Information is not enough to boost water savings in hotel rooms

Abstract Water is a key scarce resource. Therefore, most hotels place written messages in their rooms to promote guests’ water-saving behaviors. Existing research has focused on how nudges prompt towel reuse, reducing water consumption indirectly. We examine the impact of a boost —that fosters people’s competences—on direct water consumption in the shower, tap, and toilet. We conducted two field studies in Mallorca, Spain, in 2022 and 2023, at 14 hotel rooms equipped with digital water meters. In treatment rooms, guests were exposed to a leaflet informing them about water scarcity in Mallorca and of ways to save water in the hotel room. In the control condition, rooms had no leaflets. The results show that the boost had no impact on guests’ water savings—but on towel reuse. Our findings, with important implications for hotel management and policy making, show some limits of boosts for direct water conservation and reveal a possible form of greenwashing.