As travelers look more closely at the impact of their trips, independent certification is becoming one of the clearest ways to tell whether a hotel’s sustainability story is actually backed by action.
It is easy for a hotel to look sustainable.
A refillable bottle on the nightstand. A note asking guests to reuse towels. Native plants around the pool. A beautifully designed sustainability page online. All of those things can matter. But for travelers trying to decide whether a hotel is genuinely operating more responsibly, appearances only go so far. The more interesting question is what is happening behind the scenes.
That is what makes El Dorado Maroma’s new EarthCheck Platinum certification worth paying attention to. The Riviera Maya resort, part of Lomas Hospitality, reached Platinum after 10 consecutive years of certification, following an audit completed without observations. The achievement is significant for the property, but it also reflects a larger shift in hospitality. Sustainability is becoming less about what a hotel says and more about what it can measure, document and prove.
So, What Does EarthCheck Actually Mean?
EarthCheck is not a beauty contest for green hotels.
The organization specializes in scientific benchmarking and certification for travel and tourism, evaluating how sustainability is built into the way a property operates. Its framework looks at everything from energy and water consumption to waste, wastewater, emissions, ecosystem conservation, land use and social and cultural management. EarthCheck Certified is also recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and approved by Mexico’s Secretariat of Tourism.
For a traveler, however, the explanation can be much simpler: someone other than the hotel has looked at the evidence. That distinction matters in an industry where almost every property can describe itself as sustainable, responsible or eco-conscious.
Travelers Want Sustainability but They Also Want Something They Can Trust
Interest in more responsible travel has been growing for years. What is changing is how travelers identify it. Booking.com’s 2026 Travel & Sustainability Report, based on 32,500 travelers across 35 countries and territories, found that 85% consider more sustainable travel important or very important. More than a third of every generation surveyed from Gen Z to Baby Boomers said they plan to stay at a property with a sustainability certification during the next 12 months.
The behavior is already showing up in bookings. In 2025, more than 100 million room nights booked through Booking.com were at accommodations carrying third-party sustainability certification. That does not mean certification makes a hotel impact-free. It does not.
What it can do is give travelers a clearer way to distinguish between a good sustainability story and a system that is actually being measured over time.
In Mexico, Certification Is Becoming Part of the Bigger Picture
El Dorado Maroma’s milestone also arrives as Mexico places more emphasis on measurable sustainability within tourism. The country’s Sectoral Tourism Program 2025–2030 (PROSECTUR) includes sustainability among its strategic objectives, while EarthCheck renewed its collaboration with Mexico’s Secretariat of Tourism in 2026 and continues to serve as the certification partner behind Distintivo S, the national sustainability recognition for tourism businesses. According to EarthCheck, 106 properties in Mexico are currently benchmarking their performance against the EarthCheck Standard.That places individual hotel certifications inside a broader movement: destinations are no longer simply talking about sustainability as an aspiration. They are building systems designed to track it.
Why Platinum Matters
The most interesting part of El Dorado Maroma’s certification is not the word Platinum. It is the time behind it. The resort reached this level after a decade within the EarthCheck certification process. That matters because sustainability programs can change when leadership changes, budgets tighten or priorities shift. Maintaining standards over years requires something more permanent. “Reaching this milestone after 10 years is especially meaningful because it reflects something we have learned throughout our history: lasting progress requires the ability to evolve without losing sight of who we are,” said Dolores López Lira e Hinojo, Chairwoman & Founder of Grupo Lomas. “For us, sustainability is part of that evolution.” The badge may be the part guests notice.
The decade behind it is what gives it weight.
The Most Important Sustainability Work May Be the Part You Never See
Some sustainability initiatives photograph beautifully. Others happen in boiler rooms, purchasing departments, gardens, wastewater systems and thousands of operational decisions a guest may never think about. El Dorado Maroma’s certification sits within Grupo Lomas’ Evolución Responsable, an approach built around Prosperity, People and Planet. Across the group, that philosophy reaches from community and biodiversity programs to the everyday work of managing resources more carefully. A traveler can see a reusable bottle. It is much harder to see how a resort manages wastewater, tracks energy use or makes procurement decisions.
That is precisely where independent certification can become meaningful. EarthCheck’s framework also goes beyond environmental performance to include social and cultural management, while Grupo Lomas connects responsible tourism with employees, communities and the natural and cultural heritage of the places where it operates. The idea of sustainable travel is expanding with it.
It is no longer only about what happens inside the hotel room. It is also about what tourism leaves behind in the destination.
Certification Is Becoming Part of the Booking Journey
A sustainability certification probably will not beat a beautiful beach, a great location or the right price when someone chooses a hotel. But it is increasingly becoming part of the decision.
Booking.com’s latest Travel & Sustainability research found that 36% of travelers plan to stay at an accommodation with a sustainability certification this year, while more than 100 million room nights at certified properties were booked through the platform in 2025.
That interest is showing up in how travelers research hotels, too. Google Travel now surfaces sustainability information for eligible properties and identifies certifications from independent organizations, including EarthCheck, bringing those credentials closer to the moment when someone is actually deciding where to stay.
For a traveler, that can make a complicated sustainability story much easier to read. Few people planning a Riviera Maya escape are going to dig through water-consumption data, waste systems or years of environmental reports before booking. A recognizable certification can turn all of that behind-the-scenes work into something much simpler: a signal that the claims have been measured over time.
That is what gives El Dorado Maroma’s Platinum status particular relevance. Its 10-year EarthCheck history represents years of benchmarking, assessment and continued improvement behind an experience that, from the guest’s perspective, may simply look like a beautiful beach, warm hospitality and a memorable stay.
