MNG20006 Report: Incompatibility of Luxury and Green Hotels

This academic report explores the core argument that luxury and green practices are incompatible goals within the hotel industry. The report begins with an executive summary and an introduction that defines key terms like sustainability and green management. It then delves into the increasing customer preference for sustainable travel, supported by survey data, and discusses how the meaning of luxury is transforming to emphasize authentic experiences. The report addresses the challenges of integrating luxury with green practices, including operational costs, the shift from product-focused exclusivity to experience-based value propositions, and the impact of competition. It concludes that while challenges exist, the integration of luxury and green practices is becoming increasingly important due to changing customer demands and the need to preserve natural resources, recommending a focus on co-creating experiences and supporting local businesses.

Running head: THE SUSTAINABLE HOTEL ENVIRONMENT
THE SUSTAINABLE HOTEL ENVIRONMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary:
The purpose of the report is to understand the compatibility potential of green approach and
luxury in the hotel industry. The paper presented the benefits and changing preferences of
travellers or customers of a sustainable approach. The paper discussed that the sustainable
practices in the hotel industry results in the reduction of positive impact on environment,
economy and respond to the increasing awareness of responsible customers/travellers. The
paper also presented challenges in establishing compatibility between luxury and green
approach. However, the paper highlighted the changed meaning of luxury, which has
transformed into authentic experiences.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Customers’ choosing sustainable travelling...........................................................................3
Transforming the meaning of luxury to experience...............................................................4
Challenges for integrating luxury with green practices.........................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The ability to coexist by eliminating the potentiality of negative impact amongst
human civilization and biosphere is known as sustainability. A range of initiatives and
strategies aiming for constantly cultivating the base for environmental management is known
as green management (Mohd Suki and Mohd Suki 2015). Greenwashing depicts the concept
of the unsubstantiated claim of using the benefits from environmental benefits for
constructing technology, services and product offerings. The purpose of the paper is to
discuss the compatibility potential of luxury and green in the hotel industry. The report will
stress the concern of aligning sustainability goals with the luxury offerings in regards to the
hotel industry. The paper tends to argue on the incompatibility of aligning green practices
with luxury service offerings in the hotel industry. The paper will present the strategies and
practices that can enable the core offerings of luxury with sustainability practices. The paper
will also depict the challenge of restricting compatibility. The paper will be concluded by
presenting the deduced viewpoint from the discussion.
Discussion
Customers’ choosing sustainable travelling
The concepts of sustainability, eco-tourism, eco-lodges and responsible tourism are
becoming increasingly popular. The hotel industry is directing their focus on constructing a
sustainable approach towards luxury for the purpose of responding to the increasing concern
of the travellers for unsustainability. In a survey report, the increasing willingness and
acceptability of sustainable behaviour during travelling is reflected. The rate of hotel guests
seeking sustainable options of accommodation has been double from the past record. The
increasing awareness and importance of sustainability and green approach amongst customers
are representing the need for practising policies that are aimed at reducing the negative

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impact (Chen 2017). In the sustainability survey report of Booking.com, which is an
aggregator of websites, depicted that around 65 percent of global travellers conveyed the
intention of staying in an eco-friendly accommodation option (Globalnews.booking.com
2019). The report also demonstrated that around 68 percent of travellers reflect the interest of
selecting eco-friendly accommodation. Another data portrayed the reason of preferring eco-
friendly accommodation, which was customer experience created in that accommodation
(Globalnews.booking.com 2019). The increasing awareness and preference for choosing
sustainability may also lead to the consumers' decision of compromising on the conventional
meaning of luxury. The concern for the local environment influenced their decision of paying
more for locally produced food options, accepting energy efficient amenities such as solar
energy showerhead with lower flow compared to traditional showerheads (Yi, Li and Jai
2018). In the report of booking.com, it has also been displayed that every two out of three
travellers chooses green stay (Globalnews.booking.com 2019). Another reason for increasing
consciousness regarding green stay is the increasing rate of curiosity for trying different
accommodation options. Therefore, these data clearly represents the changing preferability of
travellers in their decision of choosing hotels.
Transforming the meaning of luxury to experience
The concept of eco-friendly travelling is becoming the chosen approach for
vacationers and the hotels while responding to the needs. The shift of the meaning and cause
of luxury to the significance of the experience is derived from the responsibility of preserving
natural resources and local destination from a collaborative approach of government and
organization. The realization towards the accountability of the businesses in the hotel
industry is derived from the demand for eco-friendly and sustainably responsible hotels. The
shift in the demand and preference denotes the concept of experience vacationing, where the
travellers seeking for luxury are leaning towards traditional local experience rather than an

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endless supply of toiletries and heavy flow showerheads. Tourism and hospitality industry
constitutes around 10 percent of the world economy. Global Sustainability Dashboard
reflected that stripping of the natural resources from heavy inflow of travellers would result
in the negative economic impact on the country or region and for the world economy. The
concern and preference of travellers and hotel owners can be derived from the challenge of
negative impact on the world economy, local cultural and social structure. The traditional
concept of luxury is evolving with the approach, which prioritizes local culture and
experience over mass tourism. The criteria structured by the Global Sustainable Tourism
Council for the certification of sustainability includes encouraging practices or program for
visitors for increasing the participation in the local community, support for local businesses
and conserving natural resources by reducing the excessive use of resources or non-
recyclable/non-biodegradable resources in the name of luxury (Cnbc.com 2019). The
strategy of including the new luxury concept by the hotel businesses demonstrate the need for
creating value, which is exclusive to the brand. There is a number of luxury hotels that are
offering authentic hotel experience for the travellers with sustainable green approach rather
than showering with amenities (Cnbc.com 2019). The luxury hotel brands in the hotel
industry are becoming conscious of the impact of operational practices and customer
offerings for responding to the demand and changing preferences of customers. Luxury hotels
reflect the aim of creativeness, distinction and creativeness with the aspiration of offering the
best services and products for socially and environmentally awareness travellers (Cnbc.com
2019). Today's responsible travellers or customers prefer holistic experience with the sense of
peace in restoring the planet rather than focussing only on luxury consumption (Cnbc.com
2019). The standard of luxury is changing as the concept no more concentrate on the idea of
complimentary toiletries, unlimited heavy flow showers or non-seasonal food options, instead
the meaning relates to the authentic experience of the travellers or customers for the chosen

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destination. The concept of luxury has changed from possession to experience, and it is
leading to the synchronization with socio-cultural surroundings and nature.
Challenges for integrating luxury with green practices
Challenges of integrating the concept of sustainability and green practices with luxury can be
concentrated on operational activities, food-services, and creating a luxury experience. One
of the significant challenges of the food services and accommodation operation of the hotel
industry is the implementation of the cost involved in executing sustainability practices,
quantifying the return on investment from implementing sustainable approached and the
associated cost with green technologies. Luxury hotels also face the challenge of
transforming the concept of exclusivity from the support of things to experiences. Creating
exclusive experiences in hotels that are based on exploring local culture and including local
business offerings is very challenging as compared to the exclusiveness from product
offerings and including comfort over responsibility (Hbr.org 2019). The challenges lie in the
significant cost associated with the private businesses in the hotel industry and unquantifiable
benefits for the initial phase.
Moreover, in the increasing rate of national and international competition, the businesses in
the hotel industry are concentrating on winning the market at a faster rate than deriving long-
term profit from attracting responsible travellers (Hbr.org 2019). However, becoming green
is not a costly option anymore as the businesses in the hotel industry are getting extensive
support from the government and increasing demand from travellers or customers. The green
approach is becoming the catalyst for the function of innovation, source of wealth creation
and the medium of exploring newer market opportunity (Hbr.org 2019). Customers and
travellers are developing high expectations regarding sustainably grown food options,
energy-efficient room design and the presence of recyclable resources. Hotels are aiming at
using unique experiences from community practices as the means of their value proposition

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in place of including products and excessive utilization of resources. The increasing
awareness and curiosity in the concept of environmental management will have a positive
outcome for increasing profitability in the hotel industry. The green approach will involve the
managers of a hotel to replace the environmentally harmful resources and products by
incorporating sustainable sources and practices by the strategy of the redesign. Companies
like, Airbnb offers customers with the option of selecting green experience with stays and
also presents opportunities for the hosts to participate in creating a social and environmental
experience for the guests. Management’s successful effort will ensure the reduction of costs
from manufacturing cost and will lead to savings of inventory. Utilizing unique experiences
as a value proposition in place of luxury will benefit the businesses by creating differentiation
values in the competitive national and international business.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded by the paper that, luxury and green approach can be
integrated into the hotel industry in the form of responding to the increasing customer
awareness and demand for eco-friendly stay and travelling. This transformation is possible
because the meaning of luxury is changing into authentic experiences. Luxury travellers are
mainly seeking for exclusive or local experiences in place of unlimited amenities. The hotel
industry is leaning towards the aspect of creating a value proposition by exclusiveness from
traditional culture. Hotel industry may experience increasing costs in the process of
redesigning the operational and value creation strategies and may also face the challenge of
understanding the return on investment for sustainable approaches but rather than
concentrating on the change management efforts, the businesses who are focussing on co-
creating experiencing with the support of local businesses and cultural heritage are becoming
successful in the long-run. Moreover, the depletion rate of natural resources and beauty of the

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tourists' place will directly impact the businesses and world economy, which is an alarming
cause for integrating luxury with green approaches.
References:
Chen, Y.L., 2017. Hotel guest’s green lodging experiences: A segmentation study. In
Advances in Hospitality and Leisure (pp. 127-139). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Cnbc.com 2019. CNBC. Eco-friendly tourism is becoming a movement, and more
vacationers are buying into the concept. [Online] Available at:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/27/eco-friendly-tourism-is-becoming-a-movement-and-more-
vacationers-are-buying-into-the-concept.html
Globalnews.booking.com 2019.Booking.com reveals key findings from its 2019 sustainable
travel report. Booking.com reveals key findings from its 2019 sustainable travel report.
[Online] Available at: https://globalnews.booking.com/bookingcom-reveals-key-findings-
from-its-2019-sustainable-travel-report/
Hbr.org 2019. Harvard Business Review. The Challenge of Going Green. [Online] Available
at: https://hbr.org/1994/07/the-challenge-of-going-green
Mohd Suki, N. and Mohd Suki, N., 2015. Consumers’ environmental behaviour towards
staying at a green hotel: Moderation of green hotel knowledge. Management of
Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 26(1), pp.103-117.
Yi, S., Li, X. and Jai, T.M., 2018. Hotel guests’ perception of best green practices: A content
analysis of online reviews. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 18(2), pp.191-202.

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