Cage-Free Hotel Pledges Mean Little Without Strong Regulation

Eggs are one of the most commonly used ingredients in hotel food service, from breakfast buffets to baked goods. In recent years, many major hotel chains have publicly committed to sourcing 100% cage-free eggs — a welfare improvement that allows hens to move more freely and engage in natural behaviors like perching and dust-bathing rather than being confined in wire cages where movement is severely restricted. But making a global commitment is far easier than fulfilling one. While hotel headquarters may set cage-free targets for their entire portfolio, the availability of cage-free eggs varies dramatically depending on where a hotel actually operates — and that gap has real consequences for hens around the world.

This report, commissioned by the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance and authored by researchers at Michigan State University, set out to diagnose why cage-free adoption in the hospitality sector differs so dramatically across markets. The researchers aimed to identify where cage-free sourcing is currently feasible, where it remains constrained, and what factors most determine progress in practice.

How The Study Was Conducted

The researchers combined a global evidence review with original data collection. They drew on government statistics, academic studies, certification and housing standards documents, industry reports, and regulatory assessments. They also conducted semi-structured interviews in December 2025 with 12 professionals across seven hotel groups, ranging from economy to luxury segments, and with representatives from three animal welfare organizations. In addition, the team analyzed confidential procurement data shared by member companies of the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. Nine countries served as focus markets: France, the U.S., Brazil, Indonesia, China, Japan, India, Mexico, and Morocco.

What The Researchers Found

The study’s central finding is that regulation, not consumer demand, is the primary driver of cage-free adoption in hospitality. Hotel guests don’t typically choose where to stay based on egg sourcing, so hotels face far less market pressure than grocery retailers to actually follow through on cage-free commitments. Instead, the study suggests that progress is shaped overwhelmingly by whether governments have mandated cage-free standards and whether cage-free supply chains have developed as a result.

This pattern shows up clearly in the data. In markets with strong regulatory frameworks — particularly Western Europe, North America, and Oceania — cage-free sourcing in managed hotels can reach 80% to 90%. Western Europe leads this trend: the European Union banned battery cages in 2012, with further restrictions on enriched cages planned by 2027, and France has gone beyond these minimums by prohibiting the retail sale of caged shell eggs since 2022. In the U.S., 10 states have enacted cage-free production or sales mandates, and some managed portfolios have already exceeded 90% cage-free procurement.

By contrast, most of Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa have limited cage-free regulations. In these markets, cage-free eggs often make up less than half of hotel purchases — and in some countries, near zero. China produces 40% of the world’s eggs, yet only about 10% come from cage-free systems. Price premiums for cage-free eggs in developing markets can reach 80% to 300%, compared with roughly 20% to 35% in the U.S. and 10% in Europe. According to the report, these cost differences matter because most hotels have limited flexibility to absorb higher ingredient costs, meaning that in markets where cage-free eggs are scarce and expensive, even committed hotel brands have little practical ability to follow through.

The report also surfaces an important operational gap: liquid and processed eggs (formats widely used in large-scale hotel food service) are harder to source in cage-free form than shell eggs in most markets. Even in countries with growing cage-free shell egg supply, liquid and processed cage-free options often lag behind, limiting the extent to which hotels can genuinely transition their purchasing.

Business structure within hotel chains also matters. Hotels directly managed by a brand adopt cage-free sourcing far faster than franchised properties. In markets like the U.S., U.K., Australia, and parts of Asia, franchised hotels report cage-free sourcing rates approximately 20 to 50 percentage points lower than managed properties in the same region. Franchisees typically have more independence over purchasing decisions, making corporate cage-free standards difficult to enforce.

Financing represents another structural barrier. Converting a conventional egg operation to cage-free requires substantial capital investment, and producers often need multi-year purchase commitments to justify that investment. Most hotels buy eggs through short-term, fragmented contracts, creating too much uncertainty for producers to invest in conversion. This dynamic slows supply expansion even where producers are willing to transition.

Finally, the researchers found significant data gaps. Many hotel companies lack the systems needed to track whether their eggs are actually cage-free across their global portfolios, particularly outside the U.S. and European Union. Without that visibility, monitoring progress — or holding individual properties accountable — is nearly impossible.

Limitations

This is the first phase of a two-phase study and is explicitly diagnostic. The interview sample is small, and all data from participating hotel brands are presented only in aggregate to protect commercial confidentiality. The nine focus countries are illustrative rather than exhaustive, and market conditions may have shifted since data collection concluded.

What This Means For Animal Advocates

The report serves as a reminder that regulation is a powerful lever for change. Where governments have mandated cage-free egg production or sales, supply chains have developed and adoption has followed — reliably, and at scale. For advocates, this suggests that ongoing policy work is crucial.

However, advocates will also want to read the report’s conclusions with its origins in mind: it was commissioned by a hospitality industry body, and its framing is sympathetic to the structural barriers that hotels face. The animal welfare organizations interviewed for the study argue that corporate cage-free commitments remain technically and economically achievable as long as companies prioritize them and deploy available tools (and other groups have made similar assessments). They recommend concrete steps that hotels have the capacity to take now, including mapping credible suppliers, offering long-term purchase commitments to reduce producer risk, training local procurement teams, and making cage-free sourcing an enforceable brand standard rather than a voluntary aspiration.

Still, the gap between public cage-free pledges and actual purchasing in the hospitality sector is both real and well documented here, and the findings can help advocates understand the industry’s own account of why progress is slow.

This summary was drafted by a large language model (LLM) and closely edited by our Research Library Manager for clarity and accuracy. As per our AI policy, Faunalytics only uses LLMs to summarize very long reports (50+ pages) that are not appropriate to assign to volunteers, as well as studies that contain graphic descriptions of animal cruelty or animal industries. We remain committed to bringing you reliable data, which is why any AI-generated work will always be reviewed by a human.