Provence boutique hotel, France

We employ people from the surroundings of Arles (Arles, Le Pardou, Fourques). We have 5 full time employees and several seasonal employees to help us out in high season. We also have trainees to help the Chef, and therefore to pass his knowledge of local cooking. Most of the vegetables come from our garden and the nearby farm. The meat comes from a local butchery which uses local animals. We use local people and services such as builders and electricians for the maintenance of the property.

We encourage our guests to visit local attractions, eat in local restaurants and buy local produce. We also encourage our guests to use public transport or local services. Every morning, I gladly answer our guests questions, and tell them where they can go and what they can see.

We use energy saving bulbs wherever we can. We have a sign in the bathroom saying that we change towels only if they are in the tub or the shower. We change sheets every 3 or 4 days to save on water use.

We have a nice garden and we even grow vegetables for the restaurant. Organic of course! We compost all our food and garden waste and our cats enjoy our food waste. We collect rain water for use in the garden.

We recycle glass. We try to reduce paper use by not printing out every booking. We incite tour operator and internet booking sites to send mail rather than fax. We use the other side of sheets of paper for our personal accounting documents.