Thanks for caring

I would like to share with you all how proud I am for all the great things that are happening in so many hotels of the Group, after several weeks navigating through the challenges COVID-19 is bringing us every day.

During this period, many people in the company are showing remarkable resilience, commitment and courage. Even beyond this, we are seeing amazing examples of generosity towards the local communities where they live and operate.

As you may have seen already, some hotels took the initiative to show their gratitude to all healthcare professionals working so hard to keep us safe. From Copenhagen to Noida, through Vancouver, Hamburg and Brazzaville, many hotels have been lighting up their facades with hearts to express their gratitude to those who are working extremely hard to protect us. 

Several of our hotels across the globe, especially those close to hospitals, decided to host quarantined guests or medical professionals who needed to stay close to work or are worried about going home to their families. That’s the case at our Radisson Blu Hotel Chongqing Sha Ping Ba, in China, where more than 350 healthcare workers returning from Hubei province have stayed during their quarantine in March. Another example is the Radisson Hotel New York Midtown-Fifth Avenue, which has remained opened and is serving doctors and nurses in the city working around the clock treating patients. The same is happening at the Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel & Business Center, Moscow, where 200 doctors are currently staying and provided with two free hot meals per day. Last week, the Radisson RED Minneapolis Downtown partnered with the American Red Cross and converted into a blood drive center. Over 60 people signed up to donate blood throughout the day, which means that the initiative has the potential to save the lives of nearly 200 people.

Many other hotels made the decision to provide food to essential workers and people in need. For example, the Radisson Blu Atria Bengaluru, in India, along with the Atria Foundation, is serving 150,000 free meals per day to front line workers. Or the Radisson Blu Montevideo in Uruguay which is delivering 150 meals a day to the Red Cross. Or the Radisson Aquatica Resort Barbados where hotel team members are preparing and delivering hot meals to the elderly in nearby communities. With the financial help of the Marafie Foundation (owners of the hotel), the Radisson Blu Hotel, Kuwait provided 500 meals a day during the month of April to support the families who have been impacted by COVID-19. This amounts to a total of 15,000 meals for people in need.

Other hotels are donating masks, cleaning products and toiletries to healthcare and other frontline workers, such as our Radisson Blu Hotel, Bucharest team, who supported the Dr. Ion Cantacuzino Clinical Hospital by giving them protective masks, pieces of bed linen, hygiene products and disinfectant, or our colleagues from the Radisson Blu Hotel, Durham, who donated food items to their local hospice. Our teams at our Radisson Blu Hotel Krakow and Park Inn by Radisson Krakow are even making masks at home by hand, to be given to the medical staff in Krakow.

These caring gestures put a big smile on my face. We need to make sure that all this generosity continues and stays. 

I will share more stories with you soon.

Stay safe 

Federico J. González