Rhulani is the second hotel in South Africa to receive a Travelife Gold Sustainability Certification

As of 23 April 2025, Rhulani Safari Lodge is only the second hotel in South Africa to receive a "Travelife Gold" certification, thus meeting travel standards according to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). This confirms our ongoing commitment to a better place to live, work and visit.

"We have worked very hard over the past six months to achieve this certification," says Rhulani's manager, Tom-Hendrik Basson. Meeting the 143 requirements from Travelife numerous adjustments to our operations had to be implemented. But that's not all. "Above all, it required a change of mindset among all our employees so that we're all ultimately moving in the right direction as a team."

Travelife is a global accommodation sustainability certification body, respected for being impartial and robust. Their comprehensive set of requirements cover emissions, biodiversity, human rights, fair labour, child safeguarding and animal welfare.

"It is probably the most recognized organization in the hotel industry and worldwide when it comes to sustainability certification," says Rhulani's owner Rolf Steiner. “So, it was a major goal for us to familiarize ourselves with all the components of sustainability and align ourselves accordingly. This involves us, our surrounding communities, the beautiful natural around us, our suppliers and, of course, our guests who want to commit to responsible tourism.”

In preparation for the audit, we had already done good preparatory work in some areas. "Our vision regarding employee development, fair treatment, working conditions, but also the respectful coexistence with the environment, wildlife and the surrounding communities were already well aligned with Travelife's requirements," says Rolf. "The hardest work involved measuring our CO2 emissions and developing concrete action plans to reduce them over time."

This work particularly concerned Tom-Hendrik who dealt with countless details every day. "Since we are 100% solar, we had a very good starting position. But still there was a lot to do,” he says. “We had to redesign the waste disposal system, now separating and measuring the weight of all waste, we started to track the water consumption from the boreholes and bottled water, the firewood we burn, we eliminated single-use plastics as well as potentially harmful substances in cleaning products, and much more.”

The auditor was very impressed during his visit to Rhulani. Only eight of the 143 requirements were not yet perfect, and those were corrected shortly after the audit. Travelife informed: “The certification has been issued today. Achieving Travelife Certification is something to be very proud of and we congratulate you for taking important steps to continually improve your impact on people and the planet.”

The hard work has been done, but now we're doing everything we can to maintain the high standard and continuously further improve in all metrics. "We will share all improvements on our website and social media channels over time and will celebrate our the successes together with our employees and our guests."