Sustainability is a large word. Travellers tend to encounter it in much smaller things.
In the water bottle waiting in your room. In what is served at breakfast, and how it is packaged. In whether the soap comes in a disposable bottle or a refillable dispenser. In the simple choice of using your towel for another day, or knowing where to separate your waste.
These details can seem minor in isolation. Together, they shape how visible and credible those choices become to the traveller.
Rather than assuming which ones matter most, we decided to ask.
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We recently analysed 252 evaluation questionnaires completed by our travellers, looking specifically at the sustainability practices they noticed and appreciated during their stays, as well as the areas where they felt there was still room for improvement.
The results are qualitative rather than statistical: the rankings reflect the relative importance of the themes that emerged from the feedback, not percentages or absolute frequencies. We are not claiming that a specific proportion of travellers mentioned any one thing.
What they reveal is remarkably concrete.
The most appreciated practice was the presence of local and homemade products, followed by the reduction of single-use plastic, the possibility of reusing towels and linen, clear and accessible recycling, and measures designed to save water and energy.
These are not abstract environmental commitments. They are things a traveller can see, understand and, in many cases, participate in directly.
A breakfast made with products from the surrounding area connects the experience of staying somewhere with the place itself. A refillable dispenser replaces a succession of small plastic bottles. A simple message gives guests the choice to reuse their towels rather than having them changed unnecessarily. Clearly labelled bins make it possible to separate waste correctly even when local recycling systems are unfamiliar.
What our travellers seem to value is sustainability made tangible.
Perhaps even more interesting is what happens when we look at the other side of the feedback.
The aspects requiring the most attention almost mirror the practices travellers appreciated most.
Single-use bottles, cups and bathroom products were the first critical theme to emerge, particularly when the plastic appeared avoidable. Individually packaged breakfast products came next, followed by absent or unclear recycling systems. Good sustainability practices that were not communicated clearly enough also emerged as an area for improvement: the effort may already be there, but remain invisible to the guest. The availability of plant-based alternatives emerged as a further area for improvement.
There is an important message in that symmetry.
Travellers notice when single-use plastic is reduced — and they notice when it is not. They appreciate local products at breakfast — and see the contradiction when much of that breakfast comes in individual packaging. They value the opportunity to separate their waste — but only if the system is clear enough for them to use it.
Sustainability, in other words, is not necessarily something travellers experience through a certification or a statement of intent. Very often, they encounter it through the ordinary decisions that shape a stay.
One finding deserves particular attention: good practices that are not communicated clearly enough appeared among the five areas requiring improvement.
This does not mean turning every environmental measure into a marketing claim. It means making useful information visible without exaggerating what it represents.
Good sustainability communication should be simple, useful and verifiable.
If a property asks guests to reuse towels, explaining why makes the choice easier to understand. If local ingredients are being served at breakfast, telling guests where they come from gives context to something they might otherwise never notice. If recycling is available, clear instructions — including for international visitors unfamiliar with the local system — allow guests to participate rather than guess.
Communication becomes part of the practice itself.
There is also an important question of trust here. Broad claims about being “green” or “eco-friendly” tell a traveller relatively little. A refill station they can actually use, a clearly labelled recycling area or information about the provenance of what they are eating tells them considerably more.
Collecting feedback only matters if something happens afterwards.
So we have taken what our travellers told us and turned it into a series of practical areas to work on together with our accommodation partners.
The first is reducing unnecessary single-use products, particularly replacing miniature bathroom bottles and individual soaps with refillable dispensers where possible.
The second is rethinking breakfast: reducing individually packaged portions while giving more space and visibility to local products.
We are also encouraging partners to make it easier for travellers to refill their water bottles, for example through filtered water or dedicated refill points, and to make waste separation as intuitive as possible, with visible containers and instructions that can be understood by both Italian and international guests.
Finally, we are asking partners to communicate what they already do: not through sweeping environmental claims, but through information that is simple, concrete and verifiable.
None of these actions, on its own, makes an accommodation “sustainable”. Nor will the same solution work in every property or every destination. But they provide concrete places to begin.
One of the principles behind the work we are doing with our partners is that everything does not have to change at once.
A single action, when implemented well, explained clearly and maintained over time, can improve the guest experience while helping to reduce waste and strengthen the connection with the surrounding territory.
We think this matters because sustainability can easily become an all-or-nothing conversation, when meaningful progress is often much more practical: identifying what can change now, maintaining what already works and understanding where the next improvement can be made.
What can we change now? What can we measure? What are our travellers telling us? Where are our partners already doing good work? And where can we help make the next step easier?
Our travellers' feedback gives us one way to keep asking those questions.
Accommodation is only one part of a walking holiday, but it is an important one. It is also where many of the everyday choices around food, water, energy, waste and local sourcing become most visible.
That is why our work does not stop at sharing the results of these questionnaires.
Together with our accommodation partners, we want to continue building a more responsible hospitality network through shared guidelines, training and by highlighting accommodation partners that adopt good practices.
This work sits within a broader approach to sustainability at SloWays: one that looks at the journeys we design, the partners we work with and the impact travelling can have on the places we move through.
You can read more about our commitments, projects and approach on our Sustainability page.
The 252 questionnaires we analysed do not provide a definitive answer to what sustainable travel should look like. Nor were they intended to.
What they give us is something more useful: a view of sustainability from the traveller's side of the journey.
They tell us that people notice the local product on the breakfast table and the unnecessary plastic beside it. They notice whether they are given the tools to recycle, refill and reuse. They notice when a property has made an effort - and sometimes they need that effort to be explained before they can recognise it.
For us, listening to those observations is part of becoming better at what we do. Because policies and commitments matter, but so does understanding how they translate into the actual experience of a journey.
Perhaps that is the most important lesson we can take from their feedback: credible sustainability is not a label you earn once. It is something you have to keep making visible, in the choices you make, the partners you work with, and the small details that shape a stay long after the walking is done.
Written by the SloWays Team
Nominee Best Specialist Tour Operator 2026
