Why is corporate social responsibility key for the hotel industry
- 31 Oct 2022
- News from the hotel industry
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The increasing sensitivity and ecological awareness of the public have contributed to making environmental protection one of the priority objectives of today's society, in which tourism-related activities are taking on great importance, and are also one of the activities with the greatest development potential for the economy.
Welcome Family is aware that good environmental practices translate into benefits for the hotel sector, the environment and society in general, and guarantee a more attractive tourist destination.
Welcome Family aims to minimise the impact on the environment, promoting the compatibility of the hotel activity with our environment, which improves the quality of the tourist product and therefore the image with the client.
In the case of hotels and other tourism companies, this commitment with the environment becomes essential, because if it deteriorates due to the impact of these companies, tourism would lose its meaning.
The benefits that the implementation of CSR initiatives can bring to the hotel itself are also numerous.
Energy efficiency and energy savings
One of the most important goals of corporate social responsibility is sustainability. Even the smallest hotels demonstrate their commitment to the environment by simple recycling and saving electricity or water by installing low-energy light bulbs or water-saving devices in taps and showers. In the case of more ambitious hotels, these measures include the installation of biomass boilers or the use of groundwater for irrigation.
Other simple measures that are generally applied in many hotels aim to raise awareness among guests and employees, either by placing relevant information in different areas of the hotel or by providing specific training to staff.
These initiatives not only have an impact on their environment - by minimising the impact of their activity on the environment - but also represent significant savings for the company in economic terms, especially if we think about the medium and long term.
Increasing productivity
A happy employee is more productive and a good CSR strategy can be the means to achieve this.
A good approach to attracting talent in the recruitment process - taking into account the suitability of the professional and personal profile of candidates for the job - is to meet the needs of hotel employees in terms of work-life balance.
Communication with staff is always fundamental in order to establish and develop effective measures for their well-being. It is essential to know the needs of the employees in order to undertake a correct strategy, as it is often mistakenly believed that a simple salary increase or promotion will make employees feel better within the company.
There are other ways to provide a pleasant and positive working environment in which staff feel more at ease: adapting daily tasks to the development of the employee's talents, flexible working hours, continuous training, motivation and team-building activities, incentives to achieve objectives, etc.
This concern for employee well-being, which should be a maxim in any company, becomes even more important in the hotel sector, where a large proportion of staff work in front of the public and where employees thus become brand ambassadors.
Enhancing corporate reputation
A hotel's brand image and reputation have become key differentiators, especially in a sector as competitive as tourism. It is no longer enough for a company to say what it is like, but it must also, through its actions, prove it. And to do this, the opinion and contribution of its customers, workers, suppliers and partners are essential.
A hotel's reputation can be enhanced by CSR measures, but only if these measures are maintained over time. Carrying out specific CSR actions is sometimes considered self-promotion for the hotel and can have negative effects. It is therefore important to effectively communicate the hotel's CSR policy so that it can contribute to improving its reputation.
Guest Loyalty
More and more travellers are keen to practice responsible tourism, whether they travel for leisure or for work. Therefore, they consider it an added value that tourism companies share this concern for the social, environmental and economic environment in which they operate.
The effects of some CSR measures are visible to hotel guests, such as environmental measures - some hotels actively take care of their environment through conservation, dissemination and even clean-up actions - and the benefits of other initiatives need to be effectively communicated to guests, such as interaction with local suppliers or the hiring of people at risk of social exclusion.
Therefore, a good CSR strategy and proper communication of CSR are essential to retain a traveller who is increasingly aware and convinced that responsibility and quality of service can and must go hand in hand. Aware of this new situation, Welcome Family offers a line of environmentally friendly products that will help you build loyalty among your family clientele.
Explore our range of CSR toys for your kids-friendly marketing actions in your hotel establishment.