Exploring the Sustainability Model of the Hospitality Firm: The Experience of a Hotel Group in Europe

This paper explores how hotels manage sustainability, recognizing strategies and practices based on the environmental protection and waste reduction. It identifies virtuous paths that can constitute possible models of sustainable business management. We investigate the approach to sustainability of a large company operating in several European countries with a network of more than 250 hotels. We carry out a case study based on questionnaire and reports analysis. We reconstruct the model of sustainability and its implications, considering the environmental impacts, actions and stakeholders social well-being. Findings enhance our understanding how a hotel group deals with the social, environmental and economic issues. Results give insights on how sustainability models work in the hospitality firms. The practical implications concern actions and tools to be adopted by hospitality firms that can effectively implement sustainable business models, especially in the transition phase to sustainability.