How to find green hotels

It's hip to be green these days, so many hotels and resorts now tout their environmentally friendly practices to lure eco-conscious travelers. However, since there are no international standards for what makes a hotel green, it can be hard for consumers to tell if a hotel is truly eco-friendly or just employing sneaky PR tactics. Here are tips to help you find the real McCoy:

• Search for hotels on sites that only include legitimate green businesses, including Responsibletravel.com, The Rainforest Alliance, The International Ecotourism Society, and Best Green Hotels.
  Advertisement
  
• Look for hotels with official green certification labels or awards from credible organizations. Sustainable Travel International lists more than 20 types of reputable green labels out there.
• Check a hotel's website or call to find out if it has an official environmental or sustainability policy. A good policy should go beyond washing towels every other day to save water, and ideally will address both the hotel's environmental and cultural conservation practices in detail. If the policy looks flimsy or the hotel rep can't answer your questions, it's a pass.

For more tips on how to find green hotels and other travel providers, visit the Sustainable Travel International's consumer education page.

Have a great travel tip you'd like to share? Send your insider travel strategies to editor@smartertravel.com.