Brian Berkman says Africa’s greenest hotel shows how eco-conscious stays can also offer excellent value. Voted by the Green Building Council South Africa as Africa’s greenest hotel, Hotel Verde in Cape Town, Western Cape, recycles more than 90% of its waste. And in June this year, it was named Africa’s Leading Green Hotel in the World Travel Awards.
Photo: Brian Berkman
The hotel provides a 100% carbon-neutral stay to help assuage any eco-guilt about flying in or out of the city. Its website lists all the ways it offsets carbon, but from a guest perspective, what really matters is the double-glazing on windows, so that even though you’re very close to the airport, you won’t be woken by engine noise.
Also, a rarity in practice, the rooms’ two sets of curtains are effective at providing a very dark environment.
Farmer’s Weekly visited Hotel Verde soon after it opened in August 2013, and it is wonderful to see that many of the eco-conscious initiatives first developed there have continued and grown.
While located in Airport Industria, about a two-minute drive from Cape Town International Airport, the hotel’s immediate surroundings are lush and green, and its plant-filtered eco-pool looks like an oasis in a heavily built-up neighbourhood.
The ‘green walls’ between the public sitting area and the restaurant have flourished, and in areas where the natural green isn’t as intense as it might be given the changing seasons, the property supplements these with sculptural wire birds and other creatures, some of which they sell in the on-site deli.
Although the primary reason to stay here is its proximity to the airport (just 400m away, especially convenient when arriving or departing very early or late), the hotel’s offering is sufficiently compelling to stay for a couple of days.
Standouts include an excellent breakfast buffet at R235 for non-residential guests and a very well-priced restaurant for other meals, too. In the breakfast pork, Hotel Verde offers cold sliced roast, house-made bacon jam, rillettes, and pâté, which are all delicious. It wouldn’t surprise the writer if their omelette chef trained and worked in France.
Its eight meeting and conferencing facilities, the largest of which can accommodate 124 people cinema-style, are also an attraction, as their rates include parking, Wi-Fi, use of the audio-visual equipment, and carbon offsetting.
Breakfast is served from 4am to 10am during the week and until 10.30am on weekends. Packed meals are also provided on request.
Since our last visit, Farmer’s Weekly noted three changes. The hotel’s original gym used to have friction cardio equipment that fed electricity back into the grid, but not it has regular albeit state-of-the-art cardio and strength-training equipment.
Another change is the six newly built rooms, which brings the total available keys to 151, and Verde Vita, a standalone spa located across from the hotel. The spa offers a wide range of treatments that, despite the hotel’s four-star grading, are competitively priced, including a 45-minute anti-jet-lag back, neck, and legs massage for R950 and 30 minutes in an infrared cabin (think sauna) for R450, which also includes use of the shower.
Flexible accommodation options
Hotel Verde also offers short-visit options between 6am and 8pm when you need to refresh after a flight or take a catnap before heading out. Priced from R750 for three hours, this is a viable alternative to paying for access to an airport lounge.
Room-only rates start at R1 500, but budget on R2 375 as the more typical rate inclusive of breakfast.
Connectivity and comfort
There are complimentary shuttles every 30 minutes to and from the airport between 4am and midnight, and daily shuttles to and from the V&A Waterfront at R150 each way.
Despite water pressure being restricted to prevent water waste, it was a perfectly satisfactory shower, and none of the eco-considerations had a negative impact on the guest experience.
Executive Suite rooms have a small seating area with a TV and, considering that it folds down into a second bed, a very comfortable couch. These rooms are also connected via two sets of double doors if you want to accommodate a larger family together.
Growing local appeal
General Manager Caron van Rooyen told Farmer’s Weekly that the hotel typically runs at high occupancy, and while the guest make-up skews towards foreign nationals, an increasing number of South Africans and Capetonians are visiting to take advantage of special weekender-stay offers.
The hotel’s owners, Mario and Annemarie Delicio, also own another nearby business called Dematech, which provides turnkey solutions to craft beer and other beverage businesses.
It makes sense, then, that the hotel’s large selection of beers on tap aligns with its other value-for-money initiatives. For example, As an example, a packet Lay’s crisps that costs R9,99 online only costs R12 in Hotel Verde’s deli.
It says a lot that a hotel frequented mostly by international travellers doesn’t hike the prices of consumables just because it can.
Plan your green getaway at hotelverde.com.
