Sustainable travels: why choosing a multi-building hotel

Let's see in detail a type of sustainable tourist accomodation: multi-building hotels. What they are and why it's a good idea to choose tem for our responsible stays. 

We said that one of the things that should be done to travel in a sustainable way should be to choose a tourist accommodation that respects the dictates of sustainable tourism. In addition to the accommodations that pay attention to resource savings, to recycling and to local products, there are some of them that can offer a particular point of view to those who choose them. So, in this blog post we talk about them, the multi-building hotels.

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What are multi-building hotels?

Multi-building hotels are tourist accommodation characterized by having rooms and common areas located in a village, most likely in the historic centre, differently from a traditional hotel that, on the contrary, includes all areas in one building. I make you an example: I decide to stay in the multi-building hotel of Alberobello. My room will be a trullo in the historic centre, in which I’ll find what in general is offered in a hotel room. The morning after, when I’ll have breakfast, I’ll go out of my trullo to reach the one where the breakfast is served.

So, it’s about several buildings close together and managed in a unitary way and in professional form.

Staying in a multi-building hotel, you’ll have all the services generally offered in a tourist accommodation with the same professionalism, but living literally in a typical house of the visited place.

Why to choose a multi-building hotel?

If the aim of your visit is to really know the destination where you are, to appreciate its culture and to stay in an accomodation that talks to you about the place in an authentic way, the multi-building hotel is for you.

 

This type of hotel comes actually to re-evaluate and to promote the typical houses of destinations in order to offer an experience that can be as much as possible close to local lifestyle. Multi-building hotel are located in villages, close to the inhabitants of the place. Besides, they offer the possibility to live a unique experience . To make you an example, in how many places out of Valle d’Itria can you try the experience of staying in a trullo? Or, you visit Matera and would you like to feel the feeling of waking up in hosue-cave, as the inhabitants of Matera did few time ago? Here what’s the real added value of multi-building hotels: a unique offer practically.

Obviously, multi-building hotels have a meaning when the buildings that composed them already exist in the place and need to be restored. If they need to be built from scratch to create a multi-building hotel, it wouldn't be different from a traditional one, don't you think?

I also add that a multi-building hotel offers a certain amount of independency to its guests. In hotel rooms, you generally find, besides the bed and the bathroom, a mini fridge. Some rooms of multi-building hotels, being actual houses, can offer the possibility to use the kitchen. It may seem a silly thing, but I give you my example. I have celiac disease. Obviously, while travelling I try to taste local food that I can eat without the risk of feeling sick and wasting my stay. It happened, unfortunately, for several reasons, to have some trouble finding a place where to eat. In that case, having a kitchen at my disposal was a real luck!

In conclusion  

Wanting to be sustainable means that we have to make some choices (sometimes even to make our life more complicated, let’s say it, but I think that it’s just a matter of habit) and finding the right tourist accommodation, where you can stay without harming the place that hosts us is an important part of the organization of our sustainable and responsible travel.

If you ask me if I would choose a multi-building hotel, I would definitely say yes, either for the reasons I’ve already said and because I’m inevitably fascinated by old and traditional dwellings; I love to see how buildings are restored and valued to give them a new life, keeping at the same time their historical and cultural heritage. I think that opting for a multi-building hotel with this point of view is much more than simply choosing an accommodation where to sleep: I think that it’s a conscious and conscientious way to give value to the culture of the place.

And you? Would you stay in a multi-building hotel?