HOSTELWORLD: CARBON IMPACT ANALYSIS (2nd edition)

Hostelworld Group is a leading Online Travel Agent that connects hostels and travellers across 178 countries. As a leading player in the travel industry, the company understands the responsibility of its industry in helping to reduce the carbon impact of global travel.

Hostelworld has recognised that its customers are becoming increasingly environmentally conscious. Recent market research highlights more than 60% of their target customers are likely to consider more sustainable travel options and Hostelworld’s own research has revealed that 82% of its customers believe hostels are more sustainable than any other type of accommodation.

With this in mind, Hostelworld first partnered with Bureau Veritas in 2022 to model the carbon intensity of hostels in comparison to hotels and substantiate whether hostels represent the most sustainable accommodation type in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. The recently published 2023 version of the report builds further on the findings in the initial report. 

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Bureau Veritas once again provided Hostelworld with an in-depth research study on the carbon impact of hotels vs hostels. We were able to compare this year’s report with previous reports to show the increasing gap between hostels and hotels in terms of carbon impact. 

Our research saw us collect data on hostels across Europe totalling 30,697 beds in order to calculate an average tCO2e/bed. This data was then benchmarked against the average emissions per assumed PAX in representative European hotel chains.

Our findings showed that on average hostels are 82% less carbon intense than hotels on a per bed basis, compared with 75% in the previous year’s report. This substantiates Hostelworld’s claim that hostels represent a more sustainable accommodation choice compared to hotels in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.