Is the Biosphere certification increasing customers’ satisfaction in hotels?

Purpose – The main objective of this paper is to analyze if the customers’ satisfaction improves after the achievement of the Biosphere certification, designed for sustainability in touristic companies and destinations.
Design/methodology/approach – A single certified hotel in Barcelona is analyzed. The hotel was certified in June 2015 and information about customers’ satisfaction has been gathered from July 2014 to March 2016. Data are from the website Booking.com and the quantitative punctuation as well as customers’ comments have been considered. A sample of 649 opinions has been analyzed.
Findings – The results show that the customers’ satisfaction does not improve with the certification but the positive comments posed do. The customers’ nationality is significant regarding the certification and the wordof- mouth has been found as an important marketing tool for the analyzed hotel. Also, it has to be said that a wider period of time is needed after the certification to analyze its impact.
Originality/value – The study proposed is, to the best of authors’ knowledge, one of the first analyzing the Biosphere certification and its impact on hotels..

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Biosphere certification, customer satisfaction, hotel, Barcelona