Behavioral Interventions to Promote Water Savings in Hotel Rooms
(A2025-126456)

AUTHORS

Sofía López-Rodríguez, Universitat de les Illes Balears; Bartolomé Deyá Tortella1 Deyá Tortella, Universitat de les Illes Balears; Dolores Tirado, Universitat de les Illes Balears; Tomás Lejarraga, Universitat de les Illes Balears

ABSTRACT

In many tourism destinations water is scarce. Hotels often implement behavioral interventions to promote in-room guests’ water savings. However, they are mostly focused on indirect measures—towel and linen reuse. Evidence on their effectiveness is also limited. We conducted a field experiment in Mallorca, Spain, at 21 hotel rooms with showers equipped with digital water meters to examine the impact of two behavioral interventions on guests’ direct water savings. Guests were randomly assigned to one condition: commitment—offering the possibility to commit to saving water; commitment with signaling—offering the possibility to commit to saving water, while also making this commitment public using a bracelet; and control. The results show that offering to commit did not save water. These findings contribute to the literature showing limits of the effectiveness of behavioral interventions to solve society’s problems. Iimplications for hotel management and policy making are also discussed.