Holidu - our responsibility for sustainability

What we do:

• Holidu is climate neutral. All CO2 emissions generated by our operational processes and essential travel by our employees are compensated for.

• Vacation rentals where hosts already implement sustainable measures are awarded the “Eco” label so that travelers can quickly and easily choose more environmentally friendly accommodations. The filter search function makes it easy to find these accommodations.

• As an entire Holidu Group team, we regularly implement projects to act even more sustainably together. From Go Green challenges among employees to hackathons to find sustainable solutions with our tech expertise.

• We avoid business travel. For essential travel, we follow our Green Travel Policy.

Holidu is climate neutral

All CO2 emissions generated by our operational processes and essential travel from our employees are compensated for.

Find sustainable vacation rentals easily thanks to labels and filters

Vacation rentals in which hosts already implement sustainable measures are marked by Holidu with the “Eco” label so that travelers can quickly and easily choose environmentally friendly accommodation. In addition, Holidu offers a search filter for “Eco properties”. If this filter is activated, only vacation rentals that meet sustainable criteria appear.

Every rental that is labeled as eco must meet at least eight of the sustainability criteria defined by Holidu. The sustainability criteria range from green electricity to waste separation and water-saving systems in the accommodation. The individual sustainability criteria are based on labeling by the respective hosts and providers. Compliance with the sustainability criteria is carried out by the hosts. 

We see that environmental issues are close to the hearts of vacation rental owners. In a customer survey, 85 percent of participants indicated that sustainability is important to them on vacation (survey 07/29 – 08/19/2021).

More and more vacation rental owners are also making great efforts to contribute to sustainability: some are equipping rental properties with solar panels, using recycled materials in construction, and offering natural, instead of chlorinated, pools. In a survey of vacation accommodation owners in Germany, 77 percent of landlords said they already consider environmentally friendly aspects when renting out their property. Another ten percent do not yet do so, but the topic is important to them, and they would like to invest in it in the future. Only four percent are not interested in environmentally friendly aspects when renting out their property. The survey was conducted by Bookiply, the vacation home rental software and service provider and a subsidiary of Holidu (survey 09.28-10.05.2021)

Green employee initiatives

For sustainability to succeed in the company, all 500+ employees pitch in. One of our corporate values is “we win as a team” – this applies in particular to the areas of sustainability and environmental protection. Only together can we make our company and our product sustainable. 

The entire Holidu Group team regularly participates in initiatives ranging from fundraising to build solar energy cells for an orphanage to the “Holidu Across Europe Challenge,” in which teams of employees travel a total of 3,415km together and plant up to 231 trees, depending on the stage they reach.

Internally, we held a hackathon on the topic of “Sustainable Travel” to find solutions using our technological and entrepreneurial know-how.

Minimization of business travel

Business travel not only pollutes the environment, but it is also very time-consuming and usually causes additional stress for travelers. For this reason, we try to avoid business travel. Nevertheless, face-to-face meetings are often a decisive factor in business relationships. Our goal is therefore to travel as environmentally friendly as possible while acting sensibly. To this end, we bundle appointments to save multiple round trips. For any long-distance trip that can be made in six hours or less by train, we take the train – not a plane or car. If several employees are traveling, we will form a carpool. 

We are convinced that many small steps can make a big difference. Holidu offers its employees vegan and sustainably produced snacks in the office and provides reusable lunch boxes. In a “Go Green” challenge, employees formed teams and took on various challenges relating to nutrition, hobbies and mobility, and together they reduced their ecological footprint.