Benefits of offering a more sustainable holiday rental
Find out how you can benefit from more sustainable local accommodation
November 2024
Have you gone green yet? Sustainable holiday rentals are big news, and adding eco-friendly features when you list your holiday home can make a major difference to your bottom line. As a landlord, you might not realise all the benefits of sustainability, so let’s have a closer look.
You’ll attract more visitors
Let’s start with one of the most obvious benefits of sustainable holiday rentals: going green is good for business. More and more travellers look for eco-friendliness as a priority when they book accommodation, so sustainability can be a major selling point.
Make sure that potential guests are aware of your property’s green credentials. You can treat eco-conscious travellers just like you’d treat any other niche market, tailoring your listings to attract them specifically. Highlight key features like solar panels, energy-efficient appliances and so on.
…and they’re the kind of visitors you want to attract
Nowadays, everyone is aware of sustainability as a concept – but only a few travellers see it as a priority. These travellers tend to have higher budgets and more discerning taste. What’s more, they’re unlikely to misbehave in your property. Who would you rather have to rent your holiday flat, a group of peaceful eco-warrior friends or a raucous hen party?
When you transform your property into a sustainable rental, you might find that you can charge a premium price as you pivot towards a very specific market. Of course, these travellers will expect you to meet their needs. Think about small, eco-friendly touches you can make to satisfy them:
- Remove all single-use plastic from your property
- Stock the fridge and pantry with local produce from small farms (vegan-friendly offerings may be a particularly welcome touch)
- Provide recycling bins – and make sure to use them
- Offer environmentally-friendly cleaning products
- Fill the garden with native plants
This may cost more initially, but it allows you to turn your holiday rental into a form of premium accommodation.
You’ll have lower utility bills
There are also some major economic benefits of sustainability when it comes to your bills. Again, you’ll need to splash out initially – but if you plan to keep your holiday rental business going for a long time, these strategies will pay off over time.
Some of the best ways to save money on your utility bills through sustainability include:
- Replacing appliances like fridges with energy-efficient models
- Installing solar panels
- Installing heat pumps
- Adding smart sensors which will automatically turn off appliances when nobody is in the property
There’s an initial outlay to consider, but over time, these eco-friendly investments will pay for themselves. Utility bills can be very costly when you’re running a holiday rental, and these green initiatives help to lower them. At the same time, they can be used to promote your property as premium accommodation on holiday rental websites – leading to bigger profit margins down the line.
You can prepare for incoming sustainability regulations
This will vary from region to region, but it’s almost always one of the major benefits of a sustainable home. Across the world, governments are encouraging eco-friendly policies. Properties that are energy-efficient and use green devices such as solar panels may benefit from tax breaks. In the future, appliances that don’t meet sustainability guidelines may be outlawed altogether – so you can stay ahead of the curve by improving your holiday rental’s sustainability credentials now.
This has become a particularly important issue in recent years, as more and more people are talking about the negative impacts of the tourist industry. Many jurisdictions are likely to prioritise sustainability in holiday rentals. In fact, some people predict that landlords who don’t meet sustainability targets could lose their licence – so it’s better to get ahead of the pack now.
How should I make my holiday home sustainable?
Turning an ordinary holiday rental into a sustainable, eco-friendly palace can seem like a daunting task. Green-conscious upgrades cost money, and you’ll need to invest quite a bit of cash into your sustainability project. Although you’re likely to see returns down the line, the initial outlay can be significant.
One key piece of advice is not to rush things. Don’t feel like you have to transform your property overnight; you can take it step by step. Firstly, consider how far you want to go. You might plan to just add a few tweaks in a green direction, or you may choose to make sustainability a major priority for your property. This will help you decide what kind of changes you need.
If you’d like to just change a few small things, consider details like appliances. Fridges, air conditioners and heaters can all be upgraded to meet sustainability guidelines. Once you’re happy with those, you might want to have a look at heat pumps or solar panels.
If you want to truly embrace environmentalism, and start targeting your accommodation specifically to eco-conscious travellers, then this may become a very large project. As well as appliances, solar panels and heat pumps, you’ll want to look at all the little details. Can you use recycled products in your property? What replacements can you offer for single-use plastic? In recent years, many hotels have changed from plastic to cardboard toothpaste tubes, for example. Where can you find eco-friendly products for the kitchen and bathroom?
You might want to include purely aesthetic changes; eco-friendly guests often want to feel like they’re living close to nature. To give them what they want, consider changing the decor of your property to reflect a more rustic theme. For bonus points, choose furniture and decorative pieces made by local artisans – a sure-fire winner for the kind of traveller you’re targeting. You could even form a partnership with local businesses, cross-selling their products to visitors.
To make sure you get the most sustainability benefits, you’ll want to rewrite the advertisements and listings you use on holiday portals to showcase the new features. Take the time to look up new keywords and refresh your listings with updated photographs. If you really want to prioritise sustainability, this can become an ongoing part of your advertising. For example, you might want to post on social media on special occasions like Earth Day, to remind potential travellers about your dedication to all things green.
Ultimately, there are plenty of benefits to developing a sustainable holiday rental. You can decide just how far you want to go – a few changes, or a complete overhaul of your business. Either way, with an investment and a bit of work, you should see big rewards further down the line.