Greening Hotels

Persuading tourists to use fewer natural resources when on holidays

This ARC Discovery project is motivated by the urgent need to improve the environmental performance of tourism accommodation businesses. The aim of the research is to work with a diverse range of accommodation providers to achieve reductions in resource use to mainstream tourism. This will be achieved using an experimental design to test the efficacy of combining smart technology and interpersonal communication into a smartservice intervention to change guest and staff resource use. The project challenges the view that pro-environmental attitudes are a pre-requisite for pro-environmental behaviours, and in doing so promotes redesigning social practices in accommodation to achieve greater sustainability outcomes and guest experiences.

ARC grant number DP200100972

The Project Team

Professor Susanne Becken

Professor of Sustainable Tourism, Griffith Institute for Tourism

A/Prof Alexandra Coghlan

Associate Professor, Griffith Institute for Tourism

Dr Stefen MacAskill

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Griffith Institute for Tourism

Professor Xavier Font

Professor of Sustainability Marketing, University of Surrey

Case Studies

Daintree Wilderness Lodge

Our newest addition to the research project, the Daintree Wilderness Lodge represents a fantastic eco-lodge nestled in the rainforest to test our research hypotheses. Located in a World Heritage Area, the Lodge and its guests place a high value on the pristine wilderness that surrounds it. Yet its location to the north of the Daintree River, 2h drive from the closest town (Cairns), and deep in the rainforest, presents the perfect challenge for smart metering and technology-enabled resource conservation.

The Lodge consists of 7 self-contained wooden cabins (with air-conditioning), a restaurant and plunge pool, and is supplied by a mix of bore water, solar power and generator (no mains power or water) and gas. Guests are encouraged to get back to nature, and My Green Butler allows us, the staff and the guests to track how much hot and cold water as well as energy is being used in each cabin. A likely area for intervention will be the use of air conditioning.

Amora Hotels Sydney

The Amora Hotel Jamison is the perfect site to test what resource conservation looks like in a large, five-star, metropolitan hotel. Situated in the heart of Sydney, Australia, the hotel has 37 floors, 415 rooms, function spaces, restaurant and bar, day spa and indoor heated swimming pool (all air-conditioned). In 2018, Amore Hotel Jamison partnered up with the City of Sydney’s Sustainable Destination Partnership to reach the Paris Agreement’s Goals, and they are currently monitoring energy and water at the level of the hotel. Guests access the hotel’s daily performance on a TV screen in each room.

Through partnering with the Amora, we are able to look at sites with large management teams, significant infrastructure for gas, water, and energy, and where resource feedback occurs at a collective level, with a mix of leisure and business travellers from across the globe. Challenges associated with pumping water to top floors, maintaining even pressure in pipes, and managing indoor temperature across floors and service areas in a large building will form part of this case study.

Langdale

Also situated in a World Heritage Site of the Lake District in the UK, Langdale provides a great contrast to the Daintree Wilderness Lodge, both in size and climate (cool temperate). Langdale has 80 lodges (which can each sleep 6 guests), a luxury hotel and country club, spread across 35 acres of land. Each lodge has its own sauna and drying cabinet (for wet clothes after a hike in the national park), and there is a pool, spa, restaurant and bar onsite, as well as several meeting rooms.

Our project focuses on the lodges, which have a timeshare feature, offering another angle to the research, as guests are repeat visitors, very familiar with the site and invested in its future. The lodges are managed through a corporate management team in coordination with time share committee. The smart meters monitor energy (from the grid as well as biomass heater), mains water and gas, and are placed in each lodge. Guests are able to access their daily resource through the My Green Butler app, which provides guest communication alongside other channels.

Jetty Road Retreat country house

The Country House Retreat is a family-run business, providing a perfect example of a busy site that faces the many challenges of small, owner-manager accommodation businesses. The Retreat is a fully self-contained vacation home (air-conditioned) that can sleep up to 10 guests in 4 bedrooms, and offers a fully equipped kitchen, hot tub and 2 bathrooms, laundry, wood burning stove and pizza oven.

It’s a great example of a rural retreat situated on acreage, within driving range of both Melbourne and Canberra in Australia, and has both solar power and grid power, as well as a rainwater tank. The guest group can access their daily resource use via the My Green Butler app.

Technical Project Partner WISE Sustainability