Can Hotels Really Make a Difference?

From renewable energy and conservation schemes to supporting communities and managing food waste, there are many ways a hotel can manage its footprint.

- By Francisca Kellett

There are usually two camps when it comes to the signs found in hotel bathrooms the ones that ask you to reuse your towels to 'help the environment'. The first let's call them the cynics - think it's nothing more than a money-saving exercise and they'll use as many towels as they want. Then there are the others the optimists? - who think, 'yeah, fair enough, I can use this more than once'.

Many of us are in the later camp, although we might question the hotel's motives. Obviously, cutting back on laundry reduces a hotel's impact on the environment and does indeed save money - but that's not the issue. The issue is when hotels stop at that. Sign duly printed, virtue duly signalled, job done. But we, as consumers, know that doesn't cut it anymore. Not when hotels contribute to 1% of global carbon emissions, according to a WTO report.

As more people become more clued up about what sustainability means, the demand for environmentally friendly accommodation is on the rise. A global report by Booking.com in 2022 showed that 78% of respondents were planning to stay in a sustainable property this year. So far, so positive - but if only it were that simple. The same report said 31% of respondents didn't even know that sustainable accommodation is an option, while 29% didn't know how to find sustainable hotels.

So assuming you do know it's an option, how do you find it? How do you choose a hotel that's striving to protect its environment and benefit the local community? How do you spot the do-gooders from the greenwashers?