Environmentally Conscious Travel with Booking.com

A green outdoor space with tables and chairs

As the years go by and our planet plummets further into the climate crisis, it’s no wonder that many of us are starting to really think about the way we travel and ways to be more environmentally conscious on the go. While most of us don’t want to entirely forgo our much loved holidays, we would like to enjoy them knowing that we’re not making choices that are detrimental to the planet. 

Booking.com is a great way of finding the right accommodation for pretty much any upcoming trip, and it’s used widely all over the globe – chances are, if you’ve ever looked for travel accommodation, you’ve heard of it. The site has recently implemented a sustainability recognition programme which makes it easier to make environmentally conscious decisions when it comes to booking your travel accommodation. 

Finding a Travel Sustainable Property on Booking.com

When you search as usual for your location and dates on Booking.com, you’ll be able to easily identify any travel sustainable properties easily. Under the main heading of each listing, there will be a little icon of a leaf next to ‘Travel Sustainable property’ if it falls into this category. To make things easier, there is an option to only see the travel sustainable properties using the filter menu on the left hand side of the page. 

Making an environmentally conscious choice

Once you have narrowed your search to show only properties that are travel sustainable, make sure to take a closer look at what, exactly, makes your chosen property travel sustainable. You can find further information under all of the room rates and tariffs, so have a look to see. Many of the properties registered on this scheme, are included on the basis that they have double glazing, use key cards, and don’t use plastic or single use cutlery. Some of them are included for things that seem a bit absurd – we found one property that was included in the scheme on the basis that they do not display, harvest, or consume wild animals. 

Although some properties seem to be included in the scheme for rather bizarre reasons, this is a brilliant way of finding genuinely green-thinking places to stay. We found options that used 100% renewable energy, used only locally sourced food, and went out of their way to offset their carbon footprint. 

Overall, having this feature available on the website is valuable if you use it properly. It would be easy to be fooled by the greenwashing of some properties, but as long as you check a properties reasons for being included in the scheme, it makes it easier to make an environmentally conscious travel decision! 

A green outdoor space with tables and chairs
Credit: Unsplash

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