UK Holidaymakers look for "green" accommodation...

[greenbarn]

...or so the Government run tourist board Visit Britain (or I think they're called Visit England this week, but I've lost the plot on that) would have us believe.

Now I'm not remotely cynical, so I'm certainly not going to suggest that offering to award my properties some sort of environmental accreditation in return for payment is little more than a cunning scheme to make a few extra quid, and if VB tell me that it will bring me vast increases in the number of bookings then I really should be up for it. Shouldn't I? It's not going to be tough to get, as we already have lots of things in place such as ground source heat pumps and high levels of insulation, and recycling bins. We're even blessed(?) with an environmentally friendly name, as our place is called The Green, although this does date back to the 1800's before the environment was actually invented, and is due to to our location looking towards a hill known as Green Bell.

Apparently it would be a Good Thing to discourage guests from using (owning, probably) cars, and indeed once here many of our guests go for a day's walking or cycling straight from the door. Others get in their cars and go off to spend money and generally help the economy of the area, which is highly dependent on tourism. However, they do all have to get here somehow, but I've thought of that and I'm going to blag a bit of field from a local and mark a big H in it so people can arrive by helicopter, and thus not have to use a car. Clever or what?

So the point here is really: do you believe that the majority of people choosing their holiday accommodation place a lot/some/no importance on the Green Credentials of the property? Is it worth including something on a website that gives some information, without going to the lengths of making people believe that they'd only be welcome if they turn up in sandals? Would that make any difference; would it as a minimum serve to assuage the guilt felt by people in taking a holiday at all? In other words, for the few days a year when people are on holiday, do they really need to feel that they're being environmentally responsible, or are we all allowed a break occasionally?

What do you think? Is having a Green Accreditation going to be a big plus, will it make very little difference, or given that you have to pay for it, is it just a con?

[Margaret]

Obviously I have to answer yes to this. We have increasingly pushed our green credentials over the years. We have fewer and fewer guests who are irritated by it (one German guest once referred to our 'pedantic recycling system'). Some, but increasingly few, ignore it. But, very interesting for those of you with small units, we are getting more and more young couples (20 and 30 somethings, no kids) who are really looking for environmentally friendly accommodation and good walking.

I know the research shows that the majority of people want to ignore the environment when on holiday but surely that makes it niche marketing?

[CSE]

I admire someone who tries to do things to help the environment. Especially when it comes down to waste materials. But at the same time I am very sceptical about some of the so-called green vacations you can purchase over the internet.


Here is one example:
Locally we have a property listed stating that they are “An Eco/Green holiday”
The spill goes on to write about “International Ecotourism Society” and “World Conservation Union” but these are only for SEO work I feel. There is no other references to these organisations anywhere else on this website.
The on line blurb about the house states that they have used National trust paint…that is really green? having brought it all the way from the U.K.! They use aluminium windows because of “climatic circumstances”. But we have wooden frames and do not suffer due to any climate issues because of them. So they is no excuse for using aluminium.
Heating uses wood pellets. Are they that green, especially after taking in transportation and manufacturing?
There is more, if you drive to the hot springs (an hours journey by car) this is considered a carbon neutral wash because of the energy saved by not having to heat the water. NOTE the hot springs are not used by the locals as cleaning baths, they are more fro relaxing in.

I could go on giving more details on this non-green green vacation, but I think this proves that statements about having a so-called green rental should be controlled. Or genuine folk like Margaret will end up suffering.

[Margaret]

Totally agree. I thought after I wrote my original reply that I should have prefaced it with 'If you really believe in it yourself'. I also hate people who just try to jump on the bandwagon by making a virtue out of a few things they were doing anyway.

The bit we love best is when the occasional guest says 'I had no idea that so much could be recycled or that I could produce so little real waste'.

[CSE]

I would never dare to try and sell our house as begin green. We only have one bin for our waste so everything goes into that. If we remember we take the paper etc to the right bin when we go shopping, but that is 25 km trip each way. Our local council does not have a recycling centre and when we have tried to take old electrical goods etc to another area, we are refused entry because we do not live there.
we do have special bins for old cooking oil. We are even obliged by law to have this recycled. but seeing as we are a small business in the middle of no where we could not get the company to collect this waste. Lucky the local town as some deposits in the streets. However the last trip for us ended in a small disaster. I forgot to screw the top onto the bottle and all 5 litres spilt out into the car. even months after the car smells like a chip wagon. This is even after stripping carpets, and rear seats. Cleaning them and soaking up the old oil with kilos of salt and coffee. the coffee helps to remove the smell. So heaven knows what it would be like with out the use of that.

Sorry this is a bit off subject now...Back to selling green vacations???

[Hells Bells]

I have geothermal heating, a thermal spa at the end of the road in walking distance, and a railway station just 10km away with overnight trains from Paris. Keen to increase our 'green-ness' but some things aren't under my control. I'm considering doing away with supplying bath-robes to cut my laundry bill, I suppose some would use the energy-saving angle as the excuse.

[Tizfata]

We have fewer and fewer guests who are irritated by it (one German guest once referred to our 'pedantic recycling system').

Next week I will attend the town council that explain the citizenship how the new system of separate home pick-up waste works.
By my initiative, 2 years ago I bought (and paid) 2 big containers, 1 for paper/carton, 1 for glass/plastic.
Most of my guests come from:
1) the UK
2) France
3) Germany
4) Belgium
5) Denmark
but, putting my nose into the containers when I take them to the communal bin, I think they come from the caves...
Please, Margaret, can you tell me more about you "pedantic system" and how you manage to have it undrestood (and followed)?
Thanks!

[smokie]

However the last trip for us ended in a small disaster. I forgot to screw the top onto the bottle and all 5 litres spilt out into the car. even months after the car smells like a chip wagon. This is even after stripping carpets, and rear seats. Cleaning them and soaking up the old oil with kilos of salt and coffee. the coffee helps to remove the smell. So heaven knows what it would be like with out the use of that.

Apparantly you can shampoo your dog with tomato ketchup to get rid of smells if they've been "rolling in stuff" so if there's still some lingering smell perhaps it might help.
But then don't blame me if the car then smells like a chip wagon but with sauce.

[Mouse]

So the point here is really: do you believe that the majority of people choosing their holiday accommodation place a lot/some/no importance on the Green Credentials of the property?

A recent survey carried out by a recognised holidfay company found that the VAST majority of people forget all the principles concerned with a greeen lifestyle as soon as they leave home.
From what Ive witnessed (regarding a/c useage) sadly I completely agree.

There are a very limited number of people IMO who will choose accommodation because of it's 'greeness'. However when they turn up and are asked to recycle it may make them feel good.

Cynical Mousie
x

[Margaret]

In each of our houses, we have containers for recycling:
- glass bottles
- plastic bottles
- drinks cartons
- soft plastic
- foil
- paper and board

There are also 3 wheely bins outside for kitchen waste, paper and board and misc. waste. We ask guests to separate everything and to limit the amount they put in the black bin to one small bin bag per stay.

We reckon that 80-90% of guests are now doing as asked.

We have the same system at our UK house and there I would guess (we are not there to check) that it is probably about 50%.

I think those survey results have a lot to do with how easy it is. If at home you have to take your rubbish to a recycling centre then I can well believe that most people would not want to do that on holiday. But if you make it easy for them - it just means taking rubbish to the cellar, not to the dustbin - they don't have such a problem. (We find it is often the children who get the recycling job!).

I guess our location - the National Park is a maximum of 100 metres from any of our apartments - may make a difference too.

If anyone wants to see our environmental policies/recycling instructions from our guest information file, just PM me your normal email address.

[barbersdrove]

We're just coming to the end of our 3rd season and have been almost fully booked throughout that time. I can honestly say that just 2 of our guests have made any reference to 'greenness' during that time. One asked if we had a compost heap (We have 3) and the others commented on our free range eggs in the guest book being (zero air miles).

I am sceptical about whether it makes a difference to the type of guests we tend to attract here. They are mostly over 50s couples on holiday, people here for a specific reason, wedding, funeral etc or work people.

I for one will not be paying any more money to VB (VE) to join any accredited Green scheme. They have enough of my money as it is.

[Mouse]

Almost 90 per cent of people say that they regularly recycle bottles, cans and paper in their day-to-day life, but less than half keep up the good work when they go away. One in five holidaymakers admit that they switch off completely when they’re on a beach break and don’t ever consider the environment.

The findings are part of part of the first “make holidays greener” week from 26 June -3 July, a national campaign from The Travel Foundation which urges people to do three things on their summer break this year to make a difference to the place they are visiting, and the people that live there.

The campaign is being supported by travel firms including ABTA, The Co-operative Travel, Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook, Teletext Holidays, Holiday Extras, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays.

Shopping for souvenirs in local markets; taking short showers rather than baths; not having towels laundered on a daily basis; turning off air-conditioning when it’s not needed, are all examples of some of the things that people are being urged to do.

Extract from the survey.

Mousie
x

[greenbarn]

The Award that Margaret has won for her properties is in a very different class from the UK Green Tourism "awards" to which I originally referred. These are really the recognition of defined Standards, and are awarded on application and inspection. They range from "Gold" down to, as far as I can see, "Thinking About It", although it's difficult to ascertain the requirements as it takes a lot of searching to find anything, and the initial link from VB is broken........

These awards really seem to cover the things that owners do anyway - depending on their available space and location. (It's a whole lot easier to provide recycling facilities if you've got lots of space where you can keep it out of sight, and if the council will actually collect.) So if someone is specifically looking for eco-friendly accommodation, they're either going to dismiss these awards, or far worse will believe they mean a lot more than they do only to turn up and be disappointed - and probably complaining. I strongly suspect that other people will, if they notice the logo on the website, think "Oh that's nice" and continue checking out the other properties.

I can't believe it's the sort of thing that will seriously influence the choice of accommodation in the same way that someone headlining the genuine efforts at eco-friendliness (such as Margaret), or a new holiday park where the chalets have grass roofs. (There's an example of this development somewhere in the north - if I remember where I'll post the details.)

Maybe I should add a section to our website to say what we do - and don't do. Being a new conversion of an old stone barn, a lot of what we have was directly influenced by building regs anyway, such as very high levels of insulation and low-energy lightbulbs everywhere (and I shall refrain from my usual diatribe on the lifespan and environmental damage caused by disposal of these things ) While the conversion was being done we re-used as much of the timber as possible, and I spent many filthy hours cleaning it, along with re-using stone. BUT - we used huge quantities of concrete, and we had upvc windows installed as anything else in our local climate needs maintenance every two years - and that would mean closing in peak season, which would be nonsense from a business standpoint.
We put in ground source heatpumps - not for environmental reasons, but for wallet reasons. We put in woodburning stoves; not needed because the underfloor heating does the job, but people like them and it's a really good selling point. We have recycling bins so that guests can separate out paper & card, bottles, tins and plastic. This is primarily because we have to take all the rubbish to a collection point 3/4 mile away, and it all has to go in council blue bags. Without separating it, we'd be using, buying and moving at least twice as many bags. The recyclable stuff gets driven 6 miles to the nearest facility, hopefully combined with a shopping trip. We supply eco-friendly cleaning products - because we have septic tank drainage. We point out to guests that the water from our borehole is better than any bottled water they'll find, so they don't need to keep buying plastic bottles. They do, anyway, and fill our recycling bins.
Oh yes, each property has a rotary washing line and indoor rack so that guests don't have to use the tumble dryer - because they cost us money. We put in information about local walks, cycle hire, and bus services (one a day) - because on certain days the bus service consists of a classic bus or coach, which is an attraction in itself. (But you should see what they belch out...)

When it's all added up, we seem to have quite a list of green credentials, but they're all there for hard reasons (which is an interesting aspect in itself). We could probably get say a Silver award. But frankly I'd be embarrassed to take it - and highly reluctant to pay for it.
And I don't think it would make any difference to our bookings.......

[Margaret]

I think you are doing really well, regardless of the reasons for some of them. I would certainly put a page on your website setting it out. To some extent it is just for those who prefer the idea of a fairly green footprint on their holiday.

I think that survey depends very much on how you read the results:

'less than half keep up the good work when they go away"

and

"One in fice admit they switch off completely when they are on a beach break and don't even consider the environment" (my bold)

Read those figures the other way around and they can sound pretty positive! Especially if you are in a niche anyway!

[CSE]

Greenbarn I have a 2 small questions;
If you chose to enter this scheme it would mean you would have to have some sort of inspection and later controls to see if your property is in keeping with the scheme. My question is the property already inspected for any other listing/scheme? And if so would complying with these schemes conflict with another.

I ask because, I know this is not a green issue, we was asked to enter into a scheme for a local wine route. However that would mean we would have to conform to their rules and some of them seem to be in conflict with something else we have to be subscribed to.