Exploring the Relationship between Eco-certifications and Resource Efficiency in U.S. Hotels

This study examines the impact of eco-certifications on two aspects of resource efficiency in hotel operations—operational efficiency and guest-driven efficiency. We analyze the effect of the Travelocity.com’s ecoleaf label, which designates hotels that have received eco-certification from any of several organizations. To earn the ecoleaf, the certification must be from a second or third party and must be available for audit. We analyze the relationship between eco-certifications and resource efficiency driven by both operations and customers. Using a large scale dataset from PKF Hospitality Research on the U.S. hotel industry, we found that eco-certified hotels recorded higher operations-driven and customer-driven resource efficiency. While the specific ratios vary according to a hotel’s chain scale, it’s clear that this group of U.S. hotels benefited from earning certification.