The Cappa
With our participation we give our guests the opportunity to donate a tree if they skip a room cleaning during a longer stay. This initiative is new to us and a well-maintained clean room remains an important part of our service. For this reason, we start by offering the option to have a tree planted twice per 7-day stay.
We are currently in the start-up phase of this initiative and are still looking at whether there are ways to also offer guests who stay for a shorter period the opportunity to donate a tree. For this reason, we also offer these guests the opportunity (without obligation of course) to contribute by donating a tree through the upsells for just €5, whereby I would like to clearly state that we as a hotel do not benefit from this.
How it works: For stays of more than 3 nights, reception will give you the option to donate a tree. If you want to participate, you will receive a door hanger that you can hang on the door on the day you want to use it. Housekeeping takes the hanger with them and every day we pass the trees on to hotels for trees. You can see the score of our guests in the hotels for trees widget on this page and the home page.
Because we as The Happy Traveler also like to contribute ourselves, we have donated 1 tree per staff member and we will continue this by donating a tree on every staff member's birthday.
Do you want to know more about this initiative?
The Cappa
One of the things we think about as a hotel is to think about creating as little waste as possible. To achieve this, we are currently moving away from small packages of shampoo, soap and body lotion. We replace these with rituals products in refillable bottles. Our disposable cups have also disappeared from our hotel rooms and have been replaced by real coffee cups and/or hard cups that are cleaned after each stay and therefore reused.
Our lighting has now largely been replaced by LED lighting, which not only allows us to save on energy costs, which is to your and our advantage, but also means that we need less energy to run the hotel.
Where our waste was previously only separated in 3 ways, we now separate it in 4 ways so that it can be better converted into new products.
It will not surprise you that there are guests every week who forget to take products home. If we have to resend this, we do not do this in new boxes, but in boxes in which we have also received products. This way no new raw materials are required. (Still good) clothing that has been left behind and that does not need to be re-sent is also donated to a good cause so that it gets a new life.
The Cappa
The Good Roll (B Corp) makes toilet paper from 100% bamboo fibers. Bamboo grows faster, meaning no forests need to be cut down for our toilet paper. Additionally, The Good Roll uses 50% of its net profit to build toilets at schools and in communities in Ghana. These toilets are also constructed by Ghanaian craftspeople using local materials.
Want to know more about The Good Roll, or switch to this toilet paper at home to make the world less shitty?
The Cappa
Do you want to know more about this initiative?
The Cappa
We were informed that we would receive a mystery visit and that public votes would also play a role. We put our best effort into both aspects! On September 22, 2026, several team members traveled to Rotterdam for the awards ceremony at "Gastvrij Rotterdam," where we secured the Public Choice Award with just under 500 votes.
The Jury Prize went to a hostel housed in a building dating back to 1730—one that was even completely gas-free. We aren't quite at that stage yet, but we take steps toward greater sustainability every year. Perhaps we will be nominated again in the future, or make a bid for the Jury prize ourselves once we have turned our plans into reality!
So, are you looking for sustainable accommodation in Groningen? We would be happy to welcome you!
