The Forgotten Poison: Detoxing the Guest Room is Hospitality's #1 Regenerative Act
Martim Gois argues that hospitality has a “fourth pillar” of sustainability it has mostly ignored: pesticide use, especially neonicotinoids applied in guest rooms to control bed bugs. As regulators, certifiers, and major buyers begin to recognise the massive biodiversity and health impacts of these chemicals, the industry is shifting from reactive, chemical-heavy pest control to prevention-based, pesticide-free systems, positioning...
There is a room at the centre of the global hospitality industry. It has a bed, a minibar, blackout curtains, and — invisible to the guest, unrecorded in any sustainability report, and missing from virtually every green certification on the market — a recurring application of neonicotinoid pesticides to manage bed bugs.
For years, that room has simply not been part of the conversation. That is now changing.
The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Sustainability Edition
The HYB 2026 The Regenerative Question: What Hospitality Must Become tackles regenerative hospitality's fundamental tensions. Moving beyond sustainability buzzwords, contributors will explore three perspectives: purists advocating holistic living-systems approaches; realists demanding measurable frameworks for accountability and scalability; and strategists seeking pragmatic balance between transformation and implementation. This edition serves as a critical forum to interrogate the divides, identify synergies, and define actionable pathways forward. By convening industry experts, researchers, and entrepreneurs, we transform contested concepts into constructive dialogue and, ultimately, clarifying what regenerative hospitality authentically is and isn't.