March 17, 2022 – Created by a group of hospitality industry veterans, #HospitalityHelps was launched with one goal: to provide temporary hotel accommodation to Ukrainian residents who are forced to leave their homes because of the war.
#HospitalityHelps is an online booking platform for short-term hotel stays for people fleeing the war in Ukraine. The global initiative has already gained support from many of the world’s leading hospitality groups including Accor, Hilton, IHG and Marriott as well as independent hotels, and is the only booking platform that works across borders and brands.
“It started with one family needing a rest, after a gruesome 72-hour drive. Now we provide, day by day, a rest in a warm and comfortable bed to hundreds of families. This is hospitality at its best. After 33 years of delivering hospitality consulting services at PKF, this is the one thing where I feel like having made a difference”, said Michael Widmann, Global CEO of PKF hospitality group.
Preben Vestdam, Founder & CEO of HotelSwaps added:
“In 48 hours we managed to establish a whole new dedicated reservation system whereby hotels could donate rooms and people fleeing the war could book a few days of rest on their way towards their destination.”
“As the African proverb goes ‘If you want to fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’. The industry has been both fast and together with nearly all global hotel brands using #HospitalityHelps. Participating hotels have tripled in the last 10 days and we expect that again to triple to 1,000 hotels in the next 10 days,” said Jonathan Worsley, Chairman & CEO at The Bench
To date, 322 hotels have signed up to provide accommodation across 38 countries, almost 7,000 room nights were booked with 33,575 room nights available, and this number is growing every day. 24/7 support is provided in three languages (Ukrainian, Russian and English) by Ukrainian refugees who were successfully accommodated by #HospitalityHelps.
