New HRS Sustainability Report Details Latest Corporate Emission Reduction Metrics

New HRS Sustainability Report: Corporations Have Collectively Reduced Lodging-Related Carbon Emissions by 27 Percent in 2024

Data Illustrates That Dedicated Sustainability Strategies are Driving More Corporate Bookings to Hotels with Lower Emissions and Operational Costs

Cologne, Germany – 5 September, 2024 – HRS, the leading global corporate lodging and payment technology platform, published a new report today providing data and trends on the progress companies and their hotel suppliers are making as they strive to reduce the carbon emissions tied to corporate guest stays. HRS, which works with one-third of the Fortune 500 on some element of their lodging and/or meeting program, has built a unique vantage point on this topic. Launched only three years ago, HRS’ Green Stay Initiative is used by 85 percent of the world’s relevant corporate-travel focused hotels, covering 600+ chains across more than 175 countries.

The first-of-its-kind report – titled the State of Sustainability in Corporate Travel – explores HRS’ comprehensive Green Stay database to uncover multiple findings. No other entity has a richer set of data insights tied specifically to sustainable corporate lodging trends.  Across the wealth of metrics, it is now clear that the marriage of advanced procurement and booking technologies – embedded with detailed sustainability figures from hotels – is driving the desired outcome: corporations working with HRS have collectively reduced the carbon emissions tied to their hotel stays by 27 percent through the first half of 2024.

This result is more striking when contrasted against the fact that 30 percent of the emissions tied to an average business trip today are hotel sourced – up from 21 percent in pre-pandemic measurements. Given this growth and contrasted against the limited scenarios for emission reduction that air travel segments offer, corporations have a considerably broader range of opportunities to reduce trip-related emissions via lodging. The average hotel search presents 300+ hotel options to travelers going to most cities; corporations leveraging data and preferencing options in corporate booking technologies can effectively “nudge” their travelers to select more sustainable hotel options.

Companies Can Save on Hotel Costs AND Reduce Their Carbon Emissions

As emission reduction rose on the list of priorities for managed hotel programs, in too many scenarios travel procurement leaders were led to believe that staying at sustainable hotels would cost more. With HRS’ State of Sustainability Report, there is now clear evidence that this does not need to be the case. When contrasting the rates of hotels against their sustainability rating, the Green Stay database shows that, on average, the 25 percent most efficient hotels offered average daily rates that were 17 percent less than the 25 percent of most polluting hotels.

The correlation between a hotel’s progress on reducing their emissions, capacity to digitally provide transparency on their sustainable attributes, and offer better prices has multiple cascading benefits. As noted in the report, government directives are spurring companies to act to reduce emissions across their operations and avoid potential fiscal penalties. For example, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability and Reporting Directive (CSRD) will affect more than 50,000 companies by 2026. At the same time, companies and their hotel procurement strategies are constantly evolving, balancing the priority of securing the most value for their lodging spend with the need to travel more sustainably.

Business Travelers Across Traveler Personas Are Booking More Sustainable Hotels 

HRS did this exhaustive study across its global client base, measuring completed stays in the first half of 2024 in contrast with the carbon emission metrics of the specific properties they stayed at. The granularity of the Green Stay data, overlaid with booking data, delivers insights that can substantially advance the unique goals of each corporate lodging program.

When comparing those figures to the same six-month period in 2023, there are several noteworthy findings illustrating the impact companies are having as they leverage HRS’ procurement and booking automation in conjunction with more transparent reporting of sustainability data by hotel suppliers:  

• Frequent business travelers that compiled more than 50 room nights per year reduced the emissions tied to their hotel choice by 14 percent;
• Infrequent travelers (10 to 50 room nights per year) reduced emissions by 32 percent; and
• One-off hotel guests (less than 10 room nights annually) reduced emissions by 26 percent.

The latest Green Stay data also shows the resounding booking and procurement benefits for hotels participating in the Green Stay Initiative. As noted in the report:

• Building off projections based on the first half of 2024 and historical trends, hotels participating in Green Stay are projected to see an additional 2.5 million more room nights booked over 2023 totals over the rest of this year.
• These figures are clearly having a ripple effect as hotel procurement exercises for 2025 begin to take place. Looking across all the RFPs HRS has orchestrated on behalf of its global client base so far this year, hotels participating in the Green Stay Initiative are 22 percent more likely to win volume than those properties who do not. 

“The results in this groundbreaking report are unquestionably promising from a global perspective,” said HRS CEO Tobias Ragge. “As transparency improves and technologies advance – giving corporations specific property-level metrics they need for procurement and reporting, and travelers the digital push to select the sustainable hotels recommended by their travel team – it’s clear that use of automation can help influence all parties to take clear action towards the worthy goals of the Paris Agreement and the EU’s CSRD. Beyond that, this report provides a clarion call to the hotel community. There is no longer a doubt that investments into more sustainable operations offer the promise of winning more corporate room nights and tighter relationships with sustainability-focused corporate clients.”

In addition to findings tied to business traveler behavior and more insights from HRS’ Green Stay database, the report covers a wide range of regional and global issues, including potential gains and losses for companies as they seek to comply with evolving regulations. Case studies from prominent hotel chains and two trailblazing corporate hotel programs are included as well.  

 Upcoming September 11 Webinar to Highlight Report Findings 

HRS will stage a webinar featuring this report, a discussion of its findings, and more information about the Green Stay Initiative on Wednesday, 11 September at 16:30 CET time, 10:30 Eastern. Interested parties can register for the free webinar via this link.

Media members, industry consultants and other external parties can access a copy of the HRS State of Sustainability in Corporate Travel Report here. Corporate travel managers, procurement leaders and hoteliers are encouraged to engage with their HRS contact to secure a copy of the report and learn more about sharing it with colleagues in their respective organizations. 

About HRS

HRS is a global technology company focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence to create fully-digital lodging experiences for corporations and their travelers. The company’s platform-based solutions are reinventing end-to-end travel management and the traveler experience for transient, meetings and workforce segments for Fortune 500 companies worldwide. HRS’ award-winning Green Stay Initiative enables hotels to showcase their sustainable attributes while helping companies on their quest towards NetZero travel. HRS has an unsurpassed network of ecosystem relationships, with secure API integrations to hotel suppliers, digital payment facilitators and booking solutions. More information at www.hrs.com and on LinkedIn.