In September, eighteen of the companies we work with most — eleven hotels and lodges, seven inbound agencies and operators of activities and transfers — received the same package from Kallpa: a service agreement to sign, a questionnaire, a short introduction to how we work and an invitation to a training session. It is the first round of something we intend to repeat every year: a way of knowing, with the same questions asked at the same time, how each supplier works and how that changes from one year to the next. Kallpa works with several hundred suppliers; the cycle starts with these eighteen and will reach more of them each year.
The hotel questionnaire has fifteen questions, the operators' fourteen. Some of them you would expect: certifications, energy, water, waste, single-use plastics, permits, insurance, the state of the fleet. Others say more about a place than its lights and bins do: how many of the staff are local, where the food on the menu comes from, who makes what is sold in the shop, how drivers are trained, and whether everyone on the team knows what to do if a child is at risk.
The first answers are already in, and they read like the places themselves. Aguas Grandes, in Puerto Iguazú, is joining Bayka, a project that plants trees in reserves across Misiones, is working towards Biosphere certification and has already passed our training on to its own guides. Pudu Lodge, in El Chaltén, has more than 70% local staff, separates its waste into three streams, has done away with straws, disposable tableware and single-use toiletries, puts local food on the menu and promotes the artisans' fair in town.
Every answer is self-declared, and we read it that way. Together they produce a score out of 100: seventy points for the questionnaire, thirty for completing the process, with the agreement signed, the paperwork in order and the training done. Among the first eleven to answer, scores ran from 43 to 95 — operators averaged 78 and hotels 64, and five came in above 70. The round stays open until 30 November, so these numbers will move.
What the score opens up is the point of the exercise. Above 70, a supplier can receive Kallpa's Annual Recognition, which brings priority when we assign services and visibility with our clients; the first will be awarded in September 2027. Between 50 and 69, we consider a supplier in development. Below 50, we put our observations in writing, agree an improvement plan with a date and work through it together; if nothing moves, we review whether to keep working together. From 2027 the cycle runs every year between June and August.
There is one thing you can already use. Our catalogue marks the accommodations that hold third-party certification: 75 of the 289 in it, about one in four, are certified by Hoteles más Verdes and carry a green leaf in WebConnect, the online rates system you use to build your programmes. When quality and price are equal, we choose the certified option first, and our team offers a certified alternative whenever there is one.
