Researchers found that revenue increases were found in LEED-certified hotels of all types, although most hotels in the study were upscale or luxury properties located in urban or suburban locations.
Photo: Rendering courtesy of LSL Las Vegas

LEED-certified hotels make more money in average daily rates and revenue per available room than their non-LEED competitors, according to a study by Cornell University.

This is a change from a 2013 Cornell study that stated hotels, on average, don't see a revenue boost from going green, according to Environmental Leader.

The new study compared the performance of 93 LEED-certified US hotels (the number for which operating data were available) to that of 514 comparable competitors. The authors used hotel performance data provided by STR, a Partner of the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell.

Many of the hotels had only recently been certified, so the study could only compare their revenue for a two-year period. However, since companies like Marriott have now included LEED as part of their own design specifications for new constructions, the authors expect to have more hotels to include in their study data in the future.

According to Rohit Verma, one of the study's authors, this makes sense because many of the LEED standards involve a hotel's connection to public transit or other resources typical of urban areas.

This is not the first time that a university study has found revenue increases in LEED-certified buildings. In 2012, University of Notre Dame researchers compared the financial performance of 93 LEED-rated bank branches with 469 non-rated branches and found the LEED-rated facilities opened 458 more consumer deposit accounts and had over $3 million more in consumer deposit balances per facility per year over the non-certified properties.