Sustainability Stories: How Capsule Hotel is making sustainability the default

“Many travellers want to make more sustainable choices, but few want sustainability lessons while on holiday.” 

At Capsule Hotel, a growing hotel group that began with just 20 beds in Lucerne and has since expanded to 421 beds across five properties in Switzerland and Denmark, sustainability is designed to feel like a natural part of the guest experience rather than an extra consideration.  

While the team had always cared about sustainability, it wasn’t until 2022 that they began exploring how to turn those intentions into action.  

Around the same time, Sustainability Specialist Valentina Rodoni joined the business through a management trainee programme, bringing a passion for sustainable tourism and helping kick-start Capsule Hotel’s sustainability journey.  

Today, from locally sourced breakfast products and simple recycling initiatives to a guest programme that has helped tackle plastic pollution, Capsule Hotel is proving that small actions can add up to meaningful impact.  

Starting from scratch 

“…a small and growing company figuring it out, step by step.”  

Like many small hospitality businesses, Capsule Hotel cared about sustainability long before it had a formal strategy.  

The challenge wasn’t enthusiasm. It was knowing where to start.  

As the team began looking more closely at their environmental impact, they worked with sustainability experts and local partners to understand where they could make the biggest difference. From energy and water use to waste and laundry, the goal was simple: understand what mattered most and where they could have the greatest impact.  

What followed wasn’t a perfectly mapped-out plan, but a journey of learning, testing and improving, one step at a time.  

As Valentina puts it: 

“Just do it. Then do it a bit differently. Then try again. That’s how we figured it out.” 

Making sustainability the default 

Sustainability has been part of Capsule Hotel’s journey for several years, but rather than creating a long list of rules for guests to follow, the team focused on building responsible choices into everyday experiences.  

Whether that’s refilling a water bottle, choosing locally sourced breakfast products, making recycling simple or staying in resource-efficient shared spaces, sustainability is designed to feel like a natural part of the stay rather than an extra consideration.  

As Valentina explains, the goal is simple:  

“Sustainability is just part of the package. What we really believe in is making the easy choice the default one.” 

For Capsule Hotel, guests shouldn’t need to dramatically change their behaviour to make a positive impact. Instead, sustainable choices are built into the experience from the moment they arrive.  

This approach was reinforced through guest research conducted by the hotel group. While travellers appreciated sustainability initiatives, most didn’t want constant reminders about them during their stay. The findings confirmed what the team had already suspected: when sustainability is built into the experience, actions often speak louder than messaging.  

The towel that started a conversation 

One of Capsule Hotel’s most successful sustainability initiatives started with a simple observation.  

Many guests stay for just one or two nights, yet some would routinely request a fresh towel after a single use. The team began asking themselves a question: if most people reuse their towels at home, why should travel be any different?  

Rather than banning additional towels or introducing strict rules, Capsule Hotel took a more practical approach. Guests can request an extra towel for a small fee, with CHF 1 from that fee donated to everwave, an organisation that removes plastic from rivers before it reaches the ocean. The initiative was designed to encourage reuse while giving travellers a simple way to support environmental action if they chose to do so.  

What happened next surprised the team.  

Guests weren’t interested in extra towels. They were interested in contributing.  

The hotel introduced an option for guests to donate directly during the booking process, similar to adding breakfast or other extras to their stay. Since launching the initiative, more than 250 guests have chosen to support it voluntarily. Together with a company-led LinkedIn campaign, guests have helped remove 562kg of plastic from rivers so far.  

“When you make something easy and optional, people lean in far more than when you push too hard,” says Valentina. 

More than a donation 

While the everwave partnership has delivered measurable results, it has also changed the way Capsule Hotel thinks about traveller behaviour.  

What began as a simple initiative to raise awareness about unnecessary laundry and waste later revealed something much bigger. After measuring its environmental impact, the team discovered that laundry was actually its single largest source of emissions, accounting for 53% of its footprint.  

The project also challenged assumptions about how guests engage with sustainability. Guest surveys revealed that while 75% of travellers noticed sustainability initiatives during their stay, only 25% found them ‘very clear’. Meanwhile, just 20% wanted more sustainability information, and 45% preferred less. The findings reinforced Capsule Hotel’s belief that sustainability is most effective when it’s built into the experience, rather than constantly talked about.  

“The main takeaway is that less is more,” says Valentina. “The answer isn’t talking about sustainability in fifteen different ways. It’s communicating less, but communicating better.” 

For Capsule Hotel, the answer wasn’t to remove comfort from the guest experience, but to make sustainable choices feel natural. Whether it’s reusing a towel, refilling a water bottle or supporting a local environmental project, small actions can add up to meaningful change. 

What we’ve learned along the way  

One of the biggest lessons from Capsule Hotel’s sustainability journey is that meaningful change doesn’t always require massive investment or complicated solutions. Instead, it’s often the small actions, repeated consistently, that make the biggest difference.  

The team believes many hostels are already making a positive impact, often without realising it. Sometimes the challenge isn’t knowing where to start, but recognising what’s already working and finding ways to build on it.  

As Valentina puts it, “Hostels are intrinsically more efficient than any hotel. Shared accommodation naturally uses space and resources more efficiently, while hostels frequently create stronger connections between travellers, local businesses and surrounding communities.” 

By measuring their impact and identifying opportunities for improvement, Capsule Hotel has been able to build on those strengths one step at a time. Along the way, the team discovered that fewer goals often lead to greater progress, that listening to guests is just as important as collecting data, and that communicating sustainability can sometimes be harder than implementing it.  

“It’s easy to think sustainability is this huge, scary thing,” says Valentina. “But sometimes the best thing to do is just start with one small change.”  

For Capsule Hotel, success has come from starting small, measuring progress and being honest about what works and what doesn’t.  

2026 and beyond… 

Looking ahead, the team plans to continue reducing water and energy consumption, expanding plant-based food options, strengthening relationships with local suppliers and creating more opportunities for community engagement across its properties.  

And while the initiatives may evolve, the goal remains the same: make sustainability part of everyday hospitality rather than something separate.  

Capsule Hotel’s story demonstrates that sustainability doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes it starts with reusing a towel. Sometimes it starts with carrying a reusable water bottle. And sometimes it starts with a simple decision to support a project that protects rivers before plastic reaches the ocean.  

The team’s journey is proof that when sustainable choices become part of everyday travel rather than an extra task, travellers are more than willing to get involved. 

“The gap isn’t between doing nothing and doing everything. It’s between what you’re already doing and recognising it, naming it and building on it.”  

If you’re visiting a Capsule Hotel location, here are a few of Valentina’s recommendations for travelling more consciously and connecting with local communities: 

🌍 Explore like a local  

Whether it’s floating down Basel’s Rhine, heading into the mountains around Lucerne, discovering Zurich’s river culture or spending an evening at Copenhagen‘s Reffen street food market, seek out the local experiences that connect you with people, culture and place. 

♻️ Support initiatives making a difference  

Learn more about everwave, the organisation helping remove plastic from rivers before it reaches the ocean.  Through Capsule Hotel’s towel initiative, guests have already helped remove hundreds of kilograms of plastic from waterways. The team also recommends Replacer, which helps hospitality businesses reduce single-use waste through smarter, reusable alternatives. 

💧 Travel more consciously  

Bring a reusable water bottle. Across much of Europe, safe drinking water is widely available, making it easy to avoid single-use plastic. And wherever you travel, try to leave places a little better than you found them.