SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING FOR HOTEL COMPANIES: A TOOL FOR OVERCOMING THE CRISIS

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the possibilities of implementing sustainability reporting in hotel companies. To implement the external sustainability reporting, an internal reporting system based on the requirements of the triple bottom line needs to be established. Such internal reporting systems should help hotel managers to increase revenues and reduce costs and could be a successful tool to overcome the crisis. Main research question is what is the current level of sustainability reporting in hotel companies. The achieved level of sustainability reporting in Croatian hotel companies has been researched in correlation with assessing the current state and possibilites of further development. A comparison between internal reporting requirements and the achieved level of internal reporting reveals a significant gap. The low level of quality of sustainability reporting in Croatia is probably the result of lacking mandatory and uniform reporting criteria about sustainability. Introducing EMAS could solve this, since it provides clear reporting criteria, and includes the mandatory periodic auditing of reported statements. This paper presents a conceptual framework of sustainable reporting for hotel companies in order to improve the quality of sustainability information for short and long term decision making, by combining the USALI (Uniform System of Accounts for Lodging Industry) financial segment information with environmental and social perspectives. The presented model could open different scientific discussions but also challenge further development of sustainability reporting in hotel companies.