This survey has compared what has been done by 6 hotel chains to be 'greener'and how it has been perceived by customers. The results are presented on the Green Perceptions Chart below:
To lead this study 2 different methos have been used:
- to evaluate the actual improvments, they used a scorecard that tracks the actions do in favor of the environment
- to evaluate the consumers' perception, it is an online survey that was used.
It is obvious on this chart that only Marriott's actions are perceived at the exact same level as the reality, on the opposite to Hilton and Hyatt which benefits from a better perception than the reality, and on the opposite to Wyndham, Carlson and Starwood which have an actual policy that is not perceived by customers.
So why is that?
Is it due to the promotion of their actions? Or the lack of promotion?
According to me, no matter the reason is, what is really important is what they do for the environment. Indeed, hotel chains might have get promotion on the few actions they realize and be in the reality not as 'green' as they pretend.
And on the contrary, some hotel chain might consider that what really matters is what they do in favor of the environment, and not how much more clients it might attract.
So what really matters?
The perception or the result?
On an economic point of view, of course it is the result. Greener hotels might attract a lot more clients who are concerned by this issue.
But on the other, we might consider that only the results of those environment-friendly actions are really important...
I really loved you article because it is so interesting.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I would like to add that by an economic point of view, Hotel chains may move to the "greener" attitude because it allow them to save a lot of money on the long term.
Of course we have experienced that hoteliers take much more care of the short term results, and this amp up in the crisis time we live.
Ignazio SUTERA