Skift Take
What can make a travel companies truly put their cash where their mouth is on sustainability? Threaten a lower placement on a Google search.
Cameron Sperance
Google’s plan to supply details on a hotel’s sustainability practices offers transparency amidst the climate crisis. But non-participating hotel owners don’t need to stress over their positioning on the online search engine.
Google will put an eco-badge of sorts beside a listing if sustainability-minded companies like GreenKey or EarthCheck have highlighted a hotel for its favorable effect with environmental practices. Possible visitors can even discover property-specific sustainability practices through the new feature, which will also be on Google Travel.
Openness is one thing, but the brand-new sustainability metric isn’t expected to hold weight on how high up a residential or commercial property would appear on a search. Beyond saying sustainability is the right pursuit, Google leaders aren’t publicly using much in the method of a reward to opt into the new initiative.
“There are a lot of elements that enter into a ranking,” Richard Holden, vice president of travel items at Google, stated Wednesday at Skift Global Online forum while decreasing to offer up more details relating to the status quo that will continue to dictate where a home shows up on a search. “Many are [from a] quality viewpoint.”
Hotel companies like Hilton and Accor have currently contributed their sustainability information for the brand-new platform, and individual property owners can supply their details through their Google My Company profile, Skift managing editor Dennis Schaal reported today. There are indications the race to be the most sustainable hotel brand name is the latest competitive streak for the hotel sector, a minimum of optics-wise.
Accor today signed up with the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, a global company focused on developing sustainable travel experiences and minimizing the market’s environmental impact. Hilton, Hyatt, IHG Hotels & Resorts, and Marriott are currently members. Marriott earlier Wednesday at Skift Global Online forum went an action even more by revealing a promise to achieve net-zero emissions no behind 2050.
Google itself even jumped into the fray, announcing Wednesday its own sustainability pledge by signing up with international sustainable travel coalition Travalyst. The business joins the union as a partner alongside founding partners like Booking.com, Trip.com Group, Skyscanner, Tripadvisor, and Visa.
“Travel certainly has an outsized effect on the world in terms of carbon,” Holden stated.
One way to make an impact and get some tangible motion on sustainability may be to tether a property’s ranking to its environmental plan. However Holden repeated Google’s eco-badge prepare for hotels won’t always reward early adopters of sustainability openness on a company page. The plan is in its early phases, and Google would wish to confirm precision gradually, he stated.
However even the business’s confirmation network for the brand-new details page relies heavily on information a specific property self-reports. The business is considering “some other checklists” in the future as an added confirmation action, Holden stated.
“The majority of people look at sustainable travel and info on carbon effect and don’t know what it implies, honestly,” he stated while noting the confusion surrounding what things like sustainable travel and even net-zero pledges suggest. “If we’re going to get meaningful impact on this, we’ve got to sign up with forces throughout the industry.”
Maybe one way to get even more significant effect is to offer a reward for users to get on board.
[CORRECTION: A previous variation of this story used an incorrect professional title for Richard Holden. This story has actually been updated.]