,000 litres per day ↩︎
- Source: United Utilities ↩︎
Gareth is a self-confessed ‘water geek’ and sits on a number of industry water efficiency working groups. He is head of communications at Watergate.