Travelers often don't trust hotel eco-badges, so some brands are pushing for direct proof instead

Travelers once could spot a small green leaf at the bottom of a hotel website and take it as a sign they were making a better choice.

For many people now, that symbol reads less like proof and more like a piece of marketing.

As confidence in those signals weakens, some travel companies are looking past eco-badges and seeking more direct proof that hotels are helping the communities and natural environments around them.

What's happening?

According to Forbes, Booking.com's 2026 Travel & Sustainability Report found that 37% of travelers are skeptical of "more sustainable" labels, even though 36% still expect to book accommodations with a sustainability certification.

Against that backdrop, luxury travel company Jacada Travel says it no longer considers standard certifications alone sufficient. The labels can be inconsistent and hard to compare.

While reviewing hotel partners, Jacada's head of positive impact, Natalie Lyall-Grant, told Forbes that the company encountered "over 100 different certifications."

"The problem is that transparency isn't there," she said, per Forbes. "How do you compare a B Corp against a Green Globe or against a Costa Rican government certification? ... You can't."

By the time the interview took place, that added scrutiny had informed Jacada's Positive Impact Collection, which included 111 properties and 44 experiences.

The company built the process by using the nonprofit platform Hotel Resilient to audit sustainability practices. It then manually checked whether a property creates benefits that are rooted in its location.

Why does it matter?

For Jacada, the issue comes down to where travel spending ends up.

Founder Alex Malcolm said, "Our biggest way of influencing where the tourism dollar goes and doing better in the tourism space is through our relationships with suppliers."

That helps explain why a certification on its own can be an incomplete signal. A label may reveal little about whether a hotel is actually cutting harm, restoring habitat, or working with Indigenous communities. If those claims remain vague, nearby residents and wildlife may see few gains as businesses continue to benefit from greenwashing.

Some operators say even that standard is no longer ambitious enough.

Group head of impact at Wilderness Vincent Shacks said, "In truth, we cannot afford to only be sustainable anymore."

What's being done?

Jacada says it wants to recognize properties for tangible local results instead of polished sustainability language.

Lyall-Grant said, "Sustainability is the baseline, … but the Positive Impact Collection is meant for hotels that can demonstrate more than that."

Hotel operators say this kind of review can capture work that standard checklists often miss. 

In an email interview with Forbes, Galapagos Safari Camp co-founder Stephanie Bonham-Carter said, "What impressed us about Jacada was their willingness to look beyond the questionnaire and understand the reasoning behind those decisions."

Shacks added that it was "especially refreshing" to see questions focused on wildlife conservation.

Lyall-Grant said Jacada has already collaborated with Scott Dunn, Audley Travel, and Steppes Travel to cut duplication and improve transparency.

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