Hotels can repurpose unsold rooms for social causes like supporting unpaid carers, creating community value at minimal cost while strengthening ESG credentials.
Airbnb, in partnership with Women’s Aid and MOPAC has today launched its latest emergency accommodation programme in the city of London. Survivors and their children experiencing abuse will have access to free emergency accommodation in Airbnb properties across London, when specialist emergency accommodation is not available. To ensure the privacy and safety of survivors, Airbnb has implemented a specialised booking flow that protects their anonymity. Survivors will be connected to appropriate accommodation through Women’s Aid’s member services, and will receive essential one-to-one support services such as legal advice, advocacy and translation and help with practicalities like transport through Women’s Aid, helping them to recover and move on with their lives.
Understanding Opting-In and Opting-Out Strategies Knowing the difference between opting-in and opting-out is essential when aiming to influence behaviour and drive change effectively. The "default option" principle can be applied to almost any business or operational process, allowing organisations to guide decisions without lengthy explanations or losing control over outcomes.
In 2026 hospitality should prioritise shifting from surface-level sustainability actions to systemic change through investment in leadership training. While technical improvements remain important, the primary focus must be on transforming internal mindsets.
Nationwide movement Walk for Wellbeing has reached an incredible milestone this year, raising over half a million pounds for UK charity Hospitality Action since its launch in 2020.
There’s been a lot of buzz in the media recently claiming that France’s Loi Climat & Résilience will force all hotels to obtain eco-certification by 2026. But a closer reading of the legislation reveals a different picture.
RIU Hotels & Resorts dedicated a total of €3,171,135 to social investment in 2024 as part of the first roll out of its Proudly Committed strategy. The company’s 104 actions with 88 strategic partners directly impacted 55,624 people and indirectly impacted 82,644 people. Childhood represented 71% of the investment, followed by Biodiversity (22%) and Local community (7%).
Visiting a holiday park, ranging from lodge parks to caravan parks or glamping yurts, is a favoured holiday choice for the UK domestic market. Estimating the market size for UK holiday parks is complex due to overlapping categories. However, Mintel estimates the holiday centres and parks segment revenue to be valued at £3.5bn in 2024 – a 20% growth from pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, there were 4,754 holiday parks and campsites operating in the UK, accounting for 320,901 pitches, with the highest number in South West England. The sector further supports c. 230,000 full time jobs across the UK.
RIU Hotels & Resorts goes one step further in its commitment to its communities, announcing its first social collaboration in the United Kingdom together with the charity All-Child. The hotel chain will support their Impact Programme, which is designed and delivered by specialised professionals known as Link Workers. These professionals play a vital role building a trusted relationship with vulnerable children and young people, and being the link with their families, schools and the community, guaranteeing personalised and ongoing support. This initiative is part of the Impact Programme's delivered in South Westminster, London, which has also been home to the Riu Plaza London Victoria hotel since 2023.
“Facing sustainability deprioritization?” I think the concern is justified since a large section of the hospitality sector has traditionally operated on a ‘compliance-first’ approach when it comes down to sustainability commitments.
The delay to the CSRD may offer temporary regulatory breathing space, but it highlights a deeper truth: sustainability in hospitality and tourism must not depend solely on government mandates. If our industry remains reactive, driven only by compliance, we risk falling environmentally, socially, and economically behind.
Indeed, there is a real risk that goals driven by political ambition, political agenda in the best sense of the word, may be deprioritised. I recently wrote a piece titled "Where Do We Stand Now?" to better understand the current state of play.
Essendi, a leading hotel owner and operator in Europe, announced a strategic partnership with Workplace Pride, a global nonprofit organization committed to greater LGBTQIA+ inclusion in the workplace, during Pride Amsterdam 2025. The partnership will be officially formalized during the tenth annual INK goes PINK party at INK Hotel Amsterdam, one of Essendi's hotels. With this, Essendi underscores its continued commitment to inclusion and diversity within the hospitality sector in Western Europe.
As the longtime General Manager of TUI Magic Life Candia Maris Resort in Crete and the recently appointed General Manager of Santo Collection on Santorini – both under Metaxa Hospitality Group, I’ve seen firsthand that no matter a hotelier’s reason for embracing sustainability, the rewards – for the property, our guests, and the broader community and culture – are well worth the effort.
Whitbread, the UK’s largest hospitality company and owner of Premier Inn, has expanded its Thrive programme—a pioneering, employer-led initiative supporting young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) into work—into the Liverpool City Region.
As part of its Proudly Committed sustainability strategy, RIU Hotels & Resorts has signed an agreement with TIRME, Mallorca Environmental Technology Park, to guarantee the supply of 100% renewable electricity generated locally in all of its hotels in the Balearic Islands.
Share price and value are correlated to current and expected future profits, which can depend on decisions from governments with short term priorities who legislate for GDP growth as a solution to most of their problems. We should be pushing for a lasting global commitment to change the collective vision of success, and to accept that success shouldn't be measured in purely economic terms.
What do KPIs, certificates, and ESG ratings have in common? They're all tools we use to measure impact and performance. But can one metric, or even one system, capture everything at once? Probably not. As we navigate ESG reporting, the challenge isn't just what to measure, but how much, how specifically, and how meaningfully.
The German travel market is in great shape for the 2025 summer season, with demand for holiday travel bigger than ever. However, under the impact of a weak economy and rising prices, the consequences of climate change are increasingly being ignored. ITB Berlin, the World's Leading Travel Trade Show, puts the latest developments into perspective and focuses on the latest challenges and opportunities in the travel market.
Tracy Wilkins, operations director at BWH Hotels, Great Britain’s largest group of independent hotels, on how UK Sustainability Reporting Standards will impact hoteliers
MOB HOTEL, the visionary hospitality concept founded by Cyril Aouizerate, is reinventing the way we travel and stay through four unique destinations across France. More than just hotels, each MOB location serves as a living space, blending affordability with prices starting from €76, community spirit, and environmental responsibility into a singular experience rooted in local life and global values.
Projeto Biodiversidade and BIOS Cabo Verde, two environmental conservation organisations from Cape Verde, have presented the outcome of the 2024 loggerhead sea turtle nesting season. Both of these organisations receive support from RIU Hotels & Resorts, the hotel chain that operates six establishments in the destination and is involved in biodiversity protection and conservation initiatives as part of its Proudly Committed sustainability strategy. The births took place in the hatcheries set up by these organisations on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista, which help make Cape Verde home to one of the world’s most important nesting populations of this species.
In my experience, most of the independent SME accommodation owners with whom I have worked start on their sustainability journey with positivity and engagement, yet few continue to maintain both over time. The problem seems to lie in the underestimation of the time and commitment required to overhaul the operational processes in every department, a procedure essential to achieving continuous sustainability outcomes over time. Despite making business owners aware that their sustainability journey will require fundamental changes from the outset, it seems they do not fully grasp what this actually means until we move forwards. Then as we do, and awareness sets in, so does what I can only describe as reticence, or is it really fear?
What a great topic, indeed 'failures' are great learning opportunities for the organisation itself as well as others when shared publicly. A mindset of continouus improvement, that is for example inherent to ISO certifications, would enable companies to shift the 'failure' vs 'success' narrative and culture.
Many SME accommodation owners begin their sustainability journey with enthusiasm but often fail to sustain long-term change. A key barrier is underestimating the time and commitment needed to overhaul operational processes across departments.
To make progress on sustainability, I believe we need to build a culture that values curiosity over criticism, encouraging people to explore what works, what doesn’t, and why. That means treating new ideas as experiments, not tests to pass or fail.