Accor and Trip.com offer Chinese travelers the option to reduce carbon impact during their hotel stays

Accor Greater China is pleased to share its latest initiative in creating more environmentally sustainable hotel experiences, by giving travelers the option to reduce their carbon impact while staying at Accor hotels in Greater China. Accor and Trip.com have introduced a new feature in the Trip.com booking app that allows travelers to make an eco-friendly choice while booking their stays at Accor hotels across Greater China. The new app option was inspired by the educational whitepaper that Accor, Trip.com, and McKinsey & Company released in 2023. One of the key findings was that Chinese travelers are open to traveling more sustainably if they have the support and tools to do so.

“Accor is proud to lead the way in sustainable hospitality with another step forward that will create awareness, engage travelers in making healthier choices, and have a lasting impact on how people travel throughout Greater China,” said Gary Rosen, CEO, Accor Greater China. “Reducing carbon emissions as well as achieving transformational and sustainable change cannot be accomplished by one company alone. It takes a concerted effort of bringing many industry players together to achieve and a greater outcome of reducing carbon emissions in China and around the world.”

Travelers using the Trip.com app to book a stay at an Accor hotel in Greater China simply select the option to reduce carbon impact during their stay, while on the booking page. Once the reservation has been confirmed, the hotel will be notified of the reduced carbon stay and will arrange the guestroom amenities and services accordingly, such as making temperature adjustments, monitoring light usage when the guests are out, not replacing towels and bed sheets on a daily basis, as well as other actions. Guests will receive confirmation of their reduced carbon pledge and the actions that the hotel will take on their behalf.

The educational whitepaper released in March 2023, “The path toward eco-friendly travel in China”, proposed a set of collaborative measures across the industry value chain, from guests to global hospitality and travel service providers, in order to move China’s tourism sector toward a more sustainable future. Data from McKinsey found that Chinese travelers are engaged about their environmental impact and are starting to seek out sustainable alternatives, but the report found they may need more help understanding where to look.

In response to this, the report provided guidance on the actions that travelers can take to travel sustainably and to empower their own consumer decisions, such as booking sustainable travel options with certified service providers, spending more time in one destination, and cultivating sustainable habits such as changing towels or bed linen less frequently and avoiding the use of single-use plastics.

Throughout its network of hotels across Greater China, Accor is actively engaged in numerous efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Accor was the first international hotel group to stop actively providing "six bathroom amenities" in hotel guestrooms across the Greater China region. Accor hotels are currently implementing an industry-first biodegradable and environmentally friendly solution that replaces disposable plastic bottles of toiletries in hotels, while continuing to identify and action more opportunities for plastic elimination throughout the guest experience.

Accor is also the first international hospitality company in China to commit to third-party, professional eco-certification of its entire portfolio of hotels with China Hospitality Association’s Green Hotel Certification, in line with national standards. The reduction of food waste is also a key area of priority for the region’s hotels, along with initiatives to shift thinking and encourage greater environmental sensitivity in the mindsets of guests and employees.

Accor Greater China and Trip.com look forward to more advancements in the coming year, including an upgraded selection criteria for reduced carbon hotel stays. Based on the Paris Agreement's ten-year temperature control plan, this new program of Trip.com will calculate the carbon emissions of a single hotel room stay per day. This allows Trip.com to offer travelers a wider and more precise range of low carbon hotels, throughout Accor’s network and beyond.