Hotelbeds, the world’s leading bedbank, has announced today the launch of The Green Hotels Programme, a turn-key solution to bring Hotelbeds and its partners to the green economy and accelerate the transition of the travel industry towards sustainability.
In order to focus on establishing a more responsible and sustainable business model, Hotelbeds now has over 15,000 properties within its portfolio certified as sustainable.
These hotels will now be easily identifiable to the more than 60,000 travel trade client partners of Hotelbeds and Bedsonline – including travel agents, tour operators, airlines and point redemption schemes – via this new green filter that will include details of certifications and offer tags.
As part of this initiative, Hotelbeds can confirm that it has become a full member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), the leading global authority in setting and managing standards for sustainable travel & tourism.
To certify over 15,000 properties as sustainable, Hotelbeds has partnered with global sustainability certification companies to identify fully certified hotel properties following the criteria of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) for hotels.
The criteria are organized around four main themes: effective sustainability planning, maximizing social and economic benefits for the local community, enhancing cultural heritage, and reducing negative impacts on the environment.
Gareth Matthews, Marketing, Communications and CSR Director, at Hotelbeds said: “As the leaders in our sector, we have a clear responsibility to demonstrate to our stakeholders that we operate a responsible, transparent business model and that we take very seriously the environmental impact we have, alongside our commitment to economic and social development around the world. This new project responds to the very real demand that already exists amongst many environmentally conscious travelers, and we will provide simple and effective tools for our travel trade clients to make green choices effortlessly, driving and accelerating change.”
Hotelbeds takes Corporate Social Responsibility very seriously. The Company is focused on and committed to environmentally and socially sustainable business practices that recognize the short and long-term concerns of its stakeholders, whilst integrating sustainability and accountability into the business.
As such in 2019 Hotelbeds published its first annual Corporate Sustainability report, which can be accessed via the Corporate Sustainability section of the company’s website: https://corporate.hotelbeds.com/sustainability
