Accommodation calculations

This section contains general information about how we have calculated emissions from accommodation on holiday trips. The climate impact from accomodation is divided into three categories: hotels, hostels etc, and finally climate neutral accommodation. More details about the calculations can be found in our Methodology Report.

HOTEL
The figures for the climate footprint of hotels in different countries are based on data compiled by an organisation called Greenview in what is known as the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index.

We have collected emissions data from the countries that Swedish residents mainly travel to for their holidays, and they are listed in the table below. The differences between the countries are due to the amount of energy used for heating and air-conditioning, and the types of energy used for electricity generation, among other things. For hotels in the Nordic countries, the figures are based on a Swedish survey of hotels that covered 41 hotels.

It is important to bear in mind that these figures are an average of hotels that have self-reported their emissions or have been surveyed. For some countries, there is a lot of data and for others the figure is based only on a few hotels (see column to the right in the table below). So the best thing is to find out about the climate footprint of the particular hotel you intend to stay at. Ask and they will know that their guests care.

Kg CO2 per guest night in common destination countries.

Country

Average hotel in the country

[CO2/guest night]

Lower climate impact

[CO2/guest night]

Carbon neutral

[CO2/guest night]

Number of hotels

France

4.7

1.2

0

75

Spain

29

7.2

0

43

United Kingdom

9.3

2.3

0

439

Germany

11

2.8

0

89

Austria

9.3

2.3

0

15

Rest of the EU

13

3.2

0

a)

Turkey

23

5.7

0

80

Thailand

34

8.5

0

245

USA

13

3.3

0

9301

Sweden

6.8

1.7

0

41

Norway

6.8

1.7

0

b)

Denmark

6.8

1.7

0

b)

Finland

6.8

1.7

0

b)

Iceland

6.8

1.7

0

b)

Rest of the world

27

6.7

0

c)

a) Rest of the EU is an average of the EU countries we have data for. This also includes Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Switzerland, and Vatican City.

b) Represented by Sweden

c) Based on Mexico, Russia, China, and Australia.

HOSTEL, ETC.

In basic accommodation, such as youth hostels and B & B:s, the amount of space available to each guest is often small, which reduces energy use, and in turn typically means a smaller climate footprint per guest night. However, a hotel that has worked to reduce its energy use and climate footprint, for example by investing in solar energy, installing energy recovery in its ventilation system and purchasing bio-based district heating, can also have a low climate footprint per guest night.

Emissions from accomodation in this category are based on a study from Switzerland which showed that, on average, youth hostels had a 75% lower climate footprint than hotels. Our calculations are based on the assumption that this relationship applies in all countries and that it is applicable to many different types of accommodation. The climate footprint for this category of accommodation thus has a 75% lower figure than ‘Hotel’ in the calculator.

CLIMATE NEUTRAL
We expect that those using accommodation in this category will cause only negligible emissions. For accommodations in campers, caravans, night trains or overnight accommodation on ferries, emissions are included in the transport mode and additional emissions are deemed negligible. If you stay in a tent, emissions are caused only by the manufacturing of the tent, but emissions from manufacturing are not included for either this or any of the other accommodation categories here. If you are staying with someone, we assume that this will not generate any additional emissions as a result