Founded by Australian travel expert, Alison Greer, GoKinda offers a carefully curated and hand-picked collection of hotels that have been selected based on their genuine commitment to style as well as environmental and social impact. The collection currently features 455 hotels from across the globe, including boutique properties to better-known brands, covering a variety of locations and price-points, and the portfolio will continue to grow.
The new online platform enters the market at a time when travellers are seeking more trips with purpose and are more intentional about where they spend their money but are often overwhelmed in the planning process to see this intention through.
Alison said, “We launched GoKinda to help bridge the gap between what the post-pandemic traveller wants and what they actually book. I’ve worked in the travel industry for over two decades and even I struggle to find the kind of hotels I want to stay at – those that are equally conscious as they are stylish, and that agree with my budget, whether I want to save or splurge. So, it’s no surprise that many others are facing these same difficulties and it’s preventing them from making better travel decisions.”
Each hotel selected to feature within the GoKinda collection has been personally hand-picked by the GoKinda team and the human-filter and selection process is thorough.
“All of our hotels are stylish by design and conscious at the heart,” continued Alison. “Each one is hand-picked by our team of experts to meet strict criteria. We’ve also set out to ensure there is a wide range of price-points to make ‘conscious’ travel accessible to more. Our aim is to influence the decisions of a larger group of people, who together will have a greater positive impact on people and the planet.”
Hotels featuring on the GoKinda platform are categorised into ‘certified’ and non-certified. Those hotels that have opted to be formally recognised for their conscious efforts by a third-party certifier (with standards recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council), appear on the website with a ‘certified’ tag. Hotels that have chosen not to be certified (whether that’s due to a cost, time or another understandable and defining reason) feature in the collection without a ‘certified’ tag and have instead been evaluated by the GoKinda team based on their individual commitment to becoming better.
“Sustainable travel is one of those terms that has become so over-used it’s almost meaningless, and the world of eco-certifications for hotels is a very complicated one. While many hotels use buzzwords and big claims to suggest they’re eco-friendly, very few stays are actively working to improve their social and environmental impact,” said Alison. “And then there are the hotels that are doing positive work but not publicising their efforts.”
She continued, “For those seeking more purpose-led stays, decoding all of this information can feel overwhelming and more often than not, too hard. And so that’s where GoKinda comes in. We help more people to travel in a kinder way by doing the hard work for them. We search high and low looking for the kind of hotels our travellers, like me, will love, whilst also providing the reassurance that they’re making better decisions for our planet and community.”
To further increase the positive impact of every traveller booking their stay via GoKinda, the platform also contributes to One Tribe Global’s rainforest protection project and preserves five trees for every hotel reservation made.
To learn more, visit www.gokinda.com.au or follow @gokinda on Instagram for inspiration.
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