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The Travelife Collection is a website we have provided so that travellers can find our Certified Members as well as tour operators that are addressing sustainability in their supply chain.   You can use the form below to create a new listing or update an existing one.  You can click here to view current listings.

You can use this text to help you create sales, marketing and communications materials as well as respond to questions about Travelife.

Travelife is an internationally recognised accommodation sustainability programme.  They have around 1,500 members in over 50 countries who use a suite of specially designed tools and resources to improve their business’s environmental, financial and social impact.

Containing a range of criteria that assess accommodation performance in the areas of human rights, labour, community engagement and environmental impacts, Travelife’s GSTC-recognised standard was designed by the tourism industry, for the tourism industry. They have a global team of independently contracted auditors that visit every property to conduct an audit against the Travelife Standard.

Properties that meet the standard receive a Travelife Gold Certification in the form of a logo and certificate that they can display to show their commitment to responsible tourism. To make it easier for travellers to find sustainable accommodation options, Travelife list their Certified Members on the The Travelife Collection, a website where travellers can search for Travelife Certified accommodation, and they provide a list of Certified properties to their tour operator and online travel agent Members.

You can use this text to help you create sales, marketing and communications materials as well as respond to questions about Travelife.

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Travelife was developed in 2007 by the Federation of Tour Operators in response to a growing global understanding that businesses needed to take a more proactive role in operating responsibly to address climate change and conservation. Travelife was intended to be a means by which the travel industry could show that measures were being taken to address these issues, along with growing concerns on social issues and labour rights. In 2009 Travelife became a wholly owned subsidiary of ABTA as part of the FTO merger.

Work on the current Travelife Standard began in 2004. A group of industry stakeholders and environmental experts were assembled to design the standards that accommodation providers would need to follow in order to display the Travelife mark, and thus make it easy for both tour operators and their customers to identify which properties were operating responsibly.

This detailed process involved extensive consultation with European NGOs, trade associations, and a variety of subject experts. During this time, it was established that tourism had a significant impact on in-destination social issues, so eventually standards relating to human rights, labour, and community engagement were added. The Standard is occasionally updated to address new issues and to reflect any changes made to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC*) Standard against a set of globally recognised criteria. Travelife remains one of the few standards that comprehensively addresses business management, environmental impacts, and social issues, and is the only standard that was specifically designed by the tourism industry for the tourism industry.

CURRENT PRODUCTS & PROCESSES

Travelife certifies hotels against a GSTC-recognised standard containing 163 criteria. Properties join Travelife through payment of a fee that includes a two year membership and an audit. Upon joining, they gain access to a web-based system that contains tools for them to carry out a self-assessment against the Travelife Standard and a suite of resources to help them implement necessary changes.

Three to six months after joining, Members work with Travelife to schedule an audit. Travelife has a network of approximately 50 independent contract auditors who have been trained by an external auditing consultant. Travelife allocate an auditor to a Member and an on-site audit, normally taking around six hours, is carried out at a mutually agreed date against the Travelife criteria.

The auditor submits a report to Travelife and a specially trained certifications team quality checks each criterion then communicates with the hotel directly on any further improvements that are required. It is common for properties to have 10 to 20 improvements to make and they are given six months to make these. If their audit identifies 40 or more improvements, they are failed and will need to pay for a new audit should they wish to continue with certification.

Once the certifications team is satisfied all the criteria are met, the property is certified and given a Travelife Gold Award in the form of a logo and certificate they can display. The certification is valid for two years at which point the property must renew membership and undergo another audit. Properties must continue to do this every two years in order to maintain certification and Travelife has maintained an average renewal rate of 71% for the past five years.

Travelife has a travel trade membership product that includes tour operators that are invited to participate in a quarterly working group. A weekly membership status report is sent to these Members so they can update their systems to show which properties in their supply chain have sustainability certification.

More recently, Travelife has developed a commercial agreement with NEPcon under the Rainforest Alliance brand, offering their certified properties the option to become Travelife certified Members via payment of a reduced membership fee.

* GSTC certifies standard bodies against a set of globally recommended criteria.

Accommodation Membership Guide (promotional brochure)

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Useful Links

Click on the links below to go to the relevant pages on our website.

Accommodation Membership Pricing & Benefits

ChainConnect (the product we offer for hotel chains)

The Certification Process

Frequently Asked Questions

The Travelife Team

If you would like us to post about your own work in accommodation sustainability or something that one of your hotels has achieved,  then please complete the form below and upload at least one image.  Travelife may verify any claims you have made to ensure that we are always posting accurate information and we may refuse your post if we feel it is not relevant to our sustainability work and company goals.

We always want to hear from Members that have had success with their sustainability initiatives.  We use this information to: -

• Decide if we can use the information to make a formal case study that could be used for training or promotional purposes
• Create a database of stories that we can use to respond to any media requests we receive, write blog posts and occasional features on our website

Please complete the form below and include any good quality images you have along with any supporting documents such as signs or documents you produced.  Having data is very helpful.  For example, if you a hotel reduced food waste by 20% then we would like to see the numbers that you have to support that.  If you would rather not complete the form you can e-mail your information to our Member Support team at info@travelife.org.

We are happy to support you with training your staff about Travelife.  If you would like to discuss this further then please email larisa@travelife.org.