Hospitality-Helps Shines Light on how Hotels Could Help in Crises
Photo by Daniele Franchi on Unsplash
4 March 2022
A group of hotel professionals in Europe has rallied together to seek hotel rooms as urgent shelter for displaced Ukrainian families.
Hospitality-Helps, spearheaded by PKF and Bench Events, is looking for room contributions from hotels operating in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and The Czech Republic.
If you or anyone you know is able to assist, please forward this call for help. To join the initiative, hotels can contribute hotel room nights by clicking here.
It is easy to donate. There is no minimum required roomnights donation, but five rooms for five nights would be a good start. Reservations will each be of up to five nights in double rooms. There may be requests for additional beds in some rooms and hotels can accommodate where possible.
Dozens of families have already sought refuge through the initiative, Hospitality-Helps.org, and hundreds are expected to be accommodated in the coming few days
The effort was the brainchild of Michael Widmann and Christian Walter of PKF Hospitality Group. Bench Events’ Jonathan Worsley stepped in to facilitate room bookings using Preben Vestdam’s technology HotelSwaps. Gernot Leonhartsberger and his team at Moodley are working on the branding along with many others who have volunteered to help.
According to the UN, more than 600,000 people have fled Ukraine. Most of these are women and children, occasionally accompanied by senior family members. They are traumatized, tired, and scared and fear for their loved ones who have been left behind.