Did you know that around 80% of global travellers have suggested that sustainability is important to them? Or that 6 out of 10 visitors prioritise hotels that are single-use plastic free?

And considering that this year’s theme for World Environment Day is #BeatPlasticPollution, it’s critical that as a travel advisor 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, to remain relevant and ahead, it’s important you’re catering to these demands, especially as it's clear that travellers around the world are happy to put their money where their values are.

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 around 43% 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...

Sustainable Hotels Programme

Since its beginnings in 2020 our Sustainable Hotels Programme has continued to grow, from offering 15,000 to around 40,000 sustainable hotels, and a recent Accor campaign that Hotelbeds, also under HBX Group, boosted the single-use plastic free hotels we’re able to offer from 500 to 6000!

The Sustainable Hotels Programme was established to:

• Offer hotels around the world a platform 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.

Hotels are only shown in our ‘Sustainable Hotels’ filter in our travel booking platform, 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).

This means that you as travel agents and your clients can rest assured that when you click ‘Sustainable 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!

This leads us onto our next point...

‘Sustainable Hotels’ Filter in our Booking Travel Platform

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 Hotels’ filter in our Booking Engine!

To appear in our Sustainable Hotels Programme all hotels will have achieved 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.

Considering that travellers are more often seeking authenticity in-destination, it’s just as important that as their travel booker you’re able to offer trustworthy and approved sustainable options for their stay. Not only for ultimate peace of mind, but also to maximise that customer-advisor relationship that we know is so vital for you and your business.

Not signed up yet?

Register your travel agency today

To start taking advantage of our portfolio of 40,000 sustainable hotels!
 

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, exemplified in our previous Single-Use Plastic-Free campaigns and our upcoming Environmentally Friendly Hotels campaign!

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, our sustainability-focused campaigns form part of our Sustainability Waves initiative.

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!

Access Sustainable Travel Products via Leading Industry 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:

• Hotel Collaboration on Sustainable Projects – working together to champion sustainability with the likes of Hyatt hotels, and their plastic recycling scheme, which turns plastic pool floats into fabric.
• Facility Campaigns – in addition to our single-use plastic reduction efforts, we’re also launching or expanding campaigns to make it even easier for our partners to book and promote sustainable and inclusive travel, including:
  • Hotels which accommodate eco-friendly electric charging points.
  • Accessible hotels for guests with mobility assistance requirements.
  • Pet-friendly hotel options.
• A new Environmental Management System – a structured framework including new policies, training, evaluation and analysis to improve our environmental operations and procedures as a business.

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