Reasons, examples and templates to help convince your owners to buy into the Sustonica sustainability badge
At Sustonica we want to help you convince your property owners that receiving the badge for their properties is important from an ethical point-of-view as well for business. We want to support you in this communication to ensure that you build up a strong portfolio of sustainable properties. In this way, you have the opportunity to offer the type of properties that the more eco-conscious guest of today is looking for.
In this article we want to help property managers who have partnered with Sustonica to get their owners onboard and help them get their Sustonica badge.
Not surprisingly, property management companies are choosing to partner with Sustonica as it is the only verification specifically for sustainable vacation rentals. The Sustonica Criteria offers their property owners a simple and inexpensive way to identify and showcase their sustainable practices.
1. Understanding the reasons for the Sustonica badge yourself
Increasing numbers of vacation rental property management companies are recognising the need to highlight sustainable vacation rentals to their guests. These are the businesses that are looking at the data and future-proofing their brand.
Here are some of the reasons that are driving these trailblazers:
- Travellers are actively seeking out sustainable places to stay but they still find it difficult to do that despite the growing demand
- The effects of climate change with either extreme heat (July 2023 was the hottest on record) or flooding are being experienced all over the world. Properties are being damaged or destroyed.
- Reducing carbon emissions is usually also a cost-saving exercise
- Destinations want to welcome properties with responsible owners and guests who have a positive impact on the local community
- Employees want to work for businesses who have a sustainability plan and are playing their part in creating a better future
- Properties only need to achieve 20% in their first year. This does not mean that they have to install solar panels or change all the appliances. It could just be having 80% of lightbulbs as LED, being on a green energy tariff, and using eco-friendly cleaning products.
- Once you have a portfolio of Sustonica-verified properties, you will be able to start offering guests the sustainable stays they are searching for.
“We designed the Sustonica Criteria to be very achievable for property owners. We are committed to recognising properties who are taking active steps to be more sustainable,” explains Sustonica Founder, Vanessa de Souza Lage. “Property management companies have a vital role to play in helping sustainable properties become more visible to guests.“
2. Email templates to get owner’s buy-in
The Sustonica framework makes it very easy for your properties to assess how eco-friendly they are currently. In most cases, properties are already doing quite a lot without even realizing it. Many of your owners will be surprised that they already have some great sustainable practices but are not actively promoting them.
In order to help you communicate with your guests, we have prepared some email templates for our property management partners to use in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. We also share the Sustonica logo with you as well as some sustainable images that you might like to use.
Get detailed guidance for property management companies to ensure that the validation process runs smoothly for your owners:
- An email template for you to send to your owners
- How to purchase validation credits for participating owners
- How to create properties in your dashboard
- How to submit the required documentation
- How to do the photo tour
3. Sending an explanatory video
Think about your property owners and the approach which would appeal most to them.
Andalusian vacation rental platform with 2650 rentals, Ruralidays, have recently become a Sustonica partner. Felix Zea, CEO, personally reached out to several owners via phone to gather feedback. The overwhelmingly positive responses paved the way for establishing a timeline to kickstart the marketing campaign.
So they went ahead and produced a video to clearly explain the benefits of applying for their Sustonica badge and get their owner’s buy-in.
4. Get help from a professional sustainability communication marketer
When you partner with Sustonica, it makes sense to use our verification to start to promote yourself as a responsible brand. In order to empower you to do this, we have partnered with Nikki Mattei. Nikki is an experienced sustainability marketing specialist who also manages a sustainable vacation rental in Italy.
She created three packages for Sustonica property management partners:
- Engage Your Owners
- Excite and Empower Guests
- Find Your Brand Purpose
These three packages are designed to help you weave sustainability into your communications and brand yourself as a purpose-driven business. Nikki will share her experience as a property owner as well as her extensive knowledge and expertise from a 30+ year career in marketing.
