Contributor post: Going eco without the ego
Key Takeaways
- Ben Makin, holiday property owner, shares her experience on sustainability
- Donate turnover to carbon capture with Stripe integration
- Switch to ethical suppliers and sustainable consumables
- Guide guests to recycle and charge EVs safely
- Invest in smart tech, insulation, and eco bedding
- Every small green choice adds up over time.
Welcome to the third edition of our contributor posts, inviting holiday rental professionals to share their experiences of working in this diverse and interesting sector.
Ben Makin’s green ethos was instilled by her mother and grandmother who embodied the slogan “reduce, reuse, recycle” long before anyone thought that slogan up.
How to be more sustainable in your holiday rental business
Let’s face it. Travel and tourism are not very green.
However, there are ways to provide more sustainable accommodation.
This blog walks you through some options, from quick wins to the ones that take more time to put in place.
Green Stripe
The quickest win of all! Donate a percentage of your turnover to carbon capture!
As a Bookster customer, I donate 0.5% of my turnover to carbon capture. I set it up with a couple of clicks, and it is managed automatically via Bookster’s integration with Stripe.
I freely admit 0.5% isn’t much, but I donate to local sustainable causes as well, like Caithness Seal Rehabilitation and Release, and Caithness Beach Cleans.
Find out more about Bookster and Stripe’s Carbon Capture programme.
Speak to your accountant about whether any donations you make are tax deductible.
Green suppliers: The next simplest thing
Buying sustainable products from green suppliers is the next simplest thing! Like most micro-businesses, I keep my regular suppliers in a spreadsheet. I’ve put a selection of them at the bottom of this page.
Make yourself a cuppa, start with my list or with the Ethical Consumer website or Google, and make your own list of sustainable choices. It’s an hour or so well spent.
Green consumables
The greenest loo roll in the UK is Naked Sprout.
It’s a disconcerting café-au-lait colour, so I have a large sign saying “It’s brown because it’s green”! They do tissues and kitchen roll too.
If your guests aren’t ready for brown loo roll, then Who Gives a Crap have pretty wrappers and sponsor loos in developing countries.
Encourage supermarkets to stock green alternatives by buying them. My complimentary sanitary products are organic, made by TOTM, and come from Tesco.
Green cleaning
Choose Green cleaning products – it’s so easy that there’s no excuse! I get 5 litre and 20 litre containers of BIO-D products from Highland Wholefoods to avoid extra delivery charges.
Trade suppliers like Nisbets and Out of Eden supply green cleaning products too. And we have a Smol subscription for dishwasher tabs and laundry capsules.
Green utilities
There is no one right option for greener energy. Renewables save the atmosphere, but wind farms and battery storage are – if you will forgive the pun – a hot topic in the fragile ecosystems of the Highlands.
And we are so rural that my only option for heating is oil. Most electricity suppliers have a green tariff, and Octopus have a great reputation for customer service, and all their electricity comes from renewables, so that’s who I use for the Cottage.
Smart heating controllers are great, especially with smart radiator valves. Some smart systems will even integrate with your booking calendar. Talk about easy!
They’ve paid for themselves a couple of times already in our draughty, grade A listed home; but our holiday cottage is so well insulated that there’s a lower return on investment, so we don’t use smart controllers there.
Help your guests be greener
Green bins
Recycling is so important, but it drives me to distraction! To make it easier for everyone, I have a flow-chart to help guests sort their rubbish, and I got vinyl stickers printed up with what goes in each bin.
Our kitchen bins are colour coded to match our outdoor bins. Unfortunately, we don’t have a kerbside glass collection, so we provide a carrier bag for guests to take their glass away.
Green motoring
You can provide safe EV charging without a fancy charger! Our electrician installed a standard weatherproof outdoor socket for use with a “granny charger”.
The guest’s own app tells them how much electricity they’ve used, and I bill them for that.
A simpler option might be a fixed price per overnight charge. Or go high-tech with a fast charger with direct payment from the guest via an app. Investigate low-cost overnight tariff options if you have a smart meter.
NEVER let guests charge with an extension cable plugged into an indoor socket.
This is a fire risk because it bypasses the heat cut-out in their granny charger’s plug. Even scarier – it may invalidate your insurance too.
One-off buys and building work
Green furnishings
Vintage furniture saves you fortune, with better quality for lower prices. Pick a colour pallet and a vibe, and ruthlessly avoid items outwith them.
Our forty-year old Dutch farmhouse chairs came from Marketplace; the ones they replaced were newer and much flimsier. And I can’t remember the last time I bought new curtains because the options on Gumtree and Marketplace and in specialist curtain exchanges are so good.
If you have a mid-century modern look or a traditional farmhouse style, then there are some great specialist shops and online outlets with one-off items.
Though I do admit it’s harder to source pre-used items if your look is very on-trend.
Remember: Sofas and beds MUST still have their fire safety labels in.
Green bedding
Cotton is a dreadful crop. It covers 2.4% of the world’s cultivated land, but uses 6% of the world’s pesticides, and 16% of its insecticides.
But organic bedlinen is expensive. Mine has worked well as an investment, because good quality, hotel-standard bedding lasts for years, and guests really love it. But it’s not a choice that everyone can make.
Other options for textiles are recycled fibres. Our tea-towels, dog towels, dishcloths, and throws are made from recycled fibres: cotton, acrylic or even wool. They took time to find, but the quality is great.
Green tech
Computing really isn’t green, with plastics, rare metals, and endless electricity. And we don’t have much control over all of this.
Artificial Intelligence in particular uses large amounts of computing power. I don’t use AI for blogs, and I always feel guilty asking it to zhuzh up my socials.
You can read my AI policy for more on this.
There are tools for checking how green your website is. For transparency, mine is not particularly green, and I still haven’t talked with my web designer about green hosting. And yes, I do feel guilty about this. But I try to dispose of old tech through donation and recycling schemes.
You can check out Bookster's eco policy, including 100% Green hosting for Bookster software and Bookster holiday rental websites.
Green buildings
There are greener choices you can make, however old your building.
For example, although we repaint the Cottage every two years, we use water-based Low-VOC paint (Volatile Organic Compounds in paint damage the atmosphere).
Consumer engagement has pushed the suppliers, and B&Q label all their paint. Low VOC is good, Minimal VOC is better, and Trace VOC best of all. Sadly, my budget is definitely Dulux rather than Farrow and Ball.
Of course you know about insulating and excluding drafts. I’ve not investigated options like solar, wind and air-source in depth, because our buildings are too listed and too old, but you may find grants for these.
How green can we be?
About a third of my guests take my green ethos into account when booking. Consumer and business-to-business pressure encourages change. And having green products in the cottage introduces them to guests.
So it’s worth it to me – and I hope to you – to embed green choices in the business.
And Bookster and Stripe helping me to put a small slice of my turnover towards carbon recapture has been the easiest change of all.
Green resources
- Green Tourism UK - I found the process of applying for my Silver and Gold Awards inspiring and useful. The assessors are helpful, and it helped me implement quicker wins, and set longer term goals. Booking.com recognise these awards for their sustainability certification.
- The Green Path Podcast - Has a great list of resources, and useful discussions with hosts and suppliers.
- The Ethical Consumer - Like Which for sustainable product. It’s great for researching big purchases like white goods.
Official Energy Saving sites
The starting point for making your buildings greener:
- Energy Saving Trust UK
- Home Energy Scotland
- Business Energy Scotland
- B-Corp certification - A useful sign that an organisation has green practices and is socially responsible. It’s a hard certification to get, so it’s a good thing to spot in your suppliers.
Selected suppliers
Note that this is a personal choice, and neither Ben Makin nor Bookster are affiliated with or endorse these suppliers. This is a quickly changing marketplace, so the best options for your business may differ.
Trade suppliers
- Highland Wholefoods - A workers’ co-op offering trade prices and low delivery charges north of Inverness. Their paper catalogue is fiddly, but they are great for repeat buys.
- Nisbets - More for catering than accommodation, but their enormous range includes sustainable options
- Out of Eden - The go-to option for hospitality, with many sustainable options across their entire product range
Other cleaning products
- Dew Products - Dundee based manufacturer of high-power, low-chemical sanitisers and other cleaning products
Ocean Free - Sustainable cleaners you dissolve into existing spray bottles to use – great if you are short of storage
SMOL - One of many subscription services for dishwasher and laundry products.
Also useful
- Naked Sprout - The UK’s most sustainable paper products, on subscription or as one-off purchases
Octopus - One of many renewable energy suppliers, but have a great reputation for customer service
TOTM - Organic period products available in Tesco.
Consumer sites
- Big Green Smile
- Ethical Superstore
- Peace with the Wild
This is part of a series of contributor posts by holiday rental professionals, sharing experiences and expertise.
About Ben
Ben Makin’s green ethos was instilled by her mother and grandmother who embodied the slogan “reduce, reuse, recycle” long before anyone thought that slogan up.
As a result, Ben has a Gold Award for Green Tourism at The Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage in Caithness. She has appeared on the Green Path Podcast discussing ways to create a more sustainable business.
