Sustainability is no longer just a trend — it's a booking factor for a growing share of guests. Here's how to make your holiday rental genuinely eco-friendly and market it effectively.
Sustainability has moved from a niche marketing angle to a mainstream booking consideration. According to Booking.com's annual Sustainable Travel Report, 76% of global travellers say they want to travel more sustainably, and 43% would be willing to pay more to stay in an eco-friendly property. In the UK specifically, YouGov data suggests that around a third of domestic holidaymakers now factor environmental impact into their accommodation choices.
For holiday rental hosts, this represents both an obligation and an opportunity. The obligation is clear: tourism is a significant contributor to carbon emissions and resource consumption, and accommodation providers have a real responsibility to reduce their footprint. The opportunity is equally clear: properties that can credibly demonstrate genuine sustainability credentials access a growing and highly engaged guest segment — and command premium rates while doing so.
This guide covers the practical steps to make your holiday rental genuinely more eco-friendly, and how to communicate those efforts in a way that resonates with sustainability-conscious guests without veering into greenwashing.
Before getting into the practical steps, it's worth addressing greenwashing directly. Guests who prioritise sustainability have become sophisticated at detecting superficial gestures — a recycling bin and some LED bulbs does not an eco-friendly property make.
The bar for credible sustainability positioning in 2025 is higher than it was five years ago. Guests read reviews carefully; if previous visitors mention waste not being recycled, energy being wasteful, or eco claims not matching reality, the damage to your positioning is worse than having no sustainability claims at all.
The framework throughout this guide is: be honest about where you are, make genuine improvements, and communicate what you've actually done. That approach builds trust. Vague claims about 'caring about the environment' without specific evidence do not.
Energy consumption is typically the largest component of a holiday rental's environmental footprint, and it's also the area where the overlap between sustainability and cost savings is strongest. Every measure that reduces energy consumption reduces your electricity bill as well as your carbon emissions.
The simplest immediate action. Switch your property's energy supply to a 100% renewable electricity tariff. In the UK, suppliers like Octopus Energy, Good Energy, and Bulb (now part of Octopus) offer renewable tariffs at competitive rates. This alone significantly reduces your property's operational carbon footprint without any physical changes.
Smart thermostats (Nest, Hive, Tado) allow you to control heating remotely, set schedules that match guest occupancy, and ensure the heating isn't running when the property is vacant. Industry data suggests smart thermostats reduce heating energy use by 15–25% in holiday rental applications. For a property that may sit empty for weeks at a time, this is a significant saving.
If you haven't already replaced all lighting with LED, do it now. LED bulbs use 75–90% less electricity than incandescent equivalents and last 10–15 times longer. The upfront cost is recovered within months on a moderately occupied property.
For owned properties (rather than leased), solar panels represent an increasingly attractive investment. UK solar generation has improved significantly as panel efficiency has increased and costs have fallen. A typical 4kW installation on a UK property now costs £6,000–£8,000 and can generate meaningful savings on electricity bills — particularly attractive for properties in sunnier regions or those with EV charging points.
Electric vehicle ownership in the UK is growing rapidly. Properties with EV charging points — even a basic 7kW home charger — are increasingly filtering up in searches from EV drivers who need to charge overnight. This is both a sustainability credential and a practical amenity that genuinely differentiates your property.
Water consumption in holiday rentals tends to be higher than in primary residences because guests, not facing a personal water bill, use more freely. Practical steps to reduce water consumption:
A dripping tap wastes up to 5,000 litres per year. A running toilet can waste 200–400 litres per day. Regular maintenance checks are both a sustainability and cost issue.
For properties with gardens, a rainwater harvesting system (essentially a large water butt connected to downpipes) can supply outdoor watering needs without drawing on mains water. Modest cost, genuine environmental benefit.
Holiday rental guests recycle less than they do at home — partly because they don't know the local system and partly because hosts don't make it easy. Fixing this is straightforward:
Create a simple recycling guide for your property — what goes in which bin, what day collections happen, and where recycling bins are located. Include this in your welcome book and make the bins themselves clearly labelled. Guests who want to recycle will do so if you make it easy.
Audit your property for single-use plastics and replace them. Welcome packs should use plastic-free packaging where possible. Any toiletries provided should be in recyclable containers.
If your property has outdoor space, a compost bin for food waste is a genuine sustainability feature. It reduces landfill contribution and, if guests are staying a week or more, is genuinely useful. Include instructions in your welcome guide.
How you stock and supply your property matters beyond energy and waste. The 'local economy multiplier' — the degree to which spending stays in the local economy — is genuinely connected to sustainable tourism principles.
A welcome pack stocked with produce from local farms, bakeries, and producers is a sustainability statement, a quality statement, and a guest experience statement simultaneously. Name the producers — guests who care about sustainability appreciate knowing where things come from.
Your guest guidebook is a powerful sustainability tool. Directing guests to local independent restaurants, farm shops, and activity providers keeps tourism spending in the local community rather than extracting it to national chains. This is the heart of regenerative tourism.
Switch to eco-certified cleaning products. Brands like Method, Ecover, and Bio-D are widely available and effective. Document this in your sustainability credentials.
A meaningful dimension of sustainable tourism is helping guests experience and appreciate the natural environment in ways that don't damage it. This is particularly relevant for rural and coastal holiday lets:
Formal accreditation adds credibility to sustainability claims and provides a framework for continued improvement.
The UK's leading sustainable tourism certification scheme, specifically designed for accommodation providers. GTBS certification is recognised by VisitScotland, VisitWales, and Visit England, and appears on national tourism marketing platforms. The assessment covers energy, water, waste, purchasing, and community engagement.
For properties in areas of natural beauty or wildlife significance, formal eco-tourism accreditation from a recognised body adds marketing credibility.
For properties that include any hosted element, the B&B Association has developed green standards that provide a practical framework.
Having made genuine improvements, communicate them specifically and honestly:
Beyond the environmental obligation, the business case for genuine eco-credentials is increasingly strong:
LetPilot helps you run your holiday rental with the kind of operational efficiency that underpins genuine sustainability — from reducing unnecessary admin to tracking property performance data that helps you make smarter investment decisions, including sustainability upgrades. Forward-thinking hosts are already using LetPilot to manage their properties more professionally. Try LetPilot free at letpilot.co — no credit card required.