An eco-friendly seaside hotel has won a major award for its pioneering approach to cutting carbon.
The landmark Grade II listed Llandudno Bay Hotel, part of the Everbright Group, clinched the Green Innovation Award for the North Wales and West Cheshire Region at the 2024 British Chambers of Trade Awards.
Judges were impressed after hearing a raft of initiatives had reduced the hotel’s carbon footprint by 84%.
When the Everbright Group took it over in 2021, the hotel on Llandudno’s magnificent Victorian seafront had been closed for over two years.
There was no hot water in the rooms on the top floor and the hotel was facing rocketing energy bills forecast to be over £300,000.
Three years on the green refurbishment of the hotel has seen those bills slashed to just over £90,000.
The award is the latest in a series of accolades recognising the success of the “green revolution” at the Llandudno Bay Hotel.
Earlier this year the Everbright Group were crowned Sustainable Luxury Hotel Group of the Year.
It was also named as the Ethical, Responsible and Sustainable Hotel of the Year 2023 at the Go North Wales Tourism Awards.
The template is now going to be rolled out to the other hotels in the group, including the Belmont and the Queens, in Llandudno, the Wild Pheasant Hotel and Spa in Llangollen and Rossett Hall Hotel, near Wrexham, and the George Hotel and Stonecross Manor in the Lake District.
Group Operations Director Darryl Shaw said:
“We’re delighted that we have been honoured with this award because it’s a vote of confidence from our peers in the business community.
“We wanted to introduce more technology into the equation and this is what we have done over two stages, the first to modernise the existing systems and the second to decarbonise the business.
“I would like to pay particular tribute to Sebastian Gudek from Aqualogik Limited who helped us devise and implement these innovative green energy solutions.
“The measures we have introduced at the Llandudno Bay Hotel have worked on every level. It’s been a win-win because it has helped us button down our energy costs at a time when prices were soaring out of control and it is enabling us to do our bit in terms of saving the planet.
“The plan now is roll out this approach across all our properties, here in North Wales and in the Lake District and Cumbria.”
At the Llandudno Bay Hotel, new aluminium and copper radiators were installed which only required 650 litres of water compared to the old system’s 2,500 with that water only heated to 55C instead of over 70C.
Multi-zone temperature controllers were fitted in all the bedrooms and public areas to avoid heating empty spaces to the same level as those in use while new electric vehicle charging points were installed, including a 50Kw DC Fast charger.
Everbright have now also fitted solar panels including thermodynamic panels as an alternative to air-source heat pumps with the electricity generated by the panels capable of being stored in batteries to be used at peak times and also to support the electric car chargers
Liam Donnelly, the manager of the Llandudno Bay Hotel, also played a key role.
He said:
“Overall we invested £150,000 in the project and we estimate that we will get payback in two years.
“As a result of all these measures, we get significant decarbonisation of 90 tons annually and customers love it because the market is saying that people are choosing to stay in hotels which are environmentally responsible.”
