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Vacation Rental: SQUAKE

Calculate the emissions of a vacation rental stay from heating, electricity and water use plus amenities such as a sauna, swimming pool or air conditioner, with SQUAKE's own methodology.

type accommodationmethodology SQUAKESupports audit mode

Overview

The vacation rental industry has grown rapidly, which brings both opportunities and challenges for its environmental impact. SQUAKE developed a methodology dedicated to vacation rentals. Rooted in research and data analysis, it looks closely at heating, electricity and water consumption, and at amenities.

The methodology is certified by GUTcert following the "GHG Protocol - Product Life Cycle Accounting & Reporting Standard". By examining these elements, it gives a holistic view of the climate impact of vacation rentals. The resulting metrics give property owners and guests insights that encourage sustainable practices.

How it's calculated

CO₂ in gramsnights × (floor area × heating per m² per day + visitors × (electricity per person per day + water per person per day) + sauna per day + swimming pool per day + air conditioner per day)
Nights
number_of_nights: number of nights of the stay.
Floor area
square_meters: floor area of the rental.
Heating per m² per day
co2_for_heating_per_day_per_sqm_in_g: grams of CO₂ for heating per square meter per day.
Visitors
number_of_visitors: number of people staying.
Electricity per person per day
co2_for_electricity_per_day_per_person_in_g: grams of CO₂ for electricity per person per day.
Water per person per day
co2_for_water_per_day_per_person_in_g: grams of CO₂ for water per person per day.
Sauna per day
co2_for_sauna_per_day_in_g, added only if sauna is true.
Swimming pool per day
co2_for_swimming_pool_per_day_in_g, added only if swimming_pool is true.
Air conditioner per day
co2_for_air_conditioner_per_day_in_g, added only if air_conditioner is true.

Calculation background

  1. Carbon emissions per person are estimated from:
    1. Average water consumption per day, converted to carbon emissions per day (sources: Global Water Use (n.d.). Worldometer.; Review of Emission Factors 2021 (2021). Climate Neutral Group.; etc.)
    2. Average electricity consumption per day, converted to carbon emissions per day (sources: Greenhouse gas emission intensity of electricity (2022, July 14). European Environment Agency.; Carbon intensity of electricity (n.d.). Our World in Data.; Electric power consumption (2014). The World Bank.; etc.)
  2. Carbon emissions per square meter:
    1. Average heat consumption per day, converted to carbon emissions per day (sources: Average CO2 emission factor (n.d.). Enerdata.; Common Carbon Metric (2009). UNEP-SBCI.; CO2 emissions per m2 for space heating (2011, August 8). European Environment Agency.; Dorothy L.Robinson. (2011, July). Australian wood heaters currently increase global warming and health costs. Atmospheric Pollution Research, Volume 2, Issue 3, July 2011, Pages 267-274.)
  3. Carbon emissions for additional factors:
    1. Sauna emissions are estimated from its average usage (source: Tissari, J., et al. (2019, December 4). Fine Particle Emissions from Sauna Stoves: Effects of Combustion Appliance and Fuel, and Implications for the Finnish Emission Inventory. Atmosphere, 10 (12).)
    2. Emissions from parking and garage (underground parking) are estimated from a research paper that accounts for emissions from car parking (source: Andrzejewski, M., et al. (2021, September 1). Analysis of pollutant emissions and fuel consumption for the use of a multi-storey car park. Combustion Engines, 187(4), 46-51.)
    3. Emissions from cooling or air conditioning are estimated from the average usage per day across the whole year (source: Dean, B., et al. (2018, May). The Future of Cooling: Opportunities for energy-efficient air conditioning. International Energy Agency.; etc.)
    4. Emissions from a swimming pool are estimated per day (sources: Gallion, T., et al. (2014, May 23). Estimating Water, Energy, and Carbon Footprints of Residential Swimming Pools. Water Reclamation and Sustainability, 343-359.; Guide to Low Carbon Swimming Pools (n.d.). Environmental Protection Department.; Jordaan, N., Narayanan, R. (2019, March 12). A numerical study on various heating options applied to swimming pool for energy saving. Energy Procedia, 160, 131-138.; etc.)
  4. Seasonal logic:
    1. Heating and cooling seasons are defined from the average country temperature (sources: "Worlddata: The World in Numbers." Worlddata.info; World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.; The Weather Year Round Anywhere on Earth - Weather Spark.)
    2. During the cooling season, the air conditioner is assumed to be used every day, and heating is neglected.
    3. During the heating season, the air conditioner is assumed not to be used, and the heating factor is extrapolated from the average heating consumption for the whole season.
    4. Outside both seasons, energy consumption for heating and cooling is assumed to be averaged.

Sample requests

Send a quote before booking, then repeat the call with audit set to true once the booking is final.

{
  "expand": ["items"],
  "items": [{
    "audit": false,
    "external_reference": "test_1",
    "type": "accommodation",
    "number_of_nights": 10,
    "starts_on": "2023-10-10",
    "ends_on": "2023-10-21",
    "sauna": false,
    "country": "DE",
    "number_of_travelers": 2,
    "square_meters": 60,
    "parking": true,
    "garage": false,
    "swimming_pool": false,
    "air_conditioner": true,
    "methodology": "SQUAKE"
  }]
}

audit_for is optional

Pass the ID of an auditable entity when you calculate on behalf of that entity. Otherwise, leave it out.

Defaults

FieldDefaultApplies when
number_of_travelers1No number_of_travelers is sent
square_metersDepends on the countryNo square_meters is sent
saunafalseNo sauna is sent
parkingtrueNo parking is sent
swimming_poolfalseNo swimming_pool is sent
air_conditionerfalseNo air_conditioner is sent
garagefalseNo garage is sent

Request fields

typestringrequired

accommodation

methodologystringrequired

SQUAKE

external_referencestring

Your identifier for the item, up to 128 characters, so you can match results to requests. SQUAKE doesn't guarantee the order of items.

number_of_travelersinteger

Minimum 1. Defaults to 1.

number_of_nightsinteger

Required if you leave out the start and end dates; ignored otherwise. Minimum 1.

starts_onstring

ISO 8601 date, YYYY-MM-DD. Required for the season-specific methodology, or if you leave out number_of_nights.

ends_onstring

ISO 8601 date, YYYY-MM-DD. Required for the season-specific methodology, or if you leave out number_of_nights.

countrystring

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 or alpha-3 code, 2 to 3 characters, matching ^[A-Z]{2,3}$.

square_metersnumber

Minimum 1. The default depends on the country.

saunaboolean

Defaults to false.

parkingboolean

Defaults to true.

swimming_poolboolean

Defaults to false.

air_conditionerboolean

Defaults to false.

garageboolean

Defaults to false.

See every field of POST /v2/calculations in the API reference

Sample response

200 OKapplication/json
{
  "carbon_quantity": 248687,
  "carbon_unit": "gram",
  "items": [{
    "carbon_quantity": 248687,
    "carbon_unit": "gram",
    "external_reference": "test_1",
    "type": "accommodation",
    "methodology": "SQUAKE"
  }]
}

Bibliography

Accommodation

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OverviewHow it's calculatedCalculation backgroundSample requestsDefaultsRequest fieldsSample responseBibliography
POST/v2/calculations

Run this request against the sandbox with your test key.

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Related changes

Accommodation 2024 data updates · 2024