Travelife was founded in the early 2000’s with our first audits taking place in 2006. The original criteria that were developed as a result of a 2-year multi-stakeholder consultation involving a broad range of European participants. This included tour operators, trade associations, NGOs, research institutions and consultants.

Since then we have carried out over 5,000 accommodation sustainability inspection audits and regularly monitor sustainability developments and issues to ensure our requirements are always both useful and relevant.

The requirements have therefore been fine tuned over the years and have undergone a handful of formal revisions when we consult with stakeholders, conduct research and, when necessary, seek expert advice.

The current version of the Travelife Certifications Requirements underwent a formal revision between 2021 and 2023, before being used to certify properties from January 2024. During that revision process we consulted with our certified properties, Travelife auditors, the travel industry as well as United Nations Environment. We also made sure that the requirements aligned with the GSTC Industry Criteria for Hotels as well as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

We then made some small changes in spring 2026 to clarify and consolidate some of the requirements. These changes resulted in the removal of two requirements (D18 and F15) that we believed were creating unnecessary work and somewhat duplicating efforts as these were covered by other requirements.

They also resulted in consolidating the animal welfare requirements in Section H and improving the language so it was clearer exactly what kinds of situations involving animals are in scope. Whilst you will not see this in our public version of the requirements, we also made numerous changes to the way we assess a property’s compliance with requirement H1 in order to improve consistency and to lower risks. This means that properties will have to provide additional evidence from vets that positively confirms the welfare of any animals involved in tourism at the property, and collect signed welfare confirmation statements/ from any suppliers who are responsible for animals at the property.

These changes are reflected in the Travelife Certification Requirements Version 1.1 which is used for all inspection audits (certification attempts) that start after 30th June 2026. Inspections audits that start before 1st July 2026 are carried out using Version 1.0.

If you view the requirements we have published above, you will find that we are using a transition version which shows Version 1.0 whilst also reflecting the changes in Version 1.1. From 1st July 2027, this transition version will be removed from circulation so that only the Travelife Certification Requirements Version 1.1 will be available. This timeframe allows for properties working on post-audit improvements related to Version 1.0 to still find all the information they need on our website. All post-audit improvements related to Version 1.0 should be fully resolved before 1st July 2027.