Sustainability/CSR

Kind Traveler Program Reaps CSR Benefits for Groups

July 10, 2024

The Changing Tides Foundation is one of Kind Traveler’s local charity beneficiaries.

Every room night booked at a Kind Traveler partner hotel gives back to the local community.

Established in 2016 with the goal of empowering travelers to positively impact the communities they visit by giving back to local charities through its hotel booking platform, Kind Traveler currently has a growing portfolio of more than 350 hotel, destination and charity partners in 25 countries. And now, with the Every Stay Gives Back community impact program launched in 2023, it’s easy for groups to participate irregardless of where room nights are booked.

“The Every Stay Gives Back program adds donations on a per room basis,” explains Kind Traveler CEO and Co-Founder Jessica Blotter. One hundred-percent of the funds raised are donated to participating charities. “For example, the luxury Dawn Ranch retreat in Guerneville, California allocates $1 per night to Russian Riverkeeper, helping to preserve and restore the health of the Russian River in Sonoma County for future generations. The $1 per night allocation is set based on the room night and does not change according to how many guests may be sharing the room.”

Dawn Ranch is one of 11 Kind Traveler partner hotels in Sonoma County, along with Sonoma County Tourism. To date, the program has raised $22,843 for local Sonoma charities. A continuously updated “live impact” report keeps tallies of the program’s community services, from 39,202 servings of Sonoma County-grown vegetables provided to families from Farm to Pantry in Sonoma County to 228 days of nutritional care provided to rescued farm animals from Charlie’s Acres Animal Sanctuary.

“All of the Kind Traveler destination partners invite lodging partners to join the program and help guide which charity beneficiaries will be selected,” says Blotter. “The charities are important to advancing responsible tourism in the destination as they address key local issues.”

The live impact reports are also provided to hotels. They’re a great way for attendees to see the positive impact and amount donated on behalf of their stay, notes Blotter. “Kind Traveler encourages the hotels to share the impact reports in the guest communications. We also provide artisanal wood plaques with QR codes for the hotel front desk or concierge desk for easy access to the customized impact reports.”

To date, Every Stay Gives Back has 65 hotel partners, 9 destination partners and more than 25 local charity beneficiaries—to whom the program has donated $194,764.