As some hotels in Mexico prepare to start welcoming international visitors again, many are also continuing philanthropic efforts to support employees and local communities that have suffered during the coronavirus pandemic. In some cases, both guests and the general public can take part in these efforts, adding new opportunities to do good while traveling.
Rosewood Hotel Group, for example, recently launched Rosewood Raise, an initiative that aims to help employees and local communities that face health-related financial difficulties as a result of the pandemic. The program is administered by the Emergency Assistance Foundation, an organization that helps corporations organize emergency hardship grants.
Marriott International, meanwhile, is inviting members of its Bonvoy frequent guest program to donate points through a donation platform that aids a variety of organizations including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the United Nations Children’s Fund and World Central Kitchen. Through June 30, Marriott International is also offering a preferential rate to healthcare workers, government personnel and others involved in pandemic-related work at some properties in Mexico as well as other destinations in the Americas.
Also working to make life easier for frontline workers is Velas Resorts, which has teamed up with sister company VHealthy, a medical equipment provider, to donate 20,000 face masks to multiple hospitals and organizations in destinations where it has hotels on Mexico’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts. Iberostar Group, which also has hotels on both coasts, has donated food and protective equipment to multiple organizations, including Banco de Alimentos de Mexico, a food bank, and Casa de Don Pascual, a nursing home in Cancun.
Also on the Caribbean coast, Fairmont Mayakoba and Accor have teamed up to help employees in precarious, crisis-related financial situations through the All Heartist Fund, a charitable program created this year. Helping hotel staff is also a goal for the upscale Chable Hotels, which has properties in Quintana Roo and Yucatan. The company provides meals on-site even as its hotels have been closed to guests, and also gives extra food for staff to take home.
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As the nation’s capital and largest metropolis, Mexico City is logically home to many people affected by the coronavirus epidemic, and numerous hoteliers are stepping in to play a part in alleviating their difficulties. Hotels including City Express, Holiday Inn Express and Fiesta Inn, for example, have made more than 2,500 hotel rooms available for healthcare workers since mid-April. Hilton Mexico City Reforma, meanwhile, has donated linen for 200 beds to be used by the Public Health Institute of Mexico for frontline medical professionals. In addition, the property joined DoubleTree by Hilton Mexico City Santa Fe and Hilton Garden Inn Mexico City Santa Fe to donate meals to Banco de Alimentos de Mexico.
Pacific Coast Efforts
Pueblo Bonito Resorts, which has hotels in Mazatlan and Los Cabos, is one of several Mexican hoteliers with an affiliated foundation now focused on lessening the suffering of people affected by the pandemic. The Letty Coppel Foundation, which has been around for more than 15 years, has stepped up its distribution of food and drinking water to in-need local communities, and invites hotel guests to help in the efforts by donating $1 or $2 per night during stays in any of their hotels.
Also active in the field is the Solmar Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Solmar Hotels & Resorts that is now directing its energy toward supporting pandemic-affected employees as well as poor local communities. Among its programs are hygiene education, supply donations and self-employment training that aim to help individuals become more financially independent. Travelers can make donations via the foundation’s website.
Several individual hotel properties in Los Cabos have found new ways to help, as well. Acre, a nature-focused “treehouse hotel,” has debuted a meal relief program that provides food to local families in need. The city’s hotel union, meanwhile, has joined forces with Costco and The Cape, a Thompson Hotel, to provide 3,000 grocery kits to hotel employees.
In Mazatlan, El Cid Resorts has made donations to dozens of local food pantries and also provided staff with medical support as well as masks, gloves and sanitizers for their families. And in Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit, Punta Mita — the upscale resort development that’s home to Four Seasons and St. Regis properties — has teamed up with two organizations to support weekly food donations. The effort, which is scheduled to run until Aug. 31, has delivered more than 3,320 bags of groceries to some 754 families since its inception this spring.
Farther south, near Zihuatanejo, boutique hotel Playa Viva has stepped up a variety of activities to help the local community, including making masks from recycled hotel bedsheets and creating food baskets for the poor. The public can help with the programs, which are led by the property’s social and environmental impact manager, through the GoFundMe platform.
The Details
Marriott Bonvoy
Playa Viva
Rosewood Raise
Solmar Foundation
