In Transit Blog: TripAdvisor Expands Environmental Rating Program

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 09 April 2014 | 17.35

International travelers looking for a certain amount of "green" in their accommodations can now turn to TripAdvisor for help.

The hotel review and booking website recently expanded its GreenLeaders program, which evaluates a property's ecological and environmental friendliness (or "green" practices), to include properties Canada, Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, in addition to those in the United States.

Intense interest from both users and hotel owners showed that rating a hotel's level of sympathy toward the environment would be a welcome on the site, Jennifer Rushmore, Trip Advisor's director of responsible travel, said.

Developed by the company's responsible travel team, with the assistance of the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program, the United States Green Building Council and the United Nations Environment Program, the 50-question application covers a hotel's practices in areas like energy, waste, water, products, landscaping, irrigation and innovation.

The application is reviewed by an algorithm, and then in person by a member of the team.

If deemed ecologically up to snuff, the property is then awarded a bronze, silver, gold or platinum designation, depending on how many green practices it has incorporated into its operations.

Since the GreeenLeaders' filter's inauguration in the United States in April 2013, TripAdvisor has seen more than 200,000 searches using it, Ms. Rushmore said. Vital to its success, she said, is transparency. Users can view a detailed description of each GreenLeader's practices on the site.

They can also comment on those practices or give TripAdvisor a heads up if they believe the property has misrepresented itself. If necessary, a third-party auditor will be hired to conduct another evaluation, she said.

The team spent a good part of the last year working with environmental groups like the Carbon Trust in Britain and Canada's International Center for Responsible Tourism, making sure the survey made sense in other countries.

It was always intended to be offered internationally, Ms. Rushmore said. "In fact, the minute we launched in the U.S., we were getting calls from hotels all around the world, particularly in Europe and Canada," she said.

There are many green hotel evaluation programs out there for a long time , she added,  but what sets this one apart is its scale.

"We have 260 million users a month, so no one else has really been able to communicate about green practices with such an enormous user base," Ms. Rushmore said. "What we're really trying to do is make something that has been niche in the industry into a mainstream activity."


Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

In Transit Blog: TripAdvisor Expands Environmental Rating Program

Dengan url

http://travelwisatawan.blogspot.com/2014/04/in-transit-blog-tripadvisor-expands.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

In Transit Blog: TripAdvisor Expands Environmental Rating Program

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

In Transit Blog: TripAdvisor Expands Environmental Rating Program

sebagai sumbernya

0 komentar:

Posting Komentar

techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger