How to Find Green Hotels
May 13th, 2009 | 
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Room at green hotel the St.Julien in Boulder,CO.
Planning to take an eco-vacation can be a bit of a challenge. Of course, the greenest way to go is by staying close to home where you’ll leave the least amount of a carbon footprint. If you are going out of town though, there is a way to search for the greenest hotels around in order to stay over in an eco-friendly way.
The Green Hotels Association is an online directory made up of eco-friendly hotels. The goal of the association is to get more hotels to go green by way of getting more clientele. The greener they can get, the more people who are environmentally conscious will want to stay and the more money the hotels will bring in. The group started back in 1993 and has since gathered various sole-proprietorship’s chain hotels as well as corporate owned hotels throughout the United States. For more information and to search through the green member hotels, visit their main web site at: www.greenhotels.com
Another online green search community for eco-travel is iStayGreen.com. This website includes a green blog with stay reviews as well as the ability to search categories based on occupancy and price. You can search for free but in order to place a green hotel review you will need to register with he web site. So far, the hotel listing and clientele review are based on eco -friendly hotels throughout the United States and Canada. For more information and to search the green hotels directory visit their main web site at: www.istaygreen.org
Each group that represents a membership based green hotel listing has various criteria to become a member. The main qualifications are based off of renewable energy sources and use, organic bedding and towels, low flow water devices and the use of CFL bulbs. Some green hotels even offer organic restaurants that cater to the green traveler experience. Each group designates their own green admission process.
Now, if you are looking for more green hotel information that is not based within the United States and Canada there is a world wide directory available. The EcoHotels of the World web site serves as a free online guide to the world’s most environmentally friendly places to stay while on vacation. The web site is an independent non-profit that features green hotels that are selected by the editors to make sure that each location is in line with their green standards. Part of their criteria that a green hotel must meet is in how the hotel contributes to local conservation and if they can proven track record of being ecologically sustainable. For more information and to check out the green hotels listed world wide, visit their main web site at: www.ecohotelsoftheworld.com
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Very good article. While all of these are wonderful sites for finding green lodging, I tend to use EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com the most – you’ll find most of the hotels listed at the organizations you’ve mentioned there – all on one website. Don’t get me wrong – not trying to bash the other sites, it’s just that I found it tedious to try to keep up with all of these kinds of sites and look for hotels & B&Bs at each one. The whole green movement is growing so fast now and I needed to simplify my searches. ;o)
Thanks, for your comment Lisa! I agree that the green movement is just growing at an amazing rate. I’ll definitely have to check out that website you mentioned.
I didn’t know about some of these sites, so thank you for the information. I look for environmentally friendly options when I travel and most of the time, I visit http://www.environmentallyfriendlyhotels.com. They offer hotels all over the world and are an excellent resource. Thank you for your post!
Glad that you enjoyed the post Janis!