Building Trust Through Eco-Certification

Certifications are increasingly shaping how travelers choose where to stay, and how companies define responsible travel. According to Booking.com’s 2026 Travel and Sustainability Report, 36% of travelers say they choose certified accommodations, and 41% say clearer communication would make them more likely to opt for more sustainable choices, underscoring how transparency directly influences behavior.

Business travel adds further momentum: 52% of travelers who took a work trip in 2025 say their company has a sustainability policy for travel, as sustainability requirements become more common and procurement teams increasingly look for evidence over statements.

Sustainable certifications provide a recognized, independent framework to help demonstrate sustainability performance and make information easier to trust and act on – supporting decision-making across both leisure and corporate travel.

For hotel owners, they also serve as a business enabler. Beyond meeting expectations, certification can help capture qualified demand across direct, OTA and corporate channels, strengthen credibility through third-party verification, and improve visibility through platform filters, badges and corporate shortlists, ultimately making certified hotels easier to choose and book.

With a target of 75% eco-certified hotels by 2030, and 57% already certified by end of 2025, at Accor we are scaling a structured approach across our diverse portfolio, supporting hotels in meeting recognized, third-party standards and demonstrating performance at property level.

For hotels, certification provides a practical framework to structure actions and demonstrate performance on priority topics spanning both environmental and social dimensions – from energy, water and waste to training, guest awareness and local community engagement.

Certification also requires continuity. Most programs involve renewal every one to two years, reinforcing verification and improvement over time, an important factor for corporate clients, who increasingly embed sustainability criteria into travel policies and procurement processes and look for evidence that can be documented.

Each certification reflects a collective effort: hotel teams supported by brands, procurement, technical expertise and commercial teams to deliver and sustain compliance.

Accor supports owners and hotel teams with a structured, practical approach, including toolkits and templates, onboarding and training, audit preparation guidance, and preferential conditions with selected certification partners, to help save time, build know-how, control costs and align operations.

Booking.com data points to a clear shift in both traveler expectations and booking behavior. Its research shows 85% of travelers consider sustainable travel important, and in 2025 more than 100 million room nights were booked at sustainability-certified properties, suggesting that, when credible information is visible, demand follows. Booking.com also reports that the supply of certified stays is growing: year over year, certified properties on its platform increased by 22%, representing 28,000 accommodations.

To scale certified stays and make sustainability information easier to find when booking, Accor is collaborating with Booking.com and BeCause on a co‑pilot initiative, to prefill parts of both the Green Key application, Accor and OTA sustainability questionnaires using existing property information. This initiative allows to reduce administrative workload for hotel teams and support more consistent presence in the booking journey across booking platforms.

That consistency is particularly important in corporate travel, where purchasing decisions are increasingly guided by policy and proof. In one test led by booking.com with a corporate demand partner, the share of bookings going to certified properties rose from 15% to 27% once the sustainability certification badge was displayed. Building on this signal, Booking.com expanded access to the badge for corporate demand partners, helping make verified options easier to identify and supporting more consistent standards across the industry.

Eco-certification is built for the long term: measured, renewed, and strengthened over time. By supporting hotels through certification and renewal, and working with partners to make certified stays easier to identify at the point of booking, Accor is helping scale verified practices across its network.

As expectations rise across leisure and business travel, the direction is clear: move faster on implementation, keep standards high, and make responsible hospitality easier to choose.