Sustainability Trends

Sustainable recreation in a B&B is the trend

Sustainable bed & breakfast

Trend: bed & breakfast in an ecological farm.

An increasing group of tourists would like to recreate in a sustainable way. A majority of the travellers considers the environmental policy of tour operators and holiday suppliers while booking and 85 percent prefers to stay in a small-scale accommodation like a bed & breakfast. Which is a more sustainable choice indeed.

New type of traveller
This appears from a research held amongst 520 high educated Dutch travellers by travel organisation TravelEssence. Although this was a Dutch research, we believe that the signalized trend is an international one. TravelEssence identifies a ‘new type of traveller’:

“The familiarity with sustainable tourism is no longer just meant for the traditional backpack/eco-tourists but influences all target groups. With the growth of the number of baby boomers who slowly reach their retirement and search for a more personal and customized way of travelling, a new type of traveller is coming about. These new environmentally aware pensioners – often with a good income – like to combine ecologically responsible activities with good food and pleasant, cosy, small-scale accommodations. For the new traveller a good contact with the host and an accommodation that is part of the complete travel experience are the very things that are important.”

B&B, a sustainable form of recreation
At Bedandbreakfast.eu, we recognize this trend all too well. It is with reason that bed & breakfast – the ultimate small-scale accommodation – has become so successful over the last couple of years. In a B&B you are still in contact with the host and your personal wishes are taken into account. Guests really appreciate this. In addition, bed & breakfast is a sustainable form of stay tourism. For example, nothing has to be built to create an experience: the B&B itself is the experience!

B&B with an environment-friendly label
More and more bed & breakfast work very sustainably. There are various accommodations with an environment-friendly label such as the Ecolabel or Green Key. Other B&B are built completely energy neutral.

Making your B&B more sustainable
Is an environment-friendly label for your B&B a bit too much for you? With a few simple adjustments you can already start to work much more environmentally friendly. Choose green electricity for example, when closing off an energy package for your B&B and install a water saving shower head. Guests also really appreciate it when you serve biological (regional) products at breakfast. Small gestures make a big difference!

Is your bed & breakfast already on Bedandbreakfast.eu, Europe’s biggest B&B site? Sign up for a free mention now, your bed and breakfast will be visible immediately!

About the author

Janneke Scheepers

1 Comment

  • I have found that my European guests tend to be much more environmentally friendly (a generalization) that North Americans. They tend to turn of lights, limit the use of linens and sort garbage for recycling. There are a number of easy ways that B&Bs can incorporate “green” practices (e.g. compact fluorescent light bulbs, wash only full loads of laundry, shop locally) – and B&Bs need to be sharing that information with their guests. Wouldn’t it be great if a web page outlining our individual green practices became a well-visited page on our web sites?

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