Consumer Behavior Change

4 Keys to Engaging Guests on Traveling More Sustainably

New report from Accor and Booking.com sets out challenges hospitality providers face when communicating with guests around sustainability and identifies four key ways to positively influence guest behavior.

Published 1 month ago | About a 6 minute read

Image: TRIBE Baden-Baden

Global hospitality leader Accor, in partnership with Booking.com and the University of Surrey, have released the findings of research aimed at understanding and addressing traveler motivations when it comes to making more sustainable decisions during their stay.

Tourism can be a positive force when it supports communities, breaks down social and cultural barriers, and builds awareness around the need to better protect our planet. But the industry also has significant negative environmental, social and economic impacts that need to be managed.

Guests play a critical role in the efficacy and efficiency of various sustainability initiatives — but there can be a high level of skepticism among travelers when it comes to their role in those efforts. The research confirmed the meaningful role of messaging in motivating more sustainable behaviors — a key component in the continued development of sustainability practices within the industry. The white paper provides a useful reference point on guests — helping to address hospitality’s shared challenges when it comes to bridging the intent-to-action gap for many travelers.

Traveling more sustainably is of increasing priority. According to the Booking.com Sustainable Travel Report 2024:

83 percent say sustainable travel is important to them, and 67 percent say they are inspired to adopt more sustainable behaviors after witnessing responsible practices.
In 2023, 66 percent of travelers said they wanted to leave the places they visit better than when they arrived. In 2024, that rose to 71 percent.

The impetus for driving and scaling positive change is therefore clear, and crucial to remaining aligned with guests’ values and expectations.

Jordane de Villaret, VP of Sustainability Marketing & Communications at Accor, says: "Creating more sustainable hospitality experiences is a journey of learning and humility. At Accor, with over 40 brands, we're excited to set new marketing standards to make sustainability messaging clearer and more impactful. Too often, these communications are vague — leaving brand leaders without practical guidance.

“Our partnership with Booking.com and the University of Surrey aims to equip marketing and communication experts with actionable insights that truly engage guests in our hotels’ impact journey. By sharing this work openly, we hope to inspire both global brands and independent properties to craft compelling narratives that empower guests to be part of the change."

Drawing on lab research, and interviews with global travelers to identify common issues and misconceptions when it comes to sustainability communications, the paper provides four key recommendations to optimize guest messaging to promote more sustainable practices:

1. Highlight property’s sustainability practices — including for less sustainable amenities — and show how guests can easily contribute

A key takeaway was the importance of providing clear, specific information about sustainability practices and avoiding vague claims such as ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘green.’ In one example from the study, messaging that helped guests understand their part in reducing food waste reduced levels of skepticism from 46 percent to 21 percent, compared to more generic and vague messaging. This shows the importance for hotels to demonstrate they are playing their part to address sustainability issues, with specific and focused messages crucial to better engaging guests and avoiding perceptions of greenwashing. This echoes another recent University of Surrey study that highlighted the fine line between informative communication around sustainability and information overload, and the need for hotels to align both their sustainability messaging and practices with consumer expectations.

2. Balance appeals to pleasure and comfort for optimal results

Many travelers interviewed associate the notion of sustainability with more restricted and less enjoyable experiences. To overcome this, hotels should balance sustainability messages around both pleasure and comfort, highlighting options which are both enjoyable and sustainable — such as scenic train rides or local culinary experiences. Sustainability messages that focus on comfort or pleasure were found to increase feelings of satisfaction and joy by 145 percent and 475 percent, respectively, over examples of existing messaging being used.

3. Empower guests; don’t constrain or dictate to them

The research indicates that guests prefer an empowering approach to sustainability communications rather than feeling dictated to, with 55 percent reporting feeling skeptical toward assertive messages such as “limit your water use.” As such, hotels should adopt a tone that encourages guests to make informed choices without pressure. By sharing knowledge about simple, high-impact actions guests can take (ex: “every drop counts.”) and highlighting local, more sustainable options and activities — such as public transport schedules and community-led, culturally immersive experiences — hotels can position guests as active participants in sustainability efforts.

4. Help guests act as responsibly as they do at home

The final takeaway is that many travelers wish to maintain their sustainable habits while away from home, but hotel processes and operations can often make them feel constrained in doing so. Messaging that evokes familiarity, trust and heartfelt care is therefore important to ensuring sustainable behaviors remain intuitive — helping guests feel more connected to their surroundings and encouraging repeat visits. In particular, messages that seek to create a sense of home were perceived as twice as responsible than messaging currently in use, and reduced skepticism to more than half of current levels.

The research

Insights were gathered following a two-phased research exercise which gathered quantitative and qualitative data from numerous surveys and lab-based behavioral experiments.

The first phase involved 24 in-depth interviews with 100 guests from France, Germany, India and the US about their expectations regarding sustainability and its influence on booking decisions. Booking.com’s research team then followed 22 guests from the same countries via a diary study covering the planning, booking and traveling phases of their trips — aiming to understand what role sustainability played at each stage and to capture the highs and lows of their stay through a sustainability lens.

The second research phase was then able to provide deeper insights based on rigorous behavioral research from Surrey’s Human Insight Lab. This research looked at the emotional and physiological responses of nearly 70 customers presented with different sets of sustainability messages — utilizing sensing technologies such as eye tracking, galvanic skin responses and facial analysis software. The researchers also conducted interviews with the same set of customers, employing advanced psychological approaches through projective techniques, enabling them to gain deeper insights into customer experience by tapping into subconscious responses to provide unparalleled insights for the hospitality industry.

These findings will support the industry in enhancing positive customer experiences and driving sustainable behavior change, ultimately leading to long-term customer loyalty and improved environmental outcomes.

"Many hospitality providers are making great strides in their sustainability journeys; however, they still meet a number of challenges. Engaging travelers on the efforts they are making is one of them, and the cooperation of guests can be vital to the efficacy of many sustainability practices,” says Danielle D'Silva, Director of Sustainability, Booking.com. “At Booking.com, we're committed to collaborating with partners across the industry to help overcome the various barriers hospitality providers face. The aim of our collaboration with Accor and the University of Surrey is to enable more hospitality providers to optimize the impact of their sustainability efforts and positively influence traveler behavior towards embracing more sustainable actions and choices."

The research partners hope that the collaborative report will help to foster a more responsible and environmentally conscious travel experience, setting a new standard for the industry and fostering positive impact around the world.