Time and space: The missing context in hotel ESG communication

This study examines the concreteness of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) communication in the hotel sector by applying a spacetime configuration framework alongside the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). As stakeholder pressure on ESG practices grows, the clarity and concreteness of disclosures become increasingly important. The study analyzes 1383 statements from annual ESG reports published in English by the top 100 hotel chains ranked by the number of rooms available. Each statement is coded on three dimensions: temporal concreteness, spatial concreteness, and alignment with ESRS categories. Findings indicate that hotels tend to use abstract language in ESG narratives, particularly in social and governance domains, while environmental statements are more likely to include concrete temporal references. Compared to existing literature, these results provide insights into the discourse architecture of ESG sentences rather than their substantive content. Hotel chains should take this into account to enhance the credibility of their ESG reporting. • Hotels report ESG facts without anchoring them in time or space, reducing transparency. • The transparency of temporal and spatial context does not depend on headquarters’ location and applied reporting framework. • Vague ESG language increases legal and reputational risks as regulatory enforcement intensified under new EU directives.