The purpose of this research is to explore the challenges of leaders (lodging owners) when implementing sustainable practices in the lodging industry in Sri Lanka. The authors have used two established models (SPM3 & STM) to create the new model called SLM3, which was used to extract data and measure the perceptions of leaders with a sustainable narrative, when implementing sustainable practices within their lodging in Sri Lanka. This was done in order to bridge a gap for the authors, since there was no established model yet, that could be used for the purpose of this research. After using the model for the current research in the context of Sri Lanka, the authors conclude that the model mostly fulfilled the aim that it was created for, although some minor alterations were made to improve its simplicity and make it more understandable. The main findings are that the main challenges of lodging owners with a sustainable narrative, when implementing sustainable practices are gender equality, lack of collaboration and networks, limited influence, the hierarchical system and long-term thinking related to education. The reported challenges prevent the lodging owners in Sri Lanka from implementing sustainable practices to the extent to which they would like to.