You know, for the longest time, I didn’t really pay much attention to all that “eco-friendly” talk when it came to hotels. A hotel was a hotel, right? A place to crash when you’re away from home. As long as it was clean and didn’t cost an arm and a leg, I was good.
Then things started popping up everywhere. You see it on booking sites, travel blogs, even news articles. “Sustainable travel,” “green hotels.” At first, I just scrolled past. Seemed like another fancy label to charge more money, honestly. But then, I think it was during planning a family trip, my partner mentioned trying one. Said it might be interesting, maybe teach the kids something. I wasn’t totally sold, thought it might be uncomfortable, like camping indoors or something.
My First Attempt at Finding One
So, I grudgingly agreed to look into it. I started searching. Man, that was a rabbit hole. Every hotel seemed to call itself “green” for just having a recycling bin in the lobby. It was confusing. What actually made a hotel “sustainable”?
- Some claimed it because they reused towels (which, let’s be real, most hotels ask you to do anyway).
- Others talked about fancy solar panels or water systems I couldn’t even picture.
- Lots of nice pictures of nature, but not much solid info.
It felt like a lot of marketing fluff. I spent a good few evenings digging around, trying to find reviews or blogs that weren’t just promoting stuff. I looked for places that talked about concrete things, like cutting down waste, using renewable energy properly, or sourcing food locally. Took way more effort than just booking a regular spot.
Staying There: The Actual Experience
Eventually, I found a place that seemed legit. It wasn’t some super-luxury spa, just a reasonably priced hotel that had decent reviews mentioning its eco efforts. So, I booked it. Went there with the family.
First impressions? It looked… normal. Mostly. Then you started noticing the little things.
The Room: The key card activated the power, standard stuff, but the lights were all LEDs. The thermostat had limits, couldn’t crank the AC down to freezing like you might want sometimes. The shower head was definitely low-flow. Took a bit longer to wash shampoo out, which was slightly annoying. No tiny plastic bottles for soap; they had larger refillable dispensers bolted to the wall. Okay, that made sense.
Waste & Recycling: They had multiple bins in the room for different kinds of trash. Took a minute to figure out what went where. Felt a bit like homework, but we managed. Downstairs, they had water stations to refill bottles instead of selling plastic ones.
Food: The breakfast buffet had signs talking about local farmers. The food tasted good, maybe fresher? Hard to say definitively, but it felt good knowing where it came from. Less variety than some massive hotel chains, perhaps, but decent quality.
So, What’s the Verdict?
Honestly? It wasn’t a mind-blowing, life-altering experience. It was… fine. Comfortable enough. Some things were slightly less convenient, like the shower. Some things felt genuinely thoughtful, like the refillable water stations.
Did it make me a hardcore eco-warrior traveler? Nah. But it did make me think. It showed that being a bit more mindful wasn’t actually that hard, or that much of a sacrifice in terms of comfort, most of the time. It wasn’t about roughing it; it was just about smarter choices built into the hotel’s operation.
Since then, I’ve stayed in a few other places that market themselves as sustainable. Some were great, felt authentic. Others, well, felt like they were just doing the bare minimum for the label. You still have to do your homework.
Now, when I book travel, I do take a look if there are any decent eco-options around. I don’t obsess over it, and price and location are still huge factors for me. But if there’s a place that seems genuinely committed and fits my needs, I’ll lean towards giving it a try. It’s not about saving the planet with one hotel stay, obviously, but it feels like a small, practical step. And sometimes, those local breakfasts are pretty darn good.
