At Sandos Hotels and Resorts, as part of our company's core vision and mission, we aim to incorporate an active and comprehensive policy regarding ecological sustainability and care for our global environment. These policies include our practices towards the care of captive and wild animals that our visitors encounter on our properties.

In our main eco-resort, Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa, all of the animals contained in enclosures, are indigenous to the region. Many of these animals suffer from poor care and ill health in both captivity and the wild. Our resident donkeys and dogs, for example, were adopted from areas in the Yucatan and would likely live without proper care if we had not given them refuge.

 Our intention is to enact thoughtful and well-planned sterilization and breed and release programs for these animals, so populations that may grow out of control, such as cats, dogs, deer, or raccoons will self-regulate and not have to depend on human care or suffer from poor care and poor health.

 Through this program we also intend to aid animals that may be in danger of extinction or unaccustomed to human care, such as deer, birds, and sea turtles, to return to their natural habitats into local wildlife zones that have little or no human infrastructures or activities.

While we do not run any official animal shelter or rescue programs, Sandos Hotels and Resorts aims to provide — when possible– temporary or permanent care for both wild and captive animals that require rescue and rehabilitation. We are proud to offer our “Cat Cafes” to wild cats that live on our properties. Through these feeding and water stations, we support the work of local animal shelters including Coco’s Cat Rescue, well-known for their extensive work in animal rescue and sterilization.

Sandos is also pleased to announce that we were recently successful in ending a long-term contract that allowed for the display and photographic rights of captive animals to interact with guests in Sandos Caracol. This contract preceded Sandos’ acquisition of the Caracol property. We have prohibited animals from being used for profit in photographs in Sandos Caracol as of August, 2012.

We encourage our guests to experience and also respect the local wildlife. An integral part of this is to view them and enjoy their activities, but to refrain from feeding any wild animal. This includes the many wild raccoons, monkeys, birds, wild cats or dogs, fish, and coati that live on our properties.

At Sandos we aim to promote an awareness of and an appreciation for our local wildlife and habitats, and we hope that our guests will participate in our conservation practices when interacting with animals who live on and also populate our properties.

On September 29th, Sandos Hotels and Resorts participated in the International Coastal Cleanup, an annual event sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy, to clean and care for beaches and waterways.

We thank all of our Sandistas for volunteering their time in this important event. Again, this year, we reached our goal of having 50 Sandistas participate in this very important ecological cause. The data from our effort has been delivered to SOFEMAT so we can track the impact Sandos Caracol has generated in this very important international cleaning and so we can also learn more about how to control waste in our oceans and waterways.

We are very proud of this work and congratulate and thank our hotel staff for their efforts.

Sandos Hotels & Resorts has created a new green line of hotels, consisting of Sandos San Blas in Tenerife (Canary Islands) and Sandos Caracol in Riviera Maya (Mexico). Both have something in common that make them very different to any other accommodation: the natural areas that they protect and show to the travelers.

Sandos Caracol is an eco-resort whose design and building was made taking in consideration the natural wonder that surrounds. So, main attractions in the hotel are precisely its natural areas: beach and mangrove. In order to teach about the place’s history and biodiversity, Xcalacoco Experience was created as a collection of activities around Maya’s customs and relationship with environment.

More than a simply ecotouristic attraction, Sandos Caracol efforts are to offer to its guests five stars holidays with a minimum environment impact. It is the first hotel in the world using a homemade electric car with solar panels to carry clients and luggage; moreover they are using solar panels to heat water in rooms. But taking care of the Earth needs a social task too and it is made on one side with guests, who can go to environmental awareness and responsible tourism courses and on the other side with local community, helding collaborations with public institutions of Playa del Carmen (Quintana Roo) in beaches and underprivileged children care.

Thousands miles away, in Tenerife, Sandos San Blas Hotel hosts the Environmental Reserve under the same name. This is one little strip that has a great flora and fauna diversity, besides prehistoric settlements remains of first Canary people, the Guanches. Visiting this place is a must to this hotel’s guests, though being a guest is not a requirement to do the visit. There History and Nature join.

Both hotels apply environmental politics to their activity: in energetic matters every possible renewable energy is used, also efficient electric systems; in catering the point is to reach ‘slow food’ idea, so this way they can guarantee that every edible has been produced no more than 50 miles away and, if possible, in environmental respectful ways; also in water saving and lots of small gestures that make a big effort. These initiatives have been recognized, in all Sandos hotels, by Travelife Golden Award.

Sandos Hotels & Resorts shows this and more news in in International Tourism Show of Catalunya (held in Barcelona from April 20 to 22). Sandos is a sound company that nowadays administers six hotels, located in Spain and Mexico, and has development plans in Dominican Republic. The pillars of its strategy are innovation, differentiation and sustainability.