5 Ways to Stay Sustainably in a Hotel
The good news? You don’t have to overhaul everything to make a difference. When it comes to hotels, a few small intentional tweaks can have an impact.
Here are five simple ways to stay more sustainably, whether you’re travelling yourself or managing travel for a team.
1. Skip the single-use extras
Those little extras in hotel rooms, slippers, toiletries, plastic-wrapped items, are rarely used more than once.
It might seem insignificant, but the scale adds up quickly. In fact, up to 10 million disposable hotel slippers are thrown away every month in high-end hotels in the US alone.
2. Rethink daily housekeeping
Fresh towels and made beds every day aren’t always necessary, and they come with a cost in water, energy, and cleaning products.
A simple swap: Reuse towels and request housekeeping only when you need it.
Across multiple stays, this is one of the easiest ways to cut down on unnecessary impact.
3. Be mindful of energy use
It’s easy to leave the air conditioning running or lights on when you head out for the day, but hotel rooms use a surprising amount of energy when empty.
A simple swap: Turn everything off when you leave and keep temperatures moderate rather than extreme.
4. Use water with intention
Long showers and running taps might feel like small things, but they add up quickly, especially across teams or longer stays.
A simple swap: Keep showers short and turn off taps when they’re not in use.
5. Choose hotels that are genuinely more sustainable
With sustainability playing a bigger role in how accommodation is chosen, it’s easy for hotels to spotlight small wins while bigger impacts go unaddressed, making it harder to tell what’s genuinely impactful and what could be greenwashing.
Not every sustainable choice will look the same, especially with smaller, independent properties that may not have formal certifications but are still taking thoughtful steps behind the scenes.
What to look for:
- Clear efforts to reduce energy and water use
- Responsible waste management
- Reduced reliance on single-use plastics
- Transparent, credible sustainability practices
- A focus on local sourcing, from food and produce to suppliers and services
Trying to compare options across different destinations can get tricky. But remember, sustainability isn’t always about big, visible initiatives. Often it’s the smaller, behind-the-scenes choices that have the greatest impact. Hotels that prioritise local produce and suppliers, for instance, don’t just reduce transport emissions, they also support local communities and economies, which is a key part of responsible travel.
Individually, these choices might seem small. But across multiple trips, teams, and travel programmes, they can make a meaningful difference.
And when sustainability is built into travel planning from the start, the impact becomes much more significant, without affecting comfort, performance, or experience.
Where we come in
We help organisations turn small, individual changes into a more joined-up, strategic approach to sustainable travel.
Working across sports, media, and entertainment, we support touring teams, production crews, and elite organisations managing complex travel programmes, where performance, logistics, and sustainability all need to work together.
From shaping travel policies and advising on smarter routes to sourcing responsible accommodation and managing supply chains, we focus on practical improvements that deliver measurable impact without compromising on experience.
