Did you know that around 80% of global travellers have suggested that sustainable travel is important to them?

And considering that this year’s theme for World Environment Day was Climate Action, centreing on the need to accelerate sustainable and climate-positive solutions, it's critical that as a travel distributor you're aware of the responsibility to cater to the growing demand from travellers seeking sustainable options; not only for the longevity of the industry, but for the conservation, protection, and prioritisation of the planet.

The ‘dreaming’ and ‘booking’ stages are prime opportunities for travel agents to positively influence and direct travellers towards eco-conscious choices and accommodate travellers who come to you with this demand.

An increasing number of travellers are looking to reduce their carbon footprint, engage with their destination of choice in a minimally invasive way, or actively preserve and conserve the natural environment while on their trip.

So, where do Bedsonline+ come in when it comes to helping you cater to sustainable travel, and capturing this ever-increasing segment of eco-conscious travellers?

Why Make Sustainable Travel Front and Centre?

How are you able to make sustainability front and centre for your clients, with Bedsonline+?

Simple: with our arsenal of travel booking tools and products, our sustainability commitments as a business, and our ongoing dedication to empowering both advisors and end travellers with travel opportunities that suit those all-important needs.

Our CEO Nicolas Huss suggests ‘travellers are much more conscious of their carbon footprint and impact on the environment than ever before’, and research supports this notion, with a rising number of global travellers willing to spend more for the knowledge that their stay has a reduced impact on the environment.

So, let's take a look at how we’re helping YOU to help your clients travel sustainably...

Certified Sustainable Hotels Programme

Today, this collection of hotels certified as sustainable consists of 20,000+ memorable hotels, resorts and accommodations in stunning destinations around the world. This represents 13.7% of our directly contracted hotel portfolio.

Similarly, our collection of single-use plastic-free hotels has expanded significantly from 500 around 6400+, with new properties around the world taking up the pledge to reduce and eliminate single-use plastics from their operations.

Read more about why travel agents should offer single-use plastic-free hotels here.

The Certified Sustainable Hotels Programme was established to:

• Offer hotels around the world a marketplace to showcase their dedication to changing the way we travel.
• Embrace the increasing importance of environmentally conscious choices for travellers.
• Make it easier for our registered partners to incorporate these eco-friendly choices into their booking process.

This leads us onto our next point...

‘Sustainable Certified Hotels’ Filter in our Travel Booking Engine

Of course, travellers need more than just a ticked box to be assured that their choices are wholly sustainable. Enter in, sustainability: certified.

One of the fastest ways for our registered travel partners to access, identify, and promote our collection of sustainable hotels is by using the ‘Sustainable Certified Hotels’ filter in our Booking Engine.

Hotels are only shown in our ‘Sustainable Certified Hotels’ filter in our travel booking marketplace, if they have sustainable certification – provided by industry-leading organisations such as the World Tourism and Trade Council (WTTC) and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).

As such, to be considered elligible for our Sustainable Hotels Programme, each hotel must be validated via a specific methodology that fully complies with European regulatory requirements, meaning:

• All ESG dimensions must be assessed (not only environmental criteria), and
• The certification must be validated by an independent third party.

Hotels can achieve one form of sustainability certification or another, by:

• Implementing the 12 basics of sustainability defined by WTTC. These include Measure & Reduce Energy Use, Measure & Reduce Water List, eliminating SUP water bottles, and more
• Working with a Certification Body towards achieving full GSTC requirements compliance, the highest social and environmental standards on the market.
• Give evidence of these sustainability efforts to their verification partner, to comply with the Basic Hotel Sustainability standards.

This means that you as travel agents and your clients can rest assured that when you click ‘Sustainable Certified Hotels’ in our Booking Engine, you’re being served hotels and resorts that are accredited with some of the highest levels of sustainability out there.

Not signed up yet?

Register your travel agency today
 

Communicate your Sustainable Offers Effectively

Hotel Comparison in the Booking Engine

Once you and your client have found suitable sustainable options for their needs, it might be tricky for them to narrow down their choices.

Luckily, our Hotel Comparison Tool in the Booking Engine makes this simple.

Simply select the sustainable hotel options that have caught your clients’ eye, and hit the ‘Compare’ button in our Booking Engine. Compare up to four hotels at the time of booking, and export this hotel comparison if they can’t make up their mind on the spot!

Discover more about the time-saving functionalities of our Booking Engine here.

Bespoke Marketing Materials and Flyers

Quickly create eye-catching marketing flyers to highlight any travellers’ sustainable hotel choices in just a few clicks.

Insights, our intuitive search and recommendation tool, offers a Custom Flyer Tool makes sharing bespoke promotional materials with clients even easier. Once you’ve refined your search based on customer requirements, up to 8 hotels can be collated into a user-friendly flyer which can be personalised with a disclaimer for customers on an individual basis.

Our Exclusive Campaigns

Considering our mission to get the best travel products in your hands in a way that excites, delights and constantly meets the needs of your clients, it’s only natural that we run timely, seasonal and incentivising campaigns for our partners.

But our campaigns aren’t just based on what’s hot.

They’re also a key way that we promote important and in-demand products to help keep you at the forefront of the travel industry, like sustainable options.

This includes promoting sustainable options, such as our previous Single-Use Plastic-Free and Environmentally Friendly Hotels campaign which highlighted exceptional and eco-conscious stays.

These campaigns are designed to give you as travel agents even better access to those sustainability-certified hotels we mentioned earlier, as well as accessible, inclusive travel options for all.

Since launching several ESG-focused campaigns as part of this Sustainability Waves initiative, we have worked towards:

• Eliminating single-use plastics across hotel operations.
• Improving accessibility to ensure a more inclusive experience for all travellers.
• Implementing zero-waste practices to reduce environmental impact.

You can view our most recent ESG (Environment, Social and Governance Report here.

Sustainable Travel and HBX Group Initiatives

Of course, being able to sell even more sustainable experiences benefits you in an industry where this is becoming top of the list for many travellers, and a key purchase decision-maker.

But when you work with a partner like Bedsonline+, as part of HBX Group, you’re actively contributing to making travel a force for good.

Here are just a few of the ways we take our ESG efforts seriously, and bring you even better sustainable options to sell, as a result:

• Beach and forest clean-up activities through corporate volunteering.
• The launch of an environmental campaign in partnership with Hyatt across their hotels in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
• Recognition as a circular economy company by CAEB.
• Renewal, for another year, of our ISO 14001 Environmental Management System certification.
• Ongoing work on the Sustainable Mobility Plan for our Palma de Mallorca headquarters.

Consumer trends from the travel industry as a whole can’t be ignored, and travellers are actively seeking sustainability. 

They want single-use plastic-free hotels; eco-conscious initiatives at the forefront of the hotels they choose; and for destinations and travel professionals across the industry to take climate change seriously, putting their investments into sustainable travel solutions.

Allow Bedsonline+ to help you capture this fast-growing, valuable segment of travellers, and stay ahead in an industry which is, rightly, moving into a more conscious, positively impactful space.

Register your travel agency today