Green Stay Performance Management

Transcript

Green Stay allows you to showcase your sustainability performance, and enables business travellers to search for hotels that match their own sustainability performance goals and requirements.

And in terms of sustainability performance management,

• A tool like Green Stay is helpful because it allows hotels to report on their sustainability performance following normalised metrics - meaning, the system streamlines different sets of data shared by hotels so that comparison across different hotels is possible. Without such normalised metrics, we’d have different hotels measuring their footprints in different units and scales, and the client would not be able to use such data in a meaningful way.
• Such normalised metrics also enable benchmarking. It’s important to put data into context when comparing sustainability performance of different hotels, considering the local climate conditions and destination-specific variables. That’s why Green Stay enables benchmarking within destinations, allowing clients to compare hotels’ footprint data in a streamlined way.

So by using Green Stay you are making your hotel’s sustainability data a part of your current and future clients’ decision making process.   

So what might that look like from the client’s perspective?

Let's follow an example of Melissa, the travel manager of a large company producing meatless products. She is in charge of organising a C-suite retreat including flights and hotel accommodation.

For this she not only has a cost-focussed budget but also a budget for associated CO2 emissions as well as a corporate travel policy that does not allow her to book any company that does not have at least 30% vegan options on the hotel menu.

Green Stay has allowed her company - within its procurement management steps - to specify search conditions, so that only those hotels that meet its requirements in terms of CO2 emissions and vegan menu options are shown to travel managers like Melissa, who will then compare and select from the available offers, knowing that the company’s sustainability requirements are already reflected on the options she is presented with.  

To better understand how Green Stay supports hotels’ sustainability performance management - and allows Melissa as a travel manager to see your hotel as part of the booking options she has -  let’s revisit the three levels of Green Stay: Basic, Advanced and Professional.
 
Each level has its own performance measurement sections; some are similar per level, and other performance requirements increase with the levels. This is probably fairly straightforward.

It’s important to note, though, that engaging in Green Stay is not JUST about achieving the minimum score required for one of these levels.   

Rather, think of these levels as guideposts helping you along, as you continuously improve your performance. This also means your hotel is continuously improving your chance of being found by travel managers like Melissa and by many others, as more and more corporations specifically set sustainability requirements in their business travel procurement processes.

So let's step back and have a brief look at these levels. Each level has its criteria assessment requirement, where you need to fulfil the minimum number of criteria specified for the level.

Remember Melissa and the travel policy requirement of her company? When selecting hotels, Melissa will only be choosing from those hotels whose restaurants offer 30% and more vegan options on the menu. Only if you fulfil this requirement, will you be searchable for Melissa as part of her travel policy. So keep that in mind. It’s always best to fulfil all the criteria rather than just the minimum.

Then there is the footprint assessment, which is part of the Advanced and Professional levels. Here is where Green Stay allows you to report on the CO2 emissions that a stay at your hotel creates, as well as environmental impacts regarding water, energy and waste.

By using Green Stay to report on your footprint, your hotel can show for Melissa your data on emissions per room that are generated, and if you meet her company’s carbon budget requirements, your hotel will be part of the options Melissa has to work with.  

The Professional level, furthermore, requires you to have your sustainability performance verified. You will need to include audit details in your reporting. If, for example, Melissa had a travel policy requirement to only book hotels that have an environmental management system implemented, following for example the ISO 140001 standard, the certification details you have recorded here will allow your hotel to show up in her search.

For all levels you can also include any certifications that your hotel has acquired as well as more detail on your sustainability program. It is recommended to do so, as your client companies’ travel managers may have specific additional preferences as per their travel policy that they would like to search for.

So in the end it shows that the more detail you can include in your reporting and the more criteria you can fulfil, the higher chances your hotel will have to be chosen by today’s corporate clients that increasingly have sustainability requirements incorporated into their business travel programs.