The California Hotel & Lodging Association (CHLA), in partnership with Oxford Economics, recently announced Hotel Caring, an initiative to showcase the positive social impact the lodging industry has on local communities.
“Our California hotels every day extend kindness and goodwill to guests, employees and our communities not to gain recognition, but simply because service is what we do,” said Dhruv Patel, Chair of CHLA’s Board of Directors, in a media announcement.
Results of a pilot study in San Diego early in 2024 demonstrated the far-reaching impacts hotels have on community benefits, which led Hotel Caring’s expansion to include more regions of the state. Below are examples of San Diego hotel contributions as collected by Hotel Caring:
- $58K average contribution in the form of cash, in-kind, fundraising, scholarship and food drive donations.
- 182 average volunteer hours for activities ranging from beach clean-ups to blood drives.
- 96 average training hours in the form of no-cost workforce instruction for members of the community.
“Hotels play important roles in local communities, as employers and by hosting guests that support economic impacts and tax revenues, but also as community stakeholders,” said Aran Ryan, Director of Industry Studies at Tourism Economics. “We are proud to partner with CHLA on this new research that helps quantify such corporate social responsibility, building a more complete picture of economic and community significance.”
The Hotel Caring Initiative primarily relies on data submitted by hotels through an annual survey. The 2024 survey was launched on July 11, 2024 and will be open until Aug. 1, 2024. The survey can be accessed through the Hotel Caring webpage and asks about the various forms of giving that an organization could have been involved in (e.g. cash or in-kind contributions, fundraisers, food/supply drives, employee initiatives, refugee support, trainings, etc.). It is estimated to take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
Results for the entire state and specific markets will be available in the fall of 2024.
The California Hotel & Lodging Association is the leading resource and advocate for California’s more than 6,000 hotels, motels and boutique inns that employ more than 235,000 workers. CHLA, established in 1893, is the largest state lodging industry association in the nation and is a partner with the American Hotel & Lodging Association.
For more information, visit calodging.com.
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