How to calculate hotel emissions in business travel

Hotel accommodation is one of the most commonly omitted sources in corporate travel inventories — likely because it is optional in Scope 3 Category 6 under the GHG Protocol. However, for organisations with regular overnight travel, hotel emissions can represent 10–20% of total Category 6 footprint. This guide covers how hotel emissions are calculated, what data you need, and how supplier engagement changes the picture.

Hotel stays in Scope 3 Category 6

Business accommodation — hotels, serviced apartments and similar lodging booked for work travel — sits in GHG Protocol Scope 3 Category 6. The logic is that the Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions generated by the hotel (heating, cooling, electricity) are attributed to guests as Scope 3 emissions, proportional to their stay.

Under CSRD and ESRS E1, organisations are expected to account for all material Scope 3 categories. For any company with significant hotel spend, exclusion of accommodation emissions is likely to be flagged by third-party assurance providers as a gap. CDP Climate questionnaires also specifically ask whether accommodation is included in Category 6 disclosures.

Three methods for calculating hotel emissions

Method 1: spend-based (lowest accuracy)

Apply an economic emission intensity factor (kg CO₂e per £ or $ spent) to total hotel expenditure. This is the fastest approach for a first-pass inventory but is the least accurate, as it does not account for variation in hotel energy intensity by location, property type or night count.

Method 2: per room night (recommended default)

Multiply the number of room nights by a location-specific emission factor expressed in kg CO₂e per room night. This is the GHG Protocol recommended approach for organisations without supplier-level data and is suitable for most enterprise reporting purposes.

DEFRA and regional benchmark factors are applied by country:

Source DEFRA 2025. Figures are indicative regional averages based on available factors by country. Actual emissions vary significantly by property, energy source and year.

Method 3: supplier-provided data (highest accuracy)

The most accurate approach is to use data provided by the hotel itself — specifically, the property's total Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions divided by occupied room nights for the reporting period. This data is increasingly available through the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI), a standardised methodology developed by the hospitality industry to provide comparable emissions data to corporate clients.

Programmes with high hotel spend concentrated in a small number of preferred suppliers should prioritise collecting this data, as it is both more accurate and more defensible under assurance. If you contact your suppliers directly, such as the large hotel chains, they can provide you with HCMI-compliant data.

Hotel emissions in your inventory and reporting

For CSRD compliance, hotel stays must be included in Category 6 unless you can demonstrate they are immaterial. Given that a 500-person enterprise with regular travel generates over 100 tCO₂e from hotel stays alone, the immateriality threshold is rarely met for organisations with significant travel programmes.