#27 | 04/04/2024

Hello

We have a review of The Social Hub Amsterdam City, which is a hybrid hotel concept developed by hospitality visionary and social entrepreneur Charlie MacGregor. With the group expanding across Europe the hotels offer a sense of community, diversity and work life balance. Check out the review at the bottom of the newsletter.

Big news in the last few days as Booking.com dropped its Travel Sustainable programme and removed some of the green "sustainable" leaves from its site. It will now focus on those properties which have third party sustainable certifications. A sign the industry is starting to focus and align.

And we have a roundup of the Energy and Environment Alliance's Sustainability Symposium. A day packed with experts talking about circularity, traveller behaviour, the impact of regulations and securing finances and more. It was an insightful day with lots of networking, learning from each other and bringing the important topics to the table.

Until next time,

Felicity Cousins
Editor, Sustainable Hotel News

Image: The Social Hub Amsterdam City by Sal Marston Photography

HEADLINES

📚Accor invests in talent with new Employee Value Proposition

Accor has launched an Employee Value Proposition – Hospitality is a Work of Heart – to develop a culture focussed on working in the broader industry and to renew “a sense of enchantment for the sector.” The new EVP signature is a response to the hospitality talent landscape which has undergone significant change in recent years after the pandemic impacted staffing levels and retention across the global hospitality industry.

🗣️ EEA Sustainability Symposium – education, data and finance key to ESG success

The Energy and Environment Alliance held its Sustainability Symposium at the London Westin with a focus on ESG in hospitality. The event, which was attended by 200 delegates, looked at how to consider ESG in the context of capital markets, hotel construction and circularity, hotels and ESG in practice, and measuring the social impact of hotels. There was also a panel on sustainability data and another on the say-do, or attitude gap of consumers. Dr Marc Lepere, lead in ESG & sustainability, King’s Business School moderated and summed up the conversations as the day progressed.

🌱 Booking.com drops Travel Sustainable programme

Digital travel platform Booking.com is to introduce new labelling for properties which have attained third-party sustainability certification. The move will see the platform dropping its Travel Sustainable programme, which was launched in 2021. The programme allowed eligible properties to display a badge against their listing within the Booking.com platform. The platform will now introduce a label to acknowledge when a property has achieved a third-party sustainability certification, coupled with the ability to filter searches accordingly.

🏨 Wyndham’s Women Own the Room helps more than 550 women hoteliers

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has opened more than 15 hotels and has more than 50 signings with its Women Own the Room initiative. According to data from US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Castell Project, while women make up nearly 60 per cent of the workforce in hospitality, they hold only one leadership spot for every 10 men. The programme, which has been running for two years, has helped prospective women hotel owners climb to more than 550.

💧Accor signs CEO Water Mandate to make changes to hotel operations

Accor has signed the CEO Water Mandate, an initiative created by the United Nations in 2007, to address urgent water issues. Joining 256 other companies which have committed to the mandate, Accor will progress along six areas of water stewardship: direct operations, supply chain & watershed, collective action, public policy, community engagement and transparency.

🏨 Review: The Social Hub, Amsterdam City

The Social Hub group of hotels is the creation of Charlie MacGregor who saw that hotels were an opportunity to bring different people from different backgrounds, races and cultures together and celebrate differences, and enjoy and learn from each other’s company. The Social Hub is not a hotel focussed on business travellers or created for leisure travellers or students – it is a pioneering hybrid concept welcoming all of these people at the same time – a melting pot of students studying in Amsterdam, business travellers meeting colleagues and clients, and families and friends spending a few days exploring the city. The idea is that everyone is welcome just as society should be – one big family. Students can stay at the Social Hub for up to one year with private bathroom, spaces to work and relax, gym use, free bike-sharing and laundry included.

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