How do we choose between a country-specific sub-type and the global or UK average?

Use the country-specific sub-type whenever your booking data confirms the destination; only fall back to "Hotel stay: Average: UK" or "Hotel stay: Average: Global" when the destination is genuinely unknown or when your data is aggregated at that level.

Does meeting-room hire without an overnight stay count as a hotel stay?

No — meeting-room hire without accommodation has its own separate sub-type; only record room.nights against the hotel-stay sub-types when an overnight stay actually occurred.

Should we record hotel stays purchased as part of a package (flights plus hotel) separately?

Yes, where your travel agent or booking platform can itemise the accommodation portion of a package, record it as room.nights here and the travel portion under the relevant transport entry; only use a blended package spend figure if no itemisation is possible.

What about hotel stays for candidates or clients rather than employees?

If the organisation pays for and controls the booking of the accommodation, it counts as a business-related activity regardless of whether the guest is an employee, candidate or client — record it the same way as employee travel accommodation.

Our hotel supplier gives us a tCO2e figure per stay — should we use that instead of room.nights?

Yes, if a major hotel chain or travel management company provides a verified per-stay tCO2e figure, you can use it directly in place of a room.nights-based estimate, provided you can document the calculation basis behind it.

Activity data·Employee movement

How to measure emissions from Hotel stay

Hotel stay activity data covers accommodation used during business travel or organised trips, recorded in room.nights, spend or a supplier-reported tCO2e figure under Scope 3 Category 1. Use country- or city-specific sub-types where booking data confirms the destination, since hotel intensity varies by location. Source figures from travel-booking platforms or expense systems, keeping accommodation separate from the transport leg of the trip.

Scope: Scope 3 Category 1
What activity data you need: room.night, tCO2e, £ Spend, $ Spend
Activity data: Employee movement

What counts as Hotel stay

Hotel and similar accommodation used by employees during business travel, or purchased as part of organised trips or events, recorded in room.nights, spend, or a pre-calculated tCO2e figure. Excludes meeting-room hire used without an overnight stay, which has its own sub-type.

Hotel stay is grouped with employee movement because it typically accompanies business travel, but it is tracked as a separate activity from the transport itself — a business trip generates both a transport entry (air, rail, road or sea) and, where an overnight stay occurs, a hotel-stay entry, and the two should not be combined into one line. Country- and city-specific sub-types (for example UK, UK: London, or specific countries such as Australia and Austria) exist because hotel intensity varies significantly by location, so use the most specific match your booking data allows before falling back to a global or UK average.

How to collect the data

Corporate travel-booking platforms or expense-management systems are the primary source, typically reporting room.nights by destination, which can be matched to the corresponding country or city sub-type. Where only total accommodation spend is available (for example from card statements without booking-level detail), use spend as an interim unit, and prioritise capturing room.nights and destination going forward since location-specific factors are materially more accurate than a spend-based average.

What activity data you need

Collect the most specific physical unit available. Unit definitions are in Appendix I — Description of Units.

room.night
tCO2e
£ Spend
$ Spend

Which emission scope it falls under

Hotel stay activity data typically maps to Scope 3 Category 1 under the GHG Protocol. Confirm organisational boundary and ownership before reporting.

Scope 3 Category 1

By emission scope

Scope 3 Category 1

Compliance frameworks

Compliance & reporting frameworks

Common sub-types

Hotel stay: Average: UK
Hotel stay: Average: Global
Hotel stay: UK
Hotel stay: UK: London
Meeting Room Hire
Hotel stay: Argentina
Hotel stay: Australia
Hotel stay: Austria

Compare Your Footprint covers 69 options for this activity.

See the full list: Hotel stay by country (69) →

Common questions

How do we choose between a country-specific sub-type and the global or UK average?: Use the country-specific sub-type whenever your booking data confirms the destination; only fall back to "Hotel stay: Average: UK" or "Hotel stay: Average: Global" when the destination is genuinely unknown or when your data is aggregated at that level.
Does meeting-room hire without an overnight stay count as a hotel stay?: No — meeting-room hire without accommodation has its own separate sub-type; only record room.nights against the hotel-stay sub-types when an overnight stay actually occurred.
Should we record hotel stays purchased as part of a package (flights plus hotel) separately?: Yes, where your travel agent or booking platform can itemise the accommodation portion of a package, record it as room.nights here and the travel portion under the relevant transport entry; only use a blended package spend figure if no itemisation is possible.
What about hotel stays for candidates or clients rather than employees?: If the organisation pays for and controls the booking of the accommodation, it counts as a business-related activity regardless of whether the guest is an employee, candidate or client — record it the same way as employee travel accommodation.
Our hotel supplier gives us a tCO2e figure per stay — should we use that instead of room.nights?: Yes, if a major hotel chain or travel management company provides a verified per-stay tCO2e figure, you can use it directly in place of a room.nights-based estimate, provided you can document the calculation basis behind it.

Next step

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Related in this cluster·Employee movement