LOCKDOWN LEADER: Rosewood Hotels
Around the world, hotels from New York's Four Seasons to London’s Claridges have been turning themselves into temporary accommodation for frontline medical workers. The luxury Asian-based Rosewood Hotel Group is the latest hospitality chain to do so, and has already raised nearly $2 million in a new relief initiative to tackle the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Rosewood Raise, which is being managed by the Emergency Assistance Foundation charity, has been designed to support furloughed hotel staff as well as local communities in which the Group operates that have been affected by the coronavirus. Empty hotel rooms in a number of its 59 global properties have been donated to key hospital workers and at Rosewood hotels from California to Bangkok, London, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi, thousands of meals have been prepared, boxed and distributed to first responders and essential medical staff on the ground, including in Wuhan, the source of the virus. They are also donating to local organisations and charities aimed at assisting vulnerable people.
Meanwhile, Rosewood Bangkok (Bangkok, Thailand) and Rosewood Miramar Beach (Montecito, USA) have launched their own ‘Rosewood on the Move’ food delivery service for frontline workers in the hotels’ respective locations. While Rosewood Miramar Beach, in Santa Barbara, California, has already served more than 1,500 meals to essential personnel, including police officers, fire fighters, waste handlers and grocery store workers.
Since launching two weeks ago, the fund has received pledges of almost $2 million from Rosewood Hotel Group’s corporate executives and associates. Said Sonia Cheng, CEO of Rosewood Hotel Group, “I have always believed that people are the beating heart of the hospitality industry. Through Rosewood Raise, we wish to stand in solidarity and with gratitude for our associates, and in support of the local communities that are so deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our hope is that through this initiative we can provide assistance to our associates and communities who are facing serious hardship and let them know their Rosewood family is here to support them through this unprecedented time.”