Sustainability and efficiency go hand in hand.

'Keep travelling without guilt'

The Usual is a new concept for a sustainable hotel chain across Europe. The Dutch promoters are targeting the growing group of people who love nothing more than discovering new cities and meeting people, but also feel increasingly guilty about the ecological footprint that travel entails. HOTELVAK spoke to CEO Joachim de Looij and brand marketing director Aniek Holland.

Early next year, you will open the first branches of a highly sustainable hotel chain, The Usual, in Rotterdam and Brussels. Antwerp will follow later. There are already so many hotels, why do you want to roll out this concept throughout Europe?

De Looij: "Indeed, there are already many hotels. However, our plan is to show that travel can be much more sustainable. We think travel is important, but we also understand that it has to be done in a different way. More consciously. With more consideration for our planet. We are implementing sustainability in all facets of The Usual: not only in the operation, but also in the building and the social piece. Other chains or new sustainable brands often only focus on one side of sustainability. We try to do everything."

Holland: "We want to offer a solution to the travel paradox, in which the love of travel increasingly clashes with the guilt due to the large ecological footprint that travel entails." 

There are few hotels left that do not invest in sustainability. So how does The Usual stand out?

De Looij: "Actually already by our name. We want to show that sustainability should in fact be nothing special. The Usual, the standard actually."

Holland: "We look very carefully at what adds most locally. For instance, we make the roofs of the first three branches all green, which contributes to biodiversity. But in Rotterdam we have refrained from installing solar panels on the roofs because they offer little added value at that location. We make very conscious choices in this respect. So we do opt for green electricity, aim for zero waste in the kitchens and do water compensation in cooperation with Made Blue. All this is completely transparent and approachable by guests. A big advantage compared to other hotels is that we have fully sustainable operations from day one and can also sustainably organise all suppliers and the entire ecosystem around the hotels accordingly. With us, it really comes from within. As a result, we will challenge not only internal but also external partners. That is a substantial difference."  

You want to be more than just a hotel. So what should we think about?

Holland: "To a place where both local residents and travellers can meet. We therefore explicitly invite people from the neighbourhood to organise and attend workshops, performances or lectures, for example."

De Looij: "In The Usual, there is always catering too. That's part of our concept. Depending on the location, this can be a café or - as in Rotterdam - a restaurant with even co-working spaces and a library. In doing so, we focus not only on hotel guests, but especially on locals. If we are attractive to the neighbourhood, we also add value for hotel guests. Moreover, we want to be a social employer that offers opportunities to people from the neighbourhood - with or without a distance to the labour market." 

Young people in particular seem to be choosing sustainable hotels more often. Booking.com has a sustainability filter these days. You guys are bound to score high there?

De Looij: "Well, at Booking.com now it still works purely on trust. If you say you are sustainable, you are. You don't have to provide proof, while that criterion is indeed becoming increasingly important when choosing a hotel. I would therefore argue that only hotels with demonstrably the very highest scores on sustainability certificates, for example, should still score highly on such a filter or receive commission discounts. Booking.com has the power to really change the market and get investors on board with the sustainability imperative. I would like to challenge them on that."

Travellers who care most about sustainability often don't have the biggest budgets. Can your concept work out?

Holland: "We want to be as accessible as possible and don't see ourselves as a luxury hotel. And we also try to appeal to a target group that does not immediately catch on. So we won't constantly point out our good intentions. We mainly want our guests to enjoy when they discover a new city and inspire them, which in a very nice way gives you a positive association with sustainability."

De Looij: "That person will be attracted to the design, for example. And if such a person wants to, and looks a little further, they will see that those beautiful bar stools are made of beer-waste or coffee grounds. We are not going to constantly tell, but show. Just because this way of travelling and discovering new cities should be 'the usual'."