March 28, 2024

Make Your Eco-Sustainable Hotel Stand Out on Google and Booking.com

One of the various favorable effects of the pandemic is the increasing global awareness of millions of people about environmental concerns.

NB: This is a post from mirai, one of our Expert Partners

Research study conducted by Booking.com recently validates this trend, concluding that, with the return of travel, travellers are more aware of searching for how to take a trip more sustainably. The big players in the distribution sector, in their mission to adjust to user issues (according to Travalyst, 71 % of global travellers think that travel companies should use more sustainable travel options) and their objective to change the future of travel into a more sustainable one, begin to display sustainability labels on their platforms.

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Show it to your users in the main store windows and take advantage of it if your hotel is devoted to the environment. Here is how:

The hotels sustainability will be highlighted with the icon of a green leaf in those hotels that have been given the environmental sustainability certification by one of the 29 standards or entities recognised by Google.

Given that the end of summertime 2021, Google has started to identify eco-sustainable hotels and Google Travel users can currently see information about these hotels and their environmental certifications in their Google Business Profile ( formerly called Google My Business) listings within the Google Travel section.

Google

By clicking on the badge you will get info about the hotels sustainable practices:

What do I need to do to activate it and have that icon appear in my hotel?

The first thing is to obtain an eco-sustainable accreditation from among the entities accepted by Google. Once you get it, you need to go to your Google Business Profile file, and entering Information > > Hotel Attributes you can discover the Sustainability and Eco-certifications section. Here you can register your sustainable practices and certifications.

In the sustainability box you can information all those listed practices that you have actually executed in your properties. Either by checking Yes/No or defining another reason.

In the environmental Certifications area you can indicate the one that the hotel has:

As soon as this is done, you have to wait a couple of days for Google to upgrade your file and the environmental badge appears in Google Travel..

Will this eco tag affect my position in rankings and with using Google filters at all?

There is no damage in asking your local or regional federal government if they are considering it.

Just like Google, it is to be anticipated that in the future it will be possible to filter the residential or commercial properties that have the sustainable residential or commercial property distinctive.

In line with this, in addition, for a couple of weeks now Google also reveals the carbon emission of flights in Google Flights.

Offered this global issue for a more sustainable world, some federal governments are taking an useful approach by providing aids for acquiring sustainability certificates, and hopefully more will participate..

The pattern towards sustainable usage is advancing unstoppably in all industries, and has been enhanced by the pandemic. As a hotelier, it is crucial to have a real awareness and the objective of adding to reduce the ecological impact of tourist activity, deepening real eco-sustainable practices. This is likewise a chance to advertise it to your prospective guests: your home will acquire presence and status that go beyond direct sales, reaching the worldwide image of your hotel on the internet and in the offline world.

In the past, Google did not reveal professions in its searches and after that added the adult and child settings.In the case of cancellable fees, Google began by showing the conditions of the fees in its outcomes and later on the filter to show just cancellable fees.During the pandemic, Google has actually added the room filter for COVID-19 emergency personnel, highlighting Googles policy of supporting delicate causes for the basic public.

Characteristic that reach the necessary effect limit (through a mix and weighting of each of the practices), along with those that have a vast array of existing labels and accreditations, for example, those officially identified by the World Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), Green Tourism and the EU Ecolabel; receive the Travel Sustainable badge. If you have another eco-friendly certification different from these, you can request Booking.com to be consisted of as a certification body through this form. These organisations send details about the accreditations of the properties to Booking.com twice a year.

Another of the significant players in distribution that have actually recently signed up with the pattern of promoting sustainable hotels is Booking.com, which considering that November 15 shows its users sustainable lodgings through the “Travel Sustainable” badge.

Properties that reach the necessary effect threshold (through a mix and weighting of each of the practices), as well as those that have a broad variety of existing certifications and labels, for example, those officially recognised by the World Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), Green Tourism and the EU Ecolabel; receive the Travel Sustainable badge. These organisations send info about the accreditations of the residential or commercial properties to Booking.com twice a year.

There is neither ranking benefit in Google Travel rankings beyond tag visibility that can make more discerning tourists select your hotel.

Nor there are filters to choose eco-certified hotels, presently. However it is most likely that in the future we will have the ability to filter by this kind of certificates, as it occurred with the application of previous filters on previous events:.

Booking.com.

What to do to trigger it.

Federal government support.

The trend towards sustainable usage is advancing unstoppably in all markets, and has actually been strengthened by the pandemic.

In the “Properties > > Sustainability practices” section of the Booking.com extranet you can mark the sustainable practices that your property complies with.

Conclusion.

The very first thing is to acquire an eco-sustainable certification from one of the entities accepted by Google. Here you can register your sustainable practices and certifications.

Google and the big OTAs are taking their initial steps by configuring their platforms as displays to make these green initiatives noticeable, and this is simply the start of a limitless race towards a more sustainable world. It remains in your hands to make the most of this eco-visibility and continue adapting the operations of your property till you achieve high and sustainable quality tourist.

As an example, the European Union has released a program to assist companies and markets that have actually been most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, consisting of the hotel industry (more information on NextGenerationEU)..

Find out more articles from mirai.