Responsibility and Sustainability in International Hotel Chains

Abstract

It is proposed to build a development which illustrates and analyzes the different strategic planning that the main brands of the Hospitality Industry have written to communicate their new strategic direction through their Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility reports. The chapter is developed through a detail of five main brands, but it is based upon a research carried out on 17 hotel chains, in particular: AccorHotels, Best Western Hotels, Boscolo Hotels, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Choice Hotel, Extended Stay America Inc, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Kempinski, La Quinta Inns & Suites, Marriott International, Meliá Hotels International S.A., NH Hotel Group, Vantage Hospitality, Wyndham Worldwide.

The reading of the CRR (Corporate Responsibility Report) has exposed that there is no homogeneity in the structure of the documents contained, both in theoretical and methodological approach: the need for the hotel chains to incorporate the themes of Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability in their business remains. The intention of the research is to offer an overview over the commitments' construction in the CRR of the hotels' chains in order to illustrate whether the corporate strategy of the CRR is lead by choices of strategic repositioning or it is the result of choices of cost rationalization. The development of the chapter focuses on the assessment of the four following points:

1. Development of the green commitments and the Corporate Strategy

2. Factors related to cost advantage

3. Factors related to differentiation advantage

All the information gathered and analyzed in the research come from official sources found in the Hotel Chains to assess the level of transparency of the performances achieved in relation to the commitments communicated and widespread through the CRR, the CSR reports, the Corporate Annual Report, international projects that integrate the performances and the initiatives that compose and accompany the sustainable and responsible planning that has been used, displayed or downloaded from the corporate website.

Citation

Graziano, H. (2021), "Responsibility and Sustainability in International Hotel Chains", Grasso, F. and Sergi, B.S. (Ed.) Tourism in the Mediterranean Sea, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 143-166. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-900-920211012