Featured image: Juliet Kinsman shares tips for choosing an actual sustainable hotel, like Hacienda Zuleta in Ecuador  | Photo provided by Juliet Kinsman at Hacienda Zuleta in Ecuador.

Let’s fly the flag for transparency

by Juliet Kinsman

I’ve spent 25 years thinking about how we choose hotels — as founding editor of boutique hotel experts Mr & Mrs Smith, when we started as printed guidebooks in an era long before Google, let alone ChatGPT, changed the playing field. Then in 2020, I was the first ever sustainability editor at Condé Nast Traveller, which, despite being an upside-down year, also felt optimistic for folks starting to care more about the climate. I’ve reviewed hotels of all flavours for the BBC, through to obscure blogs.

Believe me, I know that finding a hotel that matches our taste and budget is tricky enough — then throw in the spanner that we also want it to be sustainable? And can we please talk about how sustainable is such a weird word? (It can also be a bit of a buzzkill when you’re also seeking a little style and joy.) And who on Earth to really trust for advice when so many ‘best sustainable hotels’ lists are filled with places that have energetic PR machines rather than those that truly deserve celebrating?

If I had a dollar for every greenwashing golf hotel I’ve seen index high because of SEO chicanery, I’d open my own design-led nature-positive retreat and invite you all over for organic cocktails on the kind of sofa that feels so nice you can’t help but stroke it like an adorable pet.

Look for owner-run hotels, not assets in property portfolios

My top tip? If you do one thing: seek out owner-run indies over big shiny chains that perform as assets in property portfolios. Ownership can be opaque though, just to keep us on our toes. When I think of two of the most impressive Tasmanian sustainable hotels, one was funded by casino fruit machines, the other by a professional gambler. That’s why we need more honest two-way conversations like this, dear friends.

I especially love community-anchored places where you just know your money is staying in local pockets — and all the better, when there’s a distinctly human backstory. It might not have as impressive a brochure, but that family-run B&B or passion-project guesthouse is more likely to be giving back into their community than when there are distant corporate headquarters.

Let’s prioritize smaller operators that are genuinely invested in looking after their patch and neighbours. The owners don’t have to be born there, but they need big hearts for caring for that corner of the world, not just their property portfolio’s profits. It’s hard to beat Newfoundland’s Fogo Island Inn and Zita Cobb’s origin story. In a nutshell: eighth-gen islander returns home after tech success to save community through a design hotel. Watch this interview I did once upon a time for Traveller, or read my favourite ever hotelier profile for the London Standard, and she’ll be your hero too in no time.

Having just stayed at El Remanso Lodge on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, seeing the magic that’s come from Spanish owners who’ve transformed cattle pasture back into thriving rainforest with 100% local staff, I’m reminded how some of the quietest accommodation most deserves us shouting about them too.

Ecuador’s Hacienda Zuleta is a home-away-from-home hotel with a big history, a big heart and so much more than an aristocratic estate. A working family farm, two hours north of Quito, with a noble heritage, sustainability has always been their way of life. The owner’s grandfather Galo Plaza Lasso when he was President, introduced the women’s vote and their right to inherit equally, and it’s the perfect community-supporting model of how sustainable tourism can be the beating economic heart for an entire village. They’ve been regenerating nature for decades, long before “regeneration” was a buzzword — and surely this is the kind of business we should be supporting?

How do you know who’s genuinely investing in sustainability?

How many property developers are passionate conservationists and communitarians genuinely investing in paradise through our tourism spend? Certifications like EarthCheck can be strong indicators (huge congratulations to The Datai Langkawi in Malaysia, which just became the first hotel in Asia to have hit five-year-best-behaviour Gold status), but don’t write off smaller operations lacking funds for official accreditation, such as 16-villa Remanso.

What matters is also sensing how ethical properties are as employers and whether they’re genuinely committed to sustainable operations. I’m obsessed with Blue Apple Beach in Colombia, which happens to be the world’s highest-scoring B Corp hotel. Yes, they’ve aced this rigorous certifying, but hearing owner Portia Hart set up a recycling system for all of Cartagena, as well as being host with the most at her beach club with bedrooms, is a bonus.

A nod to women-owned hotels

I’m always a sucker for businesses helmed by fierce feminine energy, too. A doff of the cap for this kind of energy with female-led tour operator Not in the Guidebooks, a start-up giving Intrepid and G Adventures a run for their multinational money. We should all love The Bull Inn Totnes in Devon, south-west England, for their cheeky ‘No Bull Rules’ explaining why provenance matters among many things.

Giving the industry some much-needed attitude, owner Geetie Singh-Watson even talks loudly about how she refuses to buy any goods from tax-dodgers — surely the kind of outspoken bravery we should all be celebrating in these risk-averse times.

More transparency is needed

Radical honesty — that’s definitely what the world needs more of. And since we’re having a heart-to-heart, what’s your answer if I ask ‘What’s the colour of sustainability?’ Did you say green? Let’s fly the flag for TRANSPARENT! That’s when a business is measuring and declaring all their data, from waste output and water use to all conceivable carbon emissions to staff retention, to inviting you backstage to see how they tick.

Cayuga Collection  hotels in Central America and CGH Earth in India are superstars I’ve loved for luring me back of house to scrutinize greener operations. Sure, poking around composting might not lure you off a sun lounger, but it’s fascinating to get to grips with what makes the good guys, well, gooder. I’d offer to hold your Pina Colada so you can have a quick peek, that’s how sure I am you’ll find it interesting.

Who’s rewriting the rules?

Check out the work of members of The Long Run’s portfolio, such as Cempedak in Indonesia, which isn’t just a romantic private island a hop from Singapore — they’ve rewritten the rulebook by swerving the need for air-con with open-air bamboo villas while recruiting from the remote local Asian community to fund a foundation that safeguards their Marine Protected surroundings.

Ditto Song Saa in Cambodia, part of the Regenerative Travel family. And Bhutan Spirit Sanctuary, which is a winner in Small Luxury’s carefully curated Considerate Collection. Why wouldn’t we always try and choose hotels that are actively kinder? Kinder — now that’s a word that’s never a buzzkill.

The truth in travel is…

As women, how we spend our holiday dollars is also a way of us voting for what we want from the world. Choosing accommodations actively rewilding landscapes, partnering with nature trusts and community organizations, and us shouting about it on socials makes us part of a precious conservation and social-justice machine. Tourism often provides the only revenue to keep vulnerable wilderness alive or communities with enough income to stay put.

Talk to me! What do you look for in a hotel to be worthy of handing over your hard-earned cash? My dear fellow JourneyWomen, please steer me to your heroes via Instagram @JulietKinsman. I also share some of my beloveds through @BoutecoHotels.

Have a hotel you love? Share it with other JourneyWomen in our women-fiendly Places to Stay Directory here.

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