Whilst most guests understand that sustainability is a very important topic, it can sometimes be challenging to make it engaging and interesting for them as part of their overall guest experience.
In this section, we will share some of the lessons we have learned through a mixture of consumer insight work and hard-won experience.
Your guide to guest communication
1
Simple
The biggest lesson is to keep it simple! Use clear, concise and plain language and avoid any corporate or technical jargon.2
Warm tone of voice
It’s also important to use a warm and conversational tone of voice, so avoid overly formal words and never exaggerate your achievements or descriptions.3
Facts
Back up what you say with facts and accurate, up-to-date and relevant information. This will allow you to communicate confidently, whilst also showing that you know what you are talking about.4
Keep it short
Please don’t overload guests with lots of information and expect them to process it themselves. Instead, provide it to them in short, bite-sized chunks of punchy information which they will find far easier to digest.5
Getting around
Share recommendations with your guests that encourages the idea of sustainable living and provide information that makes this easy for them to adopt. Common examples include information about public transport schedules and bike rental stations, or promoting any local, organic restaurants in the surrounding areas.6
Small steps count
Don’t just list the initiatives you do, but answer the “so what?” question. In other words, clearly explain to guests what difference your efforts make.7
Make it tangible
When citing any of your figures, bear in mind that just stating them will mean nothing to most people – e.g. 31kg CO2e. Instead, try to make it more tangible, visual and relatable – e.g. by pointing out the equivalent number of trees planted etc.8
Imagine...
Put yourself in the shoes of your guest – think about where to place your messages, when guests will realistically have time to read through information, and where maybe an image would be more powerful than words.9
Food, glorious food
For many guests, food is a topic that is close to their hearts, so it’s a good place to start, or increase, your conversations with them around sustainability. To help with this, our partner organization Futouris has developed a manual on sustainable food and how to best showcase and communicate it to your guests. You can find this below.10