Bavarian Forest bed and breakfast, Germany
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We try to be environmental friendly. We use eco-friendly cleaning & washing products whenever possible, energy saving light bulbs & recycle most of our waste. Plastics, tinfoil, organic matter, paper, glass, metals, tetra-paks, light bulbs, batteries are regularly taken to the local recycle centre, as are old computer & other electrical items, even our car tyres are returned to the garage for them to recycle. Wherever possible, plastic and glass bottles are returned to the shop or brewery from where they were purchased to be re-used.
Most of our external lights have movement sensors. Rainwater is siphoned from our drainpipes to water the summer plants. All the bathroom shower heads are fitted with water reducers & the toilets each have a low volume flush.
The wood used in our guest-lounge fire place is from a local renewable forestry source. All the bathrooms have dispenser units for liquid soap & shower gel, to help limit unnecessary packaging. And guests are encouraged to use towels for more than just one day.
We have a rolling replacement programme for our electrical items to more energy efficient alternatives, such as LED TVs Also we look to find alternative ways of working such as having one networked printer rather than a printer for each PC, this helps reduce our electricity usage.
We try to encourage guests to travel to us, using public transport, at least for part of their journey, by providing information about bus and train routes on our website along with links to various public transport company websites for the purchasing of paperless tickets etc. All our guests receive a card that entitles them to free use of local buses (including local the ski buses) and trains in the Bayerischer Wald and Oberpfalz area for the duration of their stays, under the GUTi scheme. We also provide a free local hiking/cycling route map (summer) and walking/ski routes map (winter). On our guesthouse noticeboard, when advertising local events, where-ever possible we include travel directions by public transport, by foot etc. on the posters etc.
The Bayerischer Wald has an active policy to encourage wildlife in the area and is currently tracking reintroduced Lynx cats in the forest on both sides of the border. We encourage our guests to visit the Nationalpark information centres where they can find more information about the animals of the region. In our garden we provide nestboxes and feeding stations throughout the year for the local birds. The feeders are regularly visited by many species of small birds, wood pigeons, magpies, starlings and the occasional woodpecker, as well as Red Squirrels, field mice (from under our garden shed), the occasional deer from the forest and even an Ermine has been known to visit.
Community
We source much of our food & drink products locally & use organic, fair-trade &/or home-made produce. such as homemade breakfast jams using ingredients from our or neighbours gardens or from the forest and organic teas and coffee for our breakfast buffet. While the bedrooms' hospitality trays are supplied with fair-trade t-bags & coffee sachets.
We support our local community by sourcing much of our food and drinks supplies from local business, such as fresh breakfast rolls each morning from the village baker & beers from several nearby breweries. The summer bedding plants for our balcony toughs are purchased from a local grower. The wood for our fireplace from a sustainable local source. When possible, we use local contractors for building work, electrical and plumbing jobs.
We are a bed and breakfast guest-house, so encourage guests to enjoy the various local restaurants and cafes of the area, thereby supporting other local businesses. In our guest-lounge we provide a file containing details of local eateries, including location, travel directions, opening times, contact phone numbers for reservations, sample menus & price range along with space of guests to write their own comments. Each bedroom has an information file containing maps locating local shops, cafes, restaurants, bus stiops and train station as well as details on all the local attractions, things to do, places to see, both in German and English languages etc so they can peruse at their leisure and of course we are happy to advise guests should they have any queries. We also have a large in-house resource of local tourist information leaflets, covering things from hiking and walking activites, skiingm, horseriding, canoieing, national information, museums, galleries, historic cities, boat and coach trips, cable car details and more.
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