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Investment: Eco holiday homes - Ross Elder, HolidayLettings.co.uk

Can holiday homes maintain the eco-conscience of their guests?

Despite best efforts to recycle waste at home, it would appear that our eco-consciences go out the window when thinking about holidays. A survey of 9,500 travellers that we conducted in May this year revealed that just 1.5 per cent of people consciously opts for eco-friendly holiday accommodation. While 77 per cent of respondents associate financial burdens with offsetting their carbon footprint while on holiday, admitting either: “I have other priorities” or that “I travel wherever I can afford to”.

In cash strapped times where 64 per cent of respondents of the same survey denote holidays as “essential for quality family time and well being”, this low priority approach to the carbon footprint of holidays is perhaps not surprising, but priorities simply lie elsewhere.

Thankfully, many holiday home owners take the hard work out of being environmentally friendly while on holiday for their guests. We do hear that our customers, the individuals providing holiday home accommodation, are continuing to support, if not encourage, the environmentally friendly behaviour of their guests.

Typically, and in my personal experience in the UK, many private holiday homes encourage recycling in line with local recycling policies. This therefore reduces the pressure to offset the carbon footprint of holidays whilst still encouraging contribution to the future protection of the environment.

Holidays have an indisputably positive psychological value and in times of increased financial and ecological pressure, they need to continue to offer this while not impacting negatively on the environment any more than necessary. What is reassuring, however, is the number of holiday home owners that reduce the need for their guests to carry an eco-conscience whilst on holiday by providing various means to make waste recycling and other eco friendly energy using activities ‘low-hassle’.

Some of the tactics employed by holiday home owners to ensure ‘low-hassle’ green holidays for their guests include:

 Use of eco-friendly pool treatment/cleaning products
 Providing separate bins for different types of waste, including composting caddy
 Heating the pool with solar energy
 Installing timer switches on lightening in transition areas of the homes, e.g. stairwells where time spent is often limited
 Using energy saving light bulbs
 Providing eco-friendly detergent, or detergent-free laundry and dryer balls

Most of those items listed above are low hassle for both the home owner and their guests. But for those looking to raise the eco-credentials of their holiday home there are many opportunities from the materials used in its build to the furnishings and fittings. Some of the homes listed with holidaylettings have heat source pumps and some have solar panels. Others have garden furniture that comes from sustainable sources – keep an eye out for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo. Interestingly, you can now also get infra-red patio heaters as a greener solution to the gas versions.

It is not always about creating energy and heat though; some very simple measures can be taken, particularly for homes in the UK, which help to keep the heat in. Insulation and pipe lagging is one, draught excluders are another.

Keeping your holiday home green is easier and more cost effective than you think, which is great news for everyone.

Ross Elder

A buy-to-let investor and holiday home owner, Ross is passionate about doing holiday home letting effectively and efficiently with oodles of customer care. He is a keynote speaker on successfully marketing and managing holiday home lettings and instils much of his drive into the team at Holiday Lettings. Founded by Ross and his business partner Andy Firth in 1999, the company is now the busiest holiday home website in the UK

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