TNQ Writer
If you haven’t met them already, there are three hotel siblings in Cairns you should really know by name – Riley, Bailey and Flynn.
While they might not all look the same, like most siblings, they share the same values – having been brought up as part of the Crystalbrook Collection. This portfolio of Australian hotel’s pairs considered design and five-star comforts with a range of initiatives focused on reducing waste, using resources thoughtfully and supporting responsible practices.
Discover the little things Crystalbrook is doing to make your tropical stay a little more thoughtful.
Everything down to the key card entry is different
Wooden key cards at Crystalbrook Riley
Likely your first encounter with Crystalbrook’s environmental policy starts from the minute you check-in (paperless of course), as you’re handed a wooden key card access to your room. Unlike the plastic variety used across most hotel groups, when you stay in a Crystalbrook Collection property you’ll be supplied with a recycled wooden door token which resembles a wooden poker-chip. Made from 100% recycled wood, these key card access tokens are a small detail, but one that reflects Crystalbrook’s broader approach to reducing single-use materials.
Bigger bottles, fewer single-use amenities
Bathroom amenities at Crystalbrook Riley
In Riley, Bailey and Flynn, the standard mini shampoo and conditioner bottles have been replaced with larger amenity packs pumping their signature scent, Crystalbrook Immersion. By replacing small, single use toiletries with large bottles, one of the hotel’s alone (Riley) is able to keep a quarter of a million bottles out of landfill each year. The swap doesn’t short-change guests either – you’ll have the opportunity to lather yourself from large pump packs containing essential oils and local Indigenous ingredients such as Davidson Plum and Rosella, a fragrant reminder you’re in the tropics.
Cutting back on single-use plastic
Save on plastic with Crystalbrook's reusable waterbottles
Try as you might to go looking for them, you won’t find any single use plastics lurking around these three hotels. Crystalbrook Collection has reimagined the little details of a hotel stay, replacing items such as straws, disposable bags, takeaway containers and plastic water bottles with alternatives designed to reduce single-use plastic. Since launching the hotel group in November 2018, their transition to boxed water has saved millions of water bottles from going straight into landfill.
In fact, even the coat hangers you find in each of the rooms are made from 100% pressed cardboard rather than the usual kind you find in hotel rooms.
Considered menu design
Crystalbrook Collection dining
Food waste is another part of the picture, which is why Crystalbrook looks for ways to make the most of every ingredient. Take the use of a pineapple for instance. You might find the juice of the pineapple served at breakfast, the leaves in a cocktail come sundown and your modern-Asian dinner dished up inside a pineapple skin bowl for dinner – that’s how committed they are to end–to–end cooking.
Where food waste does exist, it’s swiftly sent off with OzHarvest to be distributed to those in most need. If that’s left you hungry for more – you’ll be happy to know if you forgo your daily room service (reducing excess cleaning costs), you’ll even get a $10 voucher to use at one of the onsite restaurants.
Even the coffee pods get a second life
Even the coffee has a conscience
Saying goodbye to the pod-machine coffee system is a hard ask for any five–star traveller, but what if we told you that you could have your coffee and feel good too?
Crystalbrook Collection have partnered with TerraCycle, a charity which recycles coffee pods. Proceeds are donated to various charities across the region.
Tropical design
Smart design helps manage energy use
Smart design helps manage energy use
The buildings are designed to help control energy use across the properties
The buildings are designed to help control energy use across the properties
Your room will always be the perfect temperature
Your room will always be the perfect temperature
Energy efficiency was considered in the design of Crystalbrook’s buildings. It took engineers time to ensure the building reduced excess energy, through its very design and shape. Inside the rooms, smart systems help manage energy use while you’re staying there
Take for instance the internal Building Management System (BMS), which ensures all rooms across the three properties sit at the same temperature – so you’re never too hot, never too cold. The Building Management System is smart technology too – so from the moment you check in your air conditioning cranks up so you’ll walk into a cool room. Equally it works in reverse too, when the sensors recognise you’ve left the room, your air conditioning switches off to conserve energy.
Tech over Paper
Reducing paper, room by room
Plenty of businesses claim to be paperless, but Crystalbrook Collection certainly walks its own talk. In rooms, the paper compendium has been replaced with iPads and they’ve transformed the check-in and check-out process to be paperless itself. That’s not to say there isn’t a little notepad to jot down your thoughts in your room – these are five-star properties – but instead of bleached–paper, you’ll find recycled Forest Stewardship Council paper stock only.
