Today we are happy to sit down with Marlene Rohracher, founder of ecosuites.travel, which collects the best sustainable hideaways, hotels and accommodations for the modern traveller. By booking with eco suites, you make your next vacation a uniquely sustainable experience. Let’s learn more!
Marlene, thank you for taking the time to speak with us! As a start, can you please tell us a bit more about you? Where does your passion for sustainability and hospitality come from?
Like so many in my generation I came to a point where I could not accept that sustainability was something left to be cared for by others, I just wanted to make an impact myself!
For as long as I can remember I enjoyed travelling and discovering new destinations. With the feeling that a community of travellers with a conscious approach, such as myself, was increasing, I developed the idea of eco suites and just went through with it.
Can you tell our readers a bit more about eco suites? Why did you feel compelled to start the company and what’s your purpose?
ecosuites.travel is an online platform designed to present premium accommodations with a sustainable approach. We aim to support the eco conscious traveller in searching for a fitting hotel and shed light on accommodations that act sustainably. We carefully curate our collection of conscious hotels and are proud of presenting them to our community!
Personally, I aimed to take responsibility for contributing to a sustainable future. Once I had the idea for eco suites, I completely dove into it and wanted to bring it to life! I was convinced that luxury travel can be sustainable. Our purpose is to bring together the eco-conscious traveller with outstanding accommodations that share our approach and values.
eco suites has an impressive portfolio of hotels that are both stylish and sustainable. What makes your hotels “eco suites?”
We are proud to present hotels that are special in every way. Whether it is the design, the concept, the facilities or the team – our eco suites make luxury vacation dreams come true. The huge difference to many other hotels around the world is that they follow a highly sustainable approach and are committed to define modern travel. It is the combination of both aspects that makes them our “eco suites.”
To become an eco suite, what specific criteria and standards are you looking at? What is your process for selection?
We carefully choose every accommodation on ecosuites.travel. All accommodations featured on our platform meet at least five out of ten criteria that have been established as our eco suites standard. After careful consideration, our eco suites criteria have been adapted from internationally acknowledged standards for preserving the environment. It mattered greatly to us to also include criteria like “Female empowerment” or “Social impact”, to show the full range of what we believe sustainability implies.
At MAp, we too believe sustainability is the future. What are your hopes for the hospitality industry as it relates to sustainability in the short- and long-term?
My hopes for the foreseeable future are that the hospitality industry will continue to focus on implementing a wide range of eco-friendly measures, from saving resources to using clean energy. Many short-term solutions can be installed quickly and would have a huge impact on the environment. Speaking of long-term expectations, I hope that travel choices will be made carefully and will increase to focus on slow tourism, on getting to know the destination, its people and its culture.
As many of our readers are hoteliers: what are the 3 most important measures hotels should implement on the road to sustainability?
While every hotel and its guests are different, we do know what our community of responsible travellers is mostly looking for. In our experience, the measure with the highest direct impact on guests is the careful selection of food & drinks. Most exclusive travellers are keen on being offered local, seasonal and organic choices when it comes their catering. They are well informed and try to reduce their footprint with their shopping choices in their everyday lives and do expect the same from their accommodation.
Another measure that directly relates to the guest is the effort to reduce and carefully recycle waste. Many hotels are implementing recycling opportunities in each room or easily accessible in the common areas, and many guests are delighted to see the measures they are used to at home as an option in their hotel as well. Products without packaging are in high demand, and careful sourcing and recycling “behind the scenes” is mandatory.
We do strongly believe that happy employees are key to provide a unique and exceptional experience for their guests. A modern work environment needs to be implemented to include all aspects that sustainability contains. Fair working conditions, diverse perspectives and safety therefore should always be a priority. This is certainly the third measure I would recommend on the path to sustainability.
As always, our final MAp meets question is related to our core business, as we’re specialised in crafting innovative hotel concepts and brands: what makes a hotel experience a truly outstanding one for you personally?
A truly outstanding hotel experience for me comes with the people. Feeling at home away from home is what I am looking for, and that comes with attentive service. I love exploring innovative concepts, hotels that are brave enough to try something new and follow a unique path.
About Marlene Rohracher:
ecosuites.travel was launched in June 2020 and was founded by Marlene Rohracher who was convinced that combining design, comfort and outstanding experiences with sustainability needs to define modern travel. With extensive experience in the field of project management and human resources and the support of a team of experts in the fields of design, editing as well as marketing & PR, ecosuites.travel was realised.
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