Cornell Hospitality Quarterly

Over the years, annual changes in hotel utility costs have moved in sync with the energy component of the consumer price index (CPI). From 2000 through 2009, the correlation coefficient between these two measurements was .964. However, since 2010, we have seen a departure from this historical symmetry. In 2010 and 2011, hotel utility expenses grew 80 percent less than the energy CPI. Then in 2012, while hotel utility expenditures were declining, the energy CPI continued to grow. In this edition of the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, several scholars present the findings of their analysis of green and sustainable practices within the lodging industry. The impacts of green and sustainable practices on hotels can vary from positive public relations to complying with meeting planner Request for Proposal requirements, thus improving revenue. However, for many owners and operators, the primary payback from investing in green and sustainable practices is an assumed reduction in utility costs. Each year since 1933, PKF Hospitality Research, LLC (PKF-HR) has collected annual operating statements from thousands of hotels across the United States. In accordance with the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry, four utility cost categories are captured in the firm’s Trends® database: electricity, gas/fuel, steam, and water/sewer. To provide some context to the discussion of green and sustainable practices and their impact on hotel operating expenses, we have analyzed utility cost data from the Trends® database for the period 2000 through 2012.

This paper develops and tests a model of the impact of employees’ awareness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives on perceived task significance and important attitudinal and behavioral work outcomes of service employees in the hospitality industry. Data from 211 employees of a United Kingdom–based hotel chain provide support for the concept that employees should be made aware of CSR actions. Results suggest that employees’ awareness of CSR activities is positively related to job satisfaction, engagement in helping and voice behavior, and personal initiative, and CSR awareness is negatively related to emotional exhaustion. These relationships are partly or fully mediated by perceived task significance. We discuss implications of this research for theory and practice, and provide several recommendations for how managers in the hospitality industry can increase employees’ awareness for corporate engagement in CSR initiatives.

While sustainability initiatives by firms are increasingly encouraged by customers, investors, and the government, the economics of sustainable decisions remains in question. The study described in this paper examines the link between sustainability and economic performance for the hospitality industry, as compared with other businesses. Using data spanning 1991 through 2011 from MSCI’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Indices and credit ratings from Standard and Poor’s representing 16,325 firm-years, the analysis finds that hospitality firms on average invest more in environmental programs than do businesses in other industries; that hospitality firms have significantly fewer environmental concerns; that strong financial performance leads to increased investments; and that going green, in turn, pays off in future periods, creating a virtuous cycle. One implication is that hospitality firms should go forward confidently in establishing their sustainability programs, as it appears that customers support the effort financially.

Hedonic pricing theory states that the price of a room is determined by a set of characteristics (e.g., structural, location, and environmental) of the establishment. Set within the framework of this methodology, and using raw data from the Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness in the Hospitality Industry for Andalusia project, this article discusses the impact on room pricing of hotels implementing environmental sustainability measures based on a sample of 232 hotels (3-, 4-, and 5-stars) in Andalusia (Southern Spain). This sample is statistically representative of hotel accommodations in the region. A distinguishing feature of this study is the creation of a variable derived from the replies given by hotel managers to a questionnaire designed by the authors. The questionnaire presented questions about the measures the managers implemented in their establishments to improve environmental sustainability. The use of this variable in the semilogarithmic hedonic model suggests that the prices of hotel rooms are 5.15-percent higher for each environmentally sustainable measure implemented in the hotel; in some cases, the price increase could be as much as 36.05 percent. Other variables that were also introduced in the model yielded estimates consistent with those obtained in previous studies.

In this article, we analyze the impact on hotels of the ISO 14001 environmental certification system from the customers’ perspective. Based on a comparison of customer ratings of 6,850 hotels in Spain with and without ISO 14001 certification, overall guests rate the hotels with ISO 14001 certification higher than those without the certification. These results are stronger for hotel comfort and hotel services compared with other hotel attributes. Moreover, the most significant differences were found in the upscale four-star hotels. While the study does not reveal causes for these findings, the implication is that the highest end five-star luxury hotels do not gain distinctive differentiation by having the ISO 14001 certification, while for three-star hotels, guests’ price sensitivity overrides environmental concerns. At the four-star level, however, hotels seem to be able to gain a distinct market advantage from environmental certification. For all hotels, the management discipline provided by ISO 14001 can provide a competitive advantage.

Green marketing in hotel rooms relies particularly on the hotel’s communication to the guest, with a goal of gaining the guest’s voluntary participation in sustainable programs. Developing a persuasive message, therefore, is critical to the effectiveness of the hotel’s green efforts. To explore effective in-room green communication strategies of the hotel industry, we propose application of several widely adopted information processing theories. We review relevant theories, develop key propositions for the hotel industry, and offer a theoretical framework and propositions for future research. Our content analysis of the contents of thirty-six guestroom message cards finds that many hotels are using some of these information theories, but a more scientific approach is indicated.

This study used an experimental approach to examine the influence of message framing and source credibility on potential hotel customers’ attitudes, behavioral intentions, attention, and environmentally friendly activities (EFAs) toward messages about protecting the environment. With 386 participants, this study employed a 2 × 2 between-subject design comparing a positive message frame, a negative message frame, a credible source, and a noncredible source. The results reveal that messages from a credible source that are positively framed led to the most positive attitudes toward the messages themselves, visit intention, and EFAs. Even without regard to source credibility, positively framed messages were more effective than those with a negative frame. The implication for hospitality practitioners is to maintain a positive frame for messages that encourage guests to participate in a hotel’s sustainability programs, and to add a credible source for additional message strength.

Through a review of sustainability research, this paper offers a framework for studying the customer’s role in managing sustainability throughout a hospitality or tourism firm’s supply chain. With advances in social media that have empowered customers and their social communities to actively participate in sustainable practices, the role of the customers in achieving sustainability in all supply chain operations within the tourism industry has grown. Social media also constitute a force that encourages customers to support sustainability practices. This paper proposes an overall framework that identifies and synthesizes the various roles and impact of the customers’ involvement in implementing sustainable supply chain management in tourism. This involves the following four dimensions: factors motivating customer involvement in sustainability, the degree of customer involvement, management strategies for customer involvement, and outcomes of customer involvement. The paper offers examples in support of the framework that demonstrate various ways in which customers are contributing to sustainability at various points in the supply chain.

A deeper understanding of customers’ desire for and participation in green activities can lead to organizations designing more efficient and effective green programs. This research finds that the guests’ assessment of the importance of being environmentally friendly has the greatest effect on their intention to stay in a green hotel. Second, the research identifies the following customer barriers to participation: inconvenience, perceptions of cost cutting, and decreased luxury—all of which significantly affect consumers’ intention to stay at a green hotel or pay more for a room in such a hotel. Third, the results show that customers believe that hotels should have certain green practices, but did not consider it important to stay in a hotel that actually maintains the thirteen green practices tested here. Fourth, the results find that customers behave with greater environmental responsibility at home than they do in a hotel. Among the implications of these findings is the idea that hotel managers’ communications and actions must be relevant to guests’ concerns by educating customers, increasing convenience to participate in green programs, and decreasing perceptions of cost cutting.

The characteristic of mindfulness is ascribed to people who have a relatively greater awareness of their surroundings and of other people. This study finds that assessing guests’ mindfulness helps hoteliers make those guests aware of and responsive to hotels’ sustainability practices. This process invokes specific elements of mindfulness, including guests’ concern for society and others, their preferences for mindful information services, the benefits they seek from a hotel experience, and their demographic characteristics. This study indicated that highly mindful individuals were more concerned for others and society as a whole and search for products and services that have high emotional and environmental benefits. By understanding guests’ mindfulness, hotel managers may help guests to respond to hotels’ careful stewardship of the environment by engaging in sustainable consumerism.

Sustainability studies suggest that travelers’ decisions to support sustainable production and to consume sustainable hospitality and tourism services are functions of those travelers’ values. This study examined the efficacy of the sustainability value (SV) scale in predicting potential travelers’ choices for sustainable hospitality businesses using a partially mediated structural equation model. Data from a panel of 1,202 recent travelers in North America suggest that SVs predict an individual’s choice for sustainable hospitality businesses. The effect of those values, however, is partially mediated by the travelers’ environmental behaviors. Based on the respondents’ attitudes and behavior, they were grouped into an environment-supporting group called “strong-sustainers” and an environment-neutral group termed “centrists-sustainers.” Extending these findings to the market, hoteliers could offer targeted sustainability messages for the proposed “strong-sustainer” traveler, who would be more likely to purchase a “green” room, and likewise customize communications to the “centrist-sustainer” travelers, for whom an environmental message carries no weight.

Despite considerable theoretical support for the proposition that wine consumers’ purchase decisions would be influenced by whether a wine was organic, this study found that taste overwhelmed all other considerations in respondents’ selection of wine. This experimental study used sensory evaluation in conjunction with a survey of participants’ attitudes toward sustainability and other environmental issues. The study’s methodology was supported theoretically by a means–end approach, evaluative conditioning, and consumer involvement. Despite the strong theoretical underpinnings that suggested personal attitudes would drive purchase decisions, the results indicate that taste alone consistently influenced participants’ preference for wines. Once the respondents tasted the wine, the fact that the wine was organic had no further influence on the wine purchase decision.