Since the early 1990s, tourism companies, mostly hotel facilities, have undertaken different voluntary initiatives to show their commitment to sustainable tourism. Among the voluntary tools applied by the hotel industry, the most common are codes of conduct, best environmental practices, eco‐labels, environmental management systems (EMSs) and environmental performance indicators.

This article presents the findings of empirical research conducted with Spanish hotels that have adopted one or more of the existing environmental tools. Based on a qualitative exploration of perceptions and experiences of hotel managers applying these instruments, the general understanding of the concept of sustainable tourism is examined, and the practical application of different voluntary environmental instruments is analysed. In an attempt to interpret the facilitators and barriers reported by hotel companies, three interpretative approaches are combined to explain the selective adoption of environmental tools: the perspective of competitive advantages, the perspective of stakeholders' influence and the perspective of the human cognitive process. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.