Title: Environmental sustainability in hotels: a matter of category?

Authors: María-Eugenia Ruiz-Molina; Irene Gil-Saura; Beatriz Moliner-Velázquez

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, Avda. Naranjos, s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain. ' Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, Avda. Naranjos, s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain. ' Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, Avda. Naranjos, s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain

Abstract: As in other economic activities, companies in the hospitality industry have proposed several practices and implemented technology solutions to pursue environmental sustainability of their activities and minimise their impact on climate change. Some applications of information and communication technologies (ICT) may contribute to the reduction of the demand of supplies, water and energy by hotels. In the present paper, we aim at exploring the influence of the hotel category on the implementation of environmental-friendly technologies in hotels. Considering a sample of Spanish hotels in the most important cities, we evaluate the relationship between the level of implementation of certain technology solutions and the hotel category. As a result, we observe that, in general, the higher the hotel category, the more intensive the investment in technology solutions. Notwithstanding, for some particular technologies, no significant differences across hotel category are observed. Therefore, we conclude that lodging in an environmental friendly hotel is not a category consideration and we provide a set of recommendations for practitioners and policy makers that may orientate their decisions on ICT for the hospitality industry.

Keywords: hospitality industry; sustainability; environmentally-friendly practices; information technology; communication technology; ICT; sustainable development; hotels; Spain.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2012.049179

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2012 Vol.11 No.2, pp.148 - 163

Accepted: 27 May 2012
Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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