HRS’ 2025 State of Sustainability Report: Data & AI Drives Hotel Program Performance

2025 Report: AI Boosts Hotel Program Results

Study Captures Dynamic of Hotel Suppliers and Corporations Navigating Advanced Technologies, Changing Geopolitical Priorities, Cost and Compliance While Enhancing Sustainable Practices

Hamburg, Germany – 11 November, 2025 – HRS, the leading global corporate lodging and payment technology platform, published its second State of Sustainability in Corporate Travel report today. The annual study provides data and trends on how corporate travel programs are addressing sustainability in their procurement and booking practices – and how hotel suppliers are evolving to align with these requirements as they take steps to win preferred supplier status. HRS released the report, featuring details on how AI is impacting the ecosystem’s efforts to cut emissions, at the Global Business Travel Association’s Europe Conference, taking place this week in Hamburg, Germany.  

Corporate travel programs are clearly in a fluid place when it comes to reducing emissions. Volatile economic scenarios, receding regulatory pressures in many locations, and shifting business priorities are all impacting budgets. The latest United Nations report – issued just last week – noted that “nations remain far from meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement goals to limit warming.”

Yet even in this tumult, perhaps the biggest takeaway from this report is that nearly 90 percent of HRS’ corporate clients state that sustainability remains a top three priority. Leveraging HRS’ data-driven automation, travel programs with disciplined execution are still delivering impressive outcomes. HRS clients cumulatively reduced hotel emissions by 24 percent through September 2025.

“The story isn’t ‘less sustainability,’ it’s ‘smarter sustainability,’” said HRS CEO Tobias Ragge. “Leaders in the study hit targets by operationalizing data, aligning it with traveler choice, and focusing on preferred hotels and other partners. AI is rapidly expediting both the analysis of data and opportunities to seize based on the results. With this synchronization, savings, compliance, and sustainability move together.”

HRS, which works with one-third of the Fortune 500 on some element of their transient and/or meeting program, is a recognized leader on this topic. Launched in 2021, HRS’ award-winning Green Stay Initiative is used by hundreds of companies – including dozens of global organizations – to help report, remove and reduce emissions in procurement and booking processes. Accordingly, Green Stay automation is now used by 85 percent of the world’s relevant corporate-travel focused hotels as they efficiently share their sustainability-related metrics in RFPs. This covers 600+ chains across 175+ countries. The Green Stay Initiative is the only ISO and GHG Protocol-certified technology in the corporate hotel ecosystem.

Data Lights the Way Ahead for Corporate Programs; Green Stay Champion Hotels that Continually Refine and Feed Data Are Winning Volume with Competitive Rate Options

Travel leaders increasingly rely on AI-optimized data to set targets, detect gaps, and recommend program actions—from rates in sourcing and policy to shop/compare and rebooking. That means the inputs from hotels and other data sources must be trustworthy: property-level, auditable, and continuously refreshed. Simply stated, hotels providing such complete, verifiable sustainability data win more bookings. The report showcases this reality, accentuated by four corporate case studies.

There is now more data effectively eliminating the belief that sustainable hotels drive higher rates. Analysis across multiple programs reveals that many Green Stay Champion hotels – properties recording superior metrics tied to carbon, water and waste – are measurably reducing emissions while offering lower average daily rates (ADR) than their peers. HRS clients achieved an average 24 percent reduction in emissions and five percent ADR savings in first nine months of 2025, proving that sustainability and cost efficiency can be achieved simultaneously. And in scenarios where hotel program leaders prioritize the twin attributes of competitive rates and carbon efficiency, the upside is truly undeniable. One client shared that Green Stay Champion hotels in their global program reported a 50 percent lower CO₂ footprint per room night – and ten percent lower ADR – than non-Green Stay properties.

Looking to 2026, RFP data in this report shows that hotels committed to operational efficiency are already benefiting from these investments as they compete for corporate volume. Highlights include: 

• Acceptance rates for Green Stay properties have risen from 53 percent in RFPs for 2025 to 56 percent in RFPs for 2026, illustrating that sustainability alignment is no longer optional but a baseline expectation in corporate sourcing decisions. 
• Advanced Green Stay hotels, which represent the most relevant and scalable segment of participating suppliers, are capturing an increasing share of contracted volume. Their presence has grown from 69 percent of room nights in 2025 RFPs to 74 percent in RFPs for 2026. Advanced Green Stay hotels earn program resilience as well as premium transient and meetings share as AI amplifies their efforts.

HRS’ New Copilot Brings AI’s Efficiencies To Sustainable, Hotel Procurement and Continuous Program Optimization

Beyond strategic and tactical advancements to better manage programs, AI allows companies to identify and simulate the impact of procurement decisions before they are made. AI-driven innovation comes to life through HRS Copilot, a new AI-assistant that supports travel CEOs, travel managers, procurement and sustainability teams throughout the report, reduce and remove lifecycle.  

Launched in May, HRS’ Copilot connects supply and demand on one platform, integrating with Green Stay data and customer travel programs to provide predictive, real-time guidance and next-best-actions into corporate travel’s newest AI-facilitated workflows. Used in tandem with HRS’ Connect booking platform – which accommodates both transient and meetings segments – initial results are compelling:

• Higher traveler acceptance of sustainable options,
• More bookings flowing to properties with sustainability data, and
• Savings and CO₂ reduction realized in practice—not just on paper.

Initial AI-Driven Procurement Result: Projected Emissions Reductions Up to 62 Percent

Corporations are already seeing positive results as they use Copilot for 2026 hotel procurement. Early outcomes project up to 62 percent reductions in emissions per room night in programs that fully leverage AI-driven selection and monitoring.

“The 2025 report findings are unequivocal: sustainability is not a passing phase. It’s shifting from narrative to data-driven execution,” said Martin Biermann, HRS’ Chief Product Officer. “Corporate travel programs that continually infuse accurate supplier data into AI gain durable advantages; hotels that supply it are more likely to win the booking. The benefits are near-term and long-term for all parties.”

Individuals can access a copy of the Second Annual HRS State of Sustainability in Corporate Travel here. Corporate procurement and travel managers seeking to learn more about their sustainability-related data and steps they can take to reduce emissions  are encouraged to engage with their HRS contact to start that process.

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About HRS  

HRS is a global technology company focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence to create fully digital lodging and meetings experiences for corporations and their travelers. The company’s platform-based solutions are reinventing end-to-end travel management and the traveler experience for transient, meetings and workforce segments for large enterprises worldwide. HRS’ award-winning Green Stay Initiative enables lodging suppliers and meetings venues to showcase their sustainable attributes while helping companies on their quest towards NetZero travel. HRS has an unsurpassed network of ecosystem relationships, with secure API integrations to hotel suppliers, digital payment facilitators and booking solutions. More information at https://www.hrs.com/enterprise and on LinkedIn. 

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