Do people really care about sustainable hotels - or just cheaper ones?

The pressure to cut costs is challenging green goals across the events industry - and the struggle is particularly clear when it comes to booking accommodation.

While delegates increasingly say sustainability matters, budget and convenience still dominate booking decisions. So can the industry make greener choices easier without increasing costs?

‘Delegates increasingly care about sustainability’

MCI Group has worked with the United Nations to develop a hotel sustainability rating system that could help people make more responsible choices. The idea grew from the group's selection as the accommodation agency for COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, where rating the sustainability of hotels formed part of the RFP.

The resulting ESG tool assesses hotels against a range of environmental and social criteria. With several large hotel partners on board, MCI Group has assessed 4,500 hotels to date, with the goal of reaching 10,000 by the end of 2026.

"More and more of our clients were asking for that. Based on the trends that we were seeing, we decided as a group to take action," explains Quentin Remy, head of global procurement & strategic sourcing at MCI Group.

Quentin Remy, MCI Group

Quentin Remy, MCI Group

"Delegates increasingly care about sustainability but it clashes with the fact that they don't always have simple and comparable information when booking hotels. We wanted to create something practical for our big B2B clients, and we wanted to make it visible and actionable in our booking platform."

Hotels receive a simple rating of up to five stars. With more than 200 eco-certifications in use around the world, Quentin hopes this simplified approach allows sustainability to become a meaningful part of the decision-making process.

But is it enough to combat budget pressures?

"We have to bear in mind that, even though sustainable options can be now easier to identify, most people will default to convenience and cost. But that's why we embedded it into a sourcing tool, to have it as an add-on, so that if it's not your top priority, it's still there.

"At first, you might want to focus on costs and ceiling height, but you could still have it as a fifth priority. Then if it comes down to Hotel A and Hotel B, but one of them has a higher ESG rating, that is still an argument for choosing that option."

Offering a green option can influence bookings

Accommodation specialist bnetwork works with event organisers to supply rooms for major B2B events around the globe, including the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice last year. It added an eco-conscious tracker to its booking platform in 2024, enabling attendees to search for hotels according to their sustainability credentials.

To encourage behavioural change, the tracker also shows how many eco-friendly bookings are being made, giving organisers data to demonstrate the collective impact of these decisions.

And it appears to be working: bookings for hotels registered as sustainable rose by 8.4 per cent in the year following the tool's launch.

The key to this success was making it easy to filter hotels according to their green ratings or whether they are within walking distance of the venue, says Marie Julian-Patacchini, sustainability manager at bnetwork. Every attendee who makes a sustainable booking is also rewarded with a tree they can adopt from a dedicated forest.

Marie Julian-Patacchini, bnetwork

Marie Julian-Patacchini, bnetwork

Hotels are assessed using recognised sustainability certifications and credentials verified by the bnetwork team.

"This addition to our website enabled us to do two things: to offer sustainable accommodation options to participants and enable them to make choices that align with their values; and to help hotels understand and amplify their sustainability successes," adds Julian-Patacchini.

‘Industry needs a standardised approach’

For associations, working with partners like bnetwork is vital to help standardise what 'sustainable accommodation' means in a more transparent and comparable way, according to Claire Chombeau, events manager for the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). Working with Congrex Switzerland, delegates attending the association's 2026 congress will be able to filter and select green hotels through the accommodation platform.

Claire Chombeau, EASL

Claire Chombeau, EASL

Is it making a difference?

"While sustainability is increasingly recognised and appreciated, we do not currently see it as the primary driver in hotel selection," says Chombeau.

"Delegates still tend to prioritise location and cost per night, with sustainability considered more as a positive added value rather than a decisive factor.

"Meaningful impact requires a shared effort between organisers, housing providers, hotels and delegates."

Looking beyond the certifications

Some event planners try to look beyond certifications to ensure they are making the right choices - though it isn’t always that simple.

"From my experience, when clients are asking to prioritise sustainability credentials in the process much more than they used to, and the cost pressure definitely hasn't disappeared, it takes more considered planning to deliver on both,” says Katie Halliburton, event manager at marketing & events agency CI Group.

In lieu of multiple credentials, she prefers to focus on energy use. “It can account for up to 75 per cent of a venue's footprint, so a hotel that's actively managing that operationally (not just holding a certificate!) will outperform a purpose-built 'green' venue that isn't. And that's often where you find sustainability isn't costing you extra - it's just built into how the venue operates.

“I would always recommend asking about a venue energy and keeping it practical. Many venues can now share a basic energy or carbon summary, and it’s also worth asking about any year-on-year reductions or efficiency upgrades like LED lighting or smart HVAC. It’s a good litmus test for whether sustainability is genuinely embedded in day-to-day operations."

People are being prioritised, along with planet

Richard Fine, commercial lead for Chill Out! Events, believes budget pressures continue to limit progress.

"Everyone wants to do the right thing, but I can't see a notable change over the past decade," he says.

While sustainability remains important, he believes many buyers still struggle to define exactly what it means in practice.

"Although people want to be sustainable, I don't think they always know exactly what that means. It is such a broad area which can make it too vague."

However, he has seen growing interest in initiatives that deliver a more visible social impact, such as charity partnerships and community programmes.

Overall, the picture is mixed. Delegates increasingly care about sustainability and organisers are investing in tools that make greener choices easier. Yet cost and convenience remain the dominant drivers of hotel selection.

For now, sustainability may not be the deciding factor in accommodation bookings, but the industry is working to ensure it becomes a much easier consideration when delegates make their choice.

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Kate Halliburton, CI Group

Richard Fine, Chill Out!