WORLDWIDE: Hotelbeds, the cloud-based technology platform, which offers access to a global network of travel products, has seen interest in sustainable hotel searches leap by a third.
Hotelbeds is certified as a Carbon Neutral Organisation (scope 1 & 2) by Carbon Footprint Ltd since 2018. It is one of the first travel companies to join The Climate Pledge Commitment, co-founded by Amazon, to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Recently the travel tech company has seen a surge in the number of travellers booking eco-friendly hotels.
Its latest data shows that 30 per cent more people have actively chosen to book properties that are part of Hotelbeds’ Green Hotels programme, over the past 12 months compared to the previous year.
Criteria for Green Hotels properties, as certified by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), includes sustainable management and cultural impacts.
Nicolas Huss, Hotelbeds’ CEO said:“Travellers are much more conscious of their carbon footprint and impact on the environment than ever before. We started the Green Hotels programme in 2000 with 15,000 properties and it’s since grown to more than 37,000 hotels, representing over 20 per cent of our business as more people actively seek to protect the planet while also exploring it.”
Hotelbeds is also growing its plastic-free hotel portfolio, and this has seen a 84 per cent increase over the past year versus the prior 12 months. Customers seeking both green, and plastic-free hotels have grown by 30 per cent in the last year.
The new data comes as Hotelbeds released its annual Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) report. The 2022 edition reports a number of achievements to lower the company’s environmental impact, including a reduction in energy by nearly half (48 per cent), waste by 76 per cent, water by 57 per cent and paper by 54 per cent in 2022 versus 2019.
It is also making strides in the Hotelbeds Forest, an initiative that aims to plant 10,000 trees this year to offset some of its carbon emissions.