Local Community Policy

Amathus Beach Hotel is committed to ensure attention is given on how its operations impact the local residential and business community. We will work to ensure that our hotel has positive social and economic impact and, wherever possible, minimize or eliminate instances of negative influence.
Objectives:
● Establish the TraveLife certification and all related procedures within the Amathus culture in the long run.
● Always seek opportunities to support local communities and organizations.
● Respect, promote and protect archaeological monuments around the Amathunta area as well as Cyprus in general.
● Continue searching for local talents / employees to join our team empowering the Cypriot hospitality towards our esteemed guests.
● Encourage / help local suppliers improving their product based on our high-quality standards.
Our commitment / goals towards the local community:
Integration: Respect, support and promote culture, regulations and preservation of the local environment.
Certification: In order to satisfy broader sustainability criteria including social and economic impact and our employee’s welfare, achieving the Travelife Gold award and its high validation requirements will be one of the main goals for the upcoming year.
Purchasing: Whilst ensuring that the quality of our products or commercial feasibility is not compromised, we aim to seek and promote the purchase and use of local products in order to strengthen the economic and social development of our community. Ensuring that the mutual terms agreed upon with all suppliers are respected, bestows the hotel with a great reputation as well as good relations with local vendors and suppliers.
Employment: The company prioritizes the recruitment of local staff, encouraging the development of the Cypriot society. We believe this policy
helps preserve the vital community net that forms a big part of our unique hospitality culture in Cyprus. The cultural diversity of our team means that different perspectives come together, and everyone shares a slightly different approach to the job at hand, it also gives us better insight into our diverse clientele. We recognize the long-term importance of local residence staying with the community / company, rather than having to seek employment elsewhere. This way wages will be spent locally, providing secondary economic benefit to other businesses within the community.
Local culture & Tradition: The hotel regularly promotes local traditions and culture to its multinational guests through themed buffet nights, performances by local artists, folklore dance and music events and generally making sure that memorable experiences, acceptance and understanding the Cypriot culture is what they take when leaving our Hotel. Daily, during breakfast, Cypriot products are highlighted on a separate section, with our staff available to explain to our guests the origin of the ingredients and/or recipes. During the Cypriot theme night, organized minimum once a week, traditional recipes as well as folklore dances and traditional products are the main attraction of the week for everyone.
The hotel, in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, protects archaeological monuments that are within our premises as well as around the area of Amathus with the latest conservation works of Amathus Tomb No 2 to be completed in January 2019.
Our Welfare Fund Committee activities include organizing excursions to villages, wineries, religious venues and archaeological monuments, intended for all our staff members and this way even foreign employees get to experience the local culture and traditions.
Donation & Charity: It is a policy of the Amathus Hotel that whenever items such as furniture, tableware or linen are no longer suitable for use within the hotel, it will offer this item to local organizations that might benefit by them (schools, local hospitals, care homes etc.)
The company supports local charities in many ways, and the local community by the provision of in-kind support such as auction prizes, food etc. The hotel also frequently considers sponsorship of local sports teams and provision of meeting space at subsidized or no cost of local charities.

Human Resources Policy

We have great respect towards all the fundamental human rights. We believe our employees is our most important asset. We ensure employees are treated fairly with equity and not discriminated against irrespective of religion, beliefs, gender, nationality, ethnicity, any disability, sexual orientation, age and culture.

The Management of Amathus Beach Hotel, in accordance with the above basic Principles, is committed to fulfilling the following policies:
Treatment: We guarantee fair and decent treatment, which respects cultural differentiation. This treatment does not allow discrimination based on nationality, social group, age, gender, disability or religion, excluding any type of abuse or harassment and establishing all the legal health and safety prerequisites during employment.

Employment: Have in-place recruitment and selection procedures that guarantee equal opportunities, evaluating the candidates with clear criteria in order to identify the ideal skills for the job, as well as ensuring strict compliance with the current legislation relating to recruitment.

Training & Development: Encourage the professional development of employees, within a framework of staff performance controls, without interfering with the company’s goals, through objectives and transparent processes and, where necessary, setting up training programs which act as a key element for ongoing improvement.

Communication: We are committed to utilizing our private Facebook group page for Muskita hotels employees, the Staff Bravo recognition and reward platform and displays located in our staff restaurant, as our various communication forums for all staff who work at the hotel to keep them updated with the hotels news, policies and goals to enable them keeping in touch through a paper free dynamic environment .

Working relations: Recognize the right to association and trade union affiliation and establish a relationship of dialogue and cooperation with trade unions and their representatives, without going against the Company’s own core values.
Additionally, employees are provided with uniforms, meals and transportation means where necessary.

Environmental Policy

It is the shared commitment of the management and owners of the Amathus Beach Hotel to ensure optimal environmental management in its operation.
We are committed to sustainability policies and the implementation of proactive measures to help protect the environment for future generations. We recognize that as a hotel our activities have an impact on the environment. We strive to minimize any detrimental effects as a result of our business.
By working together, we can contribute in making a cleaner and safer environment and ensure environmental issues remain a focal point and receive proper attention.
Through our environmental policy we will:
● Comply with relevant environmental legislation and take a proactive approach to future requirements and obligations
● Seek to conserve natural resources through the responsible use of energy, water and materials but also maintaining the quality of service expected by our guests
● Train our staff on our environmental commitments, so that they understand the role they play in achieving our objectives and reaching our targets
● Invite our guests to support our efforts to reduce our environmental impact
● Monitor performance and aim for continued improvement by reducing, re-using, and recycling in areas such as energy consumption, reduction of waste materials and water consumption
● Select suppliers who have compatible policies for managing their impact on the environment
Our objectives in detail:
Electricity Supply and Management:
Operationally, the hotel will undertake the following:
1. Ensure that all heavy and light equipment purchased in the future is rated as energy efficient
2. Ensure that all staff are trained as appropriate in energy conservation.
Electrical saving initiatives
Throughout the operation the Amathus Beach hotel will ENSURE optimal energy efficiencies by undertaking the following:
● Low energy light bulbs or led lights are used in all public areas, accommodations and most of the back-of-house areas.
● Public rest rooms, corridors, basements and staff areas will be equipped with low energy consumption lighting in combination with infrared motion sensors.
● Accommodations will be provided with smart TVs with low standby consumption and low energy refrigerators
Water Supply and management:
Amathus is the first hotel and one of the very few in Southern Europe with an advanced central geo-exchange and heat recovery system that exploits sea water. Even in the hottest summer period where the ambient air temperature reaches 45 ₒC the sea water flows to the heat pumps at approx. 22-26ₒC.
The geo exchange air-conditioning system is combined with a heat recovery, producing free hot water during summer. Moreover, it is further combined with a reverse osmosis desalination plant, providing potable water for the hotel, enough to cover all needs including guests’ rooms, swimming pools, inhouse usage and the watering of 4000m2 of gardens.
A sophisticated variable flow system feeds the heat pumps with sea water, carrying the hotel heat-loads to the sea, thereby reducing the energy required for cooling by approximately 40% compared to standard air-cooling systems while the energy required for water heating is reduced by an average of 70%. The existing oil burners are only used as a back-up heating system.
This combined system is electronically controlled, maximizing energy efficiency compared to conventional air-conditioning systems and oil burners. There are no external units, no noise, while it provides low maintenance and long-term high efficiency. The total energy saving corresponds to approximately 1200 tons of reduced CO2 emissions annually.
The hotel has and will continue, without compromising guest comfort or Health and Safety, further in high capacity water saving devices and procedures to minimize the overall water consumption.
General water saving initiatives:
All accommodation caps and showers are equipped with water flow restriction as follows:
● 4.5 Liters / minute for bedroom tabs
● 4 Liters per minute for bedroom shower
● 6 Liters / minute for public toilet tabs
● All toilets are fitted with dual flashes.
Waste Management:
The hotel will minimize solid waste production in all areas of the hotel and encourage the customers to join the recycling program. Specifically, it will:
● Minimize the use of paper and plastic for customers
● Become a less-paper hotel in all operational procedures
● Continue recycling paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, cooking oil, toner cartridges, fluorescent tubes and batteries.
● Seek for opportunities to begin a food waste composting unit.
Use of chemicals:
● Wherever possible, the hotel will avoid the use of chemicals. It will ensure safe use and disposal of all chemicals that are already in use.