The way hotels communicate with their guests plays a pivotal role in the success of sustainability initiatives, but there can be a high level of skepticism among travellers when it comes to their role in sustainability efforts.
This is one of the findings published in a new White Paper by Accor, Booking.com and the University of Surrey setting out some of the challenges hospitality providers face when communicating with guests around sustainability.
The insights were gathered following a two-phased research exercise that took quantitative and qualitative data from surveys and lab-based behavioural experiments.
The first phase involved 24 in-depth interviews with 100 guests from the US, Germany, France and India, focusing on their expectations regarding sustainability and its influence on booking decisions.
Drawing on the University of Surrey’s academic resources, the second research phase looked at the emotional and physiological responses of nearly 70 customers. Researchers also conducted interviews with the same set of customers, employing advanced psychological approaches through projective techniques.
The paper named “Engaging travellers to embrace more sustainable behaviours” aims to understand and address traveller motivations when it comes to making more sustainable decisions during a stay.
Messaging plays a key role in motivating travellers to make the right choices and the paper identifies four ways to positively influence guest behaviour around sustainability:
1. Highlight specific sustainability messages and demonstrate how guests can contribute
It’s important to provide clear, specific information about sustainability practices and avoid greenwashing with claims such as “eco-friendly” or “green”. An example from the paper found that messaging that helped guests understand their part in reducing food waste reduced levels of skepticism from 46% to 21%, compared to more generic, vague messaging.
2. Balance sustainability messages around pleasure and comfort
Many travellers 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 that are enjoyable and sustainable, like a scenic train ride or local culinary experience.
3. Empower guests, don’t dictate to them
Guests prefer an empowering approach to sustainability communications rather than feeling dictated to, with 55% reporting feeling skeptical towards assertive messages such as “limit your water use”. Hotels should adopt a tone of voice that encourages guests to make informed choices without pressure. Doing this will position them as active participants in sustainability efforts.
4. Help guests act as responsibly while away from home
Some travellers feel constrained when they try to keep up their sustainable habits during a hotel stay. Messaging that evokes familiarity, trust and care is essential to ensure sustainable actions remain intuitive. Messages that create a sense of home were perceived as twice as effective than messaging currently in use, reducing skepticism to more than half of current levels.
Discussing the findings, Danielle D’Silva, Director of Sustainability, Booking.com said: “Many hospitality providers are making great strides in their sustainability journeys. However, they still meet a number of challenges. Engaging travellers 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.”
