Hotelbeds has published its second Corporate Responsibility report, highlighting all the ways it adapted its CSR approach in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide support to the global travel industry and to communities most impacted by the unprecedented situation.
Prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard, and in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the report covers the period from October 1st 2019 to September 30th2020 and contains the most relevant achievements.
The report highlights how Hotelbeds adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic to drive new CSR initiatives, including:
- The ‘Safe2Stay’ scheme – Highlighting those properties with health & safety protocols in place to help keep guests safe;
- Holidays for Heroes – Offering exclusive hotel discounts to frontline workers, and donating a percentage of the revenue to the Red Cross;
- The Green Hotels programme – Identifying, highlighting and promoting sustainable establishments from across its portfolio.
- Moving its Corporate Volunteering Progamme on-line, with 500 employees contributing 1500 volunteering hours to support NGOs
Examples include:
- The launch of the Safe2Stay scheme based around a series of health & safety protocols and launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to enable hotels across its 180,000 strong portfolio to highlight the measures they were taking to keep guests safe.
- The adaptation of the Corporate Volunteering Programme to be fully on-line as mobility restrictions were introduced globally. More than 500 employees contributed over 1500 hours of their own time to support groups and communities most impacted by COVID-19. Activities included telephone calls and letters of compassion to hospital patients, virtual workshops offering tutoring and basic learning to people with disabilities, story-telling to support children living in poverty and the provision of web design and social media training to help non-profit organisations to improve their marketing.
- The creation and launch of the Green Hotels Programme to identify, highlight and promote sustainable accommodation across its portfolio, with over 15,000 properties certified within the period of the report.
- And for the third year running, Hotelbeds was independently certified as a Carbon Neutral organisation, having demonstrated a significant reduction in its carbon emissions, including energy and paper consumptions, waste management, business travel and water supply.
In announcing the publication of this second report, Executive Chairman at Hotelbeds, Joan Vilà, said: “The extreme disruption and damage caused to the travel industry and the world by just one virus clearly demonstrates the very urgent and important need for our sector to commit to a sustainable future and increase our positive impact now more than ever.”
He added: “This report demonstrates our continued commitment to become a responsible and transparent business. We recognise that as a leader in our sector, the eyes of all our stakeholders and future generations are fixed firmly on us and they expect us to drive resilience, adapt with the times and build long-term sustainability not just at an environmental level but also socially and economically.
“We are firmly committed to this and are setting long-term goals to benefit the travellers of today and tomorrow, as well as to prioritise their health, safety and well-being along with those of our employees, partners and local communities.
“I am extremely proud to publish this report as it is a strong indication of the dedication of our company to this agenda. In a year like no other, we have not only maintained our levels of commitment but have significantly improved them which will stand us in good stead as we start to see the first signs of industry recovery during 2021.”
