How Upselling and Ecofriendly Practices Can Go Hand-in-Hand
Depending on the size and category of your hotel, upselling can be a huge opportunity to monetize rooms you might otherwise have been occupied at lower rates. It can also be a useful tool for potential cross-sell opportunities with other onsite amenities like restaurants or spas.
In addition to incremental revenue, upselling offers an opportunity to strike a chord with your guests while emphasizing your hotel’s values.
In line with growing environmental trends in travel and tourism, many travelers are looking for eco-conscious accommodation when booking their next hotel stay. Hotels can tap into this by offering guests ways for carbon offsetting - to save money and cut down on their carbon footprint. This can be anything from staying in low-energy rooms, to buying local produce for the dinner buffet.
If carbon offsetting is a term you’ve heard before but are unsure how it could apply to your hotel, you’ve come to the right place! Read on to find out more about carbon offsetting and whether it could be right for your hotel.
What is carbon offsetting?
Carbon offsetting is rapidly gaining popularity amongst today's environmentally aware travelers and consumers at large.
'Carbon offsetting schemes allow individuals and companies to invest in environmental projects around the world in order to balance out their own carbon footprints.' Duncan Clark, author of the Rough Guide to Green Living.
While carbon offsetting is not a replacement for avoiding carbon-heavy activities in the first place, it's a good step towards holding your business accountable for its impact – and showing guests you care in the process.
How can carbon offsetting benefit hotels?
In an interview with ClimatePartner's MD Tristan A Foerster, he highlights several benefits of carbon offset schemes used alongside regular hotel operations, even if only via ancillary services. In addition to a scheme, the following advantages can be felt even from making your team aware of carbon emission drivers at your hotel.
Determining emission culprits at your hotel
In order to engage in holistic or partial carbon offsetting at your hotel, you can have various departments and elements of your property evaluated for their rate of emissions, to calculate your hotel's overall carbon footprint. This service is offered by many carbon offset schemes and will help you pinpoint main drivers of your hotel’s carbon impact.
Save money across departments
Once the sources of carbon emissions have been found, you can begin diminishing the carbon impact of the activity itself through reducing it or updating standard operating procedures. More often than not, this will result in less money being spent.
Building a responsible brand image
A carbon offset scheme can also be used to earn the label 'carbon neutral'. Foerster describes this as a valuable marketing asset. Exploring climate-friendly approaches to running your hotel demonstrates acknowledged responsibility and shows that your hotel cares about a problem that affects us all.
Tap into concerns of the modern traveler
According to Phocuswire, '68% of travelers are trying to be more aware of sustainability-friendly travel brands to support'. If you're not aiming as high as becoming a carbon neutral hotel, eco-conscious ancillary options can be just as attractive – and perhaps an even more direct way to communicate these priorities to your guests.
To inspire hoteliers Oaky has added eco-conscious deal templates to the Deal Library for their hotelier customers. In addition to deal templates that aim to help hotels avoid food, water and energy wastage, there are now deals that allow guests to offset the carbon impact of their stay. Learn more about them and how to get started with eco upselling today.