How Hostels Can Do Good for Their Neighbourhood (and Prove It)

This coworking picked up the Naples conversation on Sustainability & Responsible Tourism: How can a hostel do good for its local community and the planet?

When people talk about hostel sustainability, they usually mean reusable cups and recycling bins. In our latest HostelLife Hub coworking, I picked up a thread from the sustainability roundtable at the Hostelworld conference in Naples. What does your hostel do for its neighbourhood and the planet? Do guests notice? And how do you talk about it honestly now that new EU rules target vague green claims?

Are hostels already sustainable?

Mostly yes, and more than many owners realise. Ten people in a dorm share one air conditioner instead of running five or ten. Many hostels are in converted buildings, and new construction is one of the biggest sources of global emissions. Hostels also send guests to local cafés, markets and tours led by locals.

Operators on the call kept remembering things they already do but had never counted as sustainability:

• Solar panels and motion-sensor hallway lights

• Reusable cups and glassware instead of single-use plastic

• A rack for unused linen, so clean blankets aren’t rewashed

• A free filtered water station instead of selling bottled water

• A lost-and-found wardrobe turned into a clothing swap

Takeaway 1: Know what you do, and be ready to back it up

Since 27 September 2026, the EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EmpCo) bans generic environmental claims like “eco-friendly” or “green” unless they can be backed up. If your website or OTA listing says “eco hostel”, be ready to show what’s behind it. Specific claims hold up better than labels. “Solar panels heat our water” says more than “sustainable hostel”. Keep simple evidence too, like energy bills from before and after a change, or photos from a local cleanup you joined.

Takeaway 2: Educating guests matters more than new equipment

One hostel put foot-pedal taps in its guest kitchen to cut water use. The taps now get turned off when people leave, but guests keep the pedal pressed while they chat over one cup. Equipment helps, but behaviour changes when guests understand why. Operators shared a few ways to do this:

• A shower head that changes from green to red as time runs, with a sign asking “Can you take a green shower?”

• A funny, useful sign at the sink

• Five minutes at breakfast or family dinner where staff share what the hostel does and how guests can help

An open question: keep guests in, or send them out?

A family dinner for 50 uses fewer resources than 50 separate restaurant meals, and the hostel decides what goes on the plate. But every meal eaten in-house is one a local business didn’t serve. The ideas on the call ranged from sourcing breakfast locally and serving coffee from a local roastery, to featuring a different partner café each week. Nobody claimed there’s one right answer.

Join the conversation

Ornela asked a question many hostel kitchen faces: Dishwasher in your hostel kitchen: staff only, open to guests, or not worth it? Share how your hostel handles it

We have conversations like this every Tuesday at the HostelLife Hub coworking, free and open to all members. Come join the conversation with us.