NH ROOM4 PEOPLE:
COMMUNITY
One of the main goals of NH Hotel Group’s sustainable business strategy is to maintain active relations with the communities where it operates, contributing to local development and serving the needs of each destination where it is present through the business itself. This ambition arose in an entirely natural way, identifying where the Company’s capacity to create value in the way it works lay.
To develop stable projects that can be replicated in all Business Units, NH Hotel Group believes in building responsible and successful alliances with solidarity partners. To that end, the Company has defined three lines of social action in the framework of NH ROOM4 People: Together with Love, Hotels with a Heart and Employability Programmes.
In 2021, has resumed its lines of action and its commitment to the most vulnerable, creating value in the communities where it is present, as it has been doing until now, and which it had to set aside the previous year because of the pandemic.
Contribution to society
* NGO Rate – Application of a 30% discount on the best available rate for entities that have been previously assessed and approved by the Corporate Responsibility department.
** Friend Rate and Employee Rate– – collecting 2€ and 1€ respectively of the costs of bookings made with the special rate for employees, family and friends and then using these funds in accommodation and restaurant services, special rates and scholarships in the Social Action programmes of the different Business Units.
*** The investment in social action is an estimate based on the rooms donated by the Company, taking into account the ADR of each room at the corresponding date. The reason for the increase in this investment during this fiscal year has been caused by the reactivation of the business, since most of this investment is obtained from the rooms donated free of charge through our Hotels with Heart programme.
CORPORATE VOLUNTEERING:
TOGETHER WITH LOVE
In 2021, under the motto “Together with Love”, NH Hotel Group held a corporate volunteering week at world level for the third time. This is a global initiative focused on sustainability and strengthening relations with the local communities where the Group is present, and all the Company’s teams were invited to take part. In this way, NH Hotel Group has joined the volunteering initiative carried out annually by Minor International, with which it shares a firm commitment to the development of its sustainability strategy.
With the necessary safety measures and without placing at risk the health of all the team members, NH Hotel Group once again launched the NH Runners initiative, focused on all employees to collect donated meals for the distance run by the volunteer employees.
All the Company’s employees had the option of donating their kilometers for a week, with a conversation rate of 1 km = 1 meal.
Our commitment to the donation of food, which began during the pandemic, still continues thanks to the 4,569 meals collected through this initiative during the year, which added to this pending application in 2020 gives a total of 7,432 meals.
Once again, volunteering was very well received by all employees, as it gives them the opportunity to make a positive contribution to society, both remotely or on-site with the necessary security measures adapted to each situation.
CHRISTMAS CHARITY CAMPAIGNS OF OUR
NH VOLUNTEERS
NH Hotel Group keeps its commitment to the most vulnerable groups in society at a time when this support is more important than ever. For the Christmas holiday period, the Company launched a special edition of its Together with Love initiative, which was a success once again thanks to the hospitality and solidarity of all the BUs, promoting corporate volunteering initiatives among their team members.
BU – America:
The hotels of NH Latin America organized the “Welcome Christmas” volunteering initiative in which they donated more than 4,000 gifts, books and food parcels to children at risk of social and economic exclusion. This year the initiative started off with the participation of children and workers of NH, decorating trees together and taking photographs of the best moments to keep as a memento. Thanks to this initiative, more than 4,000 donations were received, consisting of food, clothes and other essential items; and more than 2,000 children welcomed Christmas with toys, books, clothes and food. The initiative was carried out with 29 associations in the region.
BU – Northern Europe:
For the second year, our colleagues in northern Europe organized a virtual race in which the Czech Republic, Denmark, Austria, Germany, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands took part. They raised more than 1,000 euros for a local foundation that supports seriously ill children and their families with low income.
BU – Southern Europe:
All the NH hotels in France organized the “Les sapins du coeur 2021” charity project to raise funds to donate to the “Juste Humain” association which helps children with cancer, providing them with wellbeing through arts and culture. The hotels organized a raffle to raise funds and donate them to the association.
Thanks to this initiative, a total of 13,427 euros was raised which has helped a total of 537 children.
HQ – Gifts from the Real Three Wise Men:
In December, as part of the Together with Love corporate volunteering initiative, the Central Services Offices organized a really special action for Christmas: the employees of NH Hotel Group helped the Three Wise Men in their task of bringing gifts to all children.
In collaboration with the “Real Three Wise Men” project, 28 employees made the dreams cof 28 children from low-income families come true by buying the gifts they had asked for in their letters to Their Majesties the Wise Men and which they would not have received otherwise.
CHRISTMAS DRAWING COMPETITION
Once again, NH Hotel Group has encouraged the creativity of the youngest in the family and has launched its traditional Christmas drawing competition.
The winners received an art kit so that they can keep on honing their artistic skills.
HOTELS WITH A HEART
Hotels with a Heart is an initiative that aims to ensure that children and young people who suffer from a serious illness and have to go to hospital far from their home can be accompanied by their closest family at this difficult time.
To do this, NH Hotel Group provides the families with rooms at hotels close to the hospital free of charge. With this goal, and in close collaboration with local NGOs and foundations, the Company provides free accommodation close to hospitals in several cities at national and international level to families with limited resources, so that they can accompany their loved ones.
Several employees of NH Hotel Group also participate voluntarily in this initiative, acting as the true hosts of these families and “Ambassadors” of the programme in each of the hotels. Each hotel has a person who looks after the families, sharing their experiences and helping to make their stay at the hotel as comfortable as possible. Since the programme started, more than 2,000 employees each year have become real hosts to the families, helping to make the hotel a second home for them.
The NH Madrid Sur is the flagship hotel of the “Hotels with a Heart” programme. Most of the room donations are made in this hotel in conjunction with the Menudos Corazones Foundation. NH Hotel Group has been collaborating with them since 2004 and will continue to do so in the future, thanks to the Company’s commitment to the Foundation and to all the families it helps by being able to offer this free accommodation.
#HotelswithaHeart
During the next year we plan to sign new agreements with different foundations to donate rooms and thus continue collaborating and contributing to families in these difficult times.
The reactivation of hotel activity is reflected in the nights of stays donated during this year, which are comparable to those of years prior to the pandemic.
PROMOTION OF YOUTH EMPLOYMENT:
EMPLOYABILITY PROGRAMMES
Youth unemployment in Spain, which is more significant in groups at risk of social exclusion, requires programmes focused on boosting the employability and social integration of young people.
NH Hotel Group continues to be committed to increasing the employability of such young people and aims to promote different training and work experience programmes for young people at risk of exclusion and for disabled individuals at hotels in all its Business Units.
In 2021, the Company has resumed this project in Spain together with the Exit Foundation, which is dedicated to fostering employability and reducing school dropout by young people at risk of exclusion, with which it has been collaborating for years. On December 1st, in the framework of this collaboration with the Foundation, the NH Ribera del Manzanares hotel welcomed vocational training students on a visit in which several hotel employees took part. As well as seeking the hotel facilities, the students had the opportunity to find out firsthand the main duties of the professionals of a hotel.
In this way, the projects, which are part of the Community strategy, are also aligned with the Company’s commitment to SDG 8, “Decent work and economic growth”.
NH HOTEL GROUP’S
COLLABORATION WITH
THE DOWN’S SYNDROME
FOUNDATION IN CASTELLÓN
Students of the tourism training course given by the Down’s Syndrome Foundation of Castellón have started their internships at the NH Mindoro hotel. With this initiative, they complement their training in the tourist and hotel sector by developing their guest attention skills.
This seeks to consolidate the students’ learning in real working environments, fostering the development of the professional skills necessary for their subsequent integration in employments. Thanks to this initiative, many of the students have found a job in the province, improving their quality of life and contributing value to the community.
With initiatives like this, NH Hotel Group continues to show its commitment to society, by promoting labour and social integration.
ALLIANCES WITH FOUNDATIONS AND NGOS
Local impact is achieved thanks to the creation of responsible alliances with foundations and NGOs, the collaboration of volunteer employees in responsible projects and the promotion of culture. To develop social projects that can be replicated in all Business Units,
NH Hotel Group believes in building responsible and successful alliances with solidarity partners.
To that end, in each country where we are present, we have continued to work with different Foundations and NGOs, such as the Make a Wish Foundation. Our collaboration with this organization began in 2005 in Spain, the Netherlands and Italy, offering every facility so that children from all over the world who suffer from serious illnesses can have their wish come true.
Another of the foundations we have been working with for several years is the “Menudos Corazones” Foundation. Remote initiatives have been carried out in order to continue helping individuals who suffer from heart conditions and their families more strongly than ever because now, for many of them, their needs are greater.
