How the Nonprofit Sector can Help the Hotel Business

The nonprofit sector in the United States is integral to the social safety net, and it provides a great deal of benefit especially to the indigent nationwide. Though a marriage between nonprofits and the hotel business may not seem natural on its face, there are some concrete ways that one can help the other.

Nonprofit personnel can mention your hotel brand if the two have aligned values. A nonprofit dedicated to helping dogs could mention that your hotel is especially dog-friendly. People who care about that nonprofit, and are coming to or through the city, no doubt care about the welfare of their dogs.

That mention could be what they need to help figure out their lodging options. One hand scratches the other — if a hotel can give lodging discounts to said nonprofit, the staff would be more likely to shout your place out.

Government personnel work with nonprofits all the time to provide services to citizens that otherwise might not be available through the locality. Housing has risen sharply in cost around the States, and many have found themselves scrambling to deal with those costs using an ever-dwindling amount of income.

Some governors have even sent migrants to other cities, leaving them to figure out their housing situation once they arrive in a completely new area. Placing those people in hotels has been a decision that rankled many, but it’s outside the scope of this article. More generally, nonprofits can help the homeless find short-term housing, and there isn’t any reason why your hotel can’t be a part of that.

Many of the concerns that come with that population are valid, but done well, it can be an option, and one that your company that handle strictly so that leadership don’t end up with a headache or the idea that the endeavor isn’t worth the hassle.

More commonly, employees find themselves moving between cities without a place to rest their head. They aren’t homeless, in these cases. More precisely, they are waiting on an approval from a landlord or condo board, or whatever the case may be.

Think of this as similar to the idea of corporate housing. It can be expensive to move to a new city for a new job, and part of the stress that comes with doing so is finding a place to call home. If there is a nonprofit that has a new employee coming in, perhaps they can set up a deal where they pay for an employee to stay a few nights at your hotel.

As a courtesy, you can heavily discount the rate in an attempt to curry goodwill and favor. The more turnover they have, the more you can repeat that process. For the companies that don’t have the money to help an employee in that way, perhaps they can mention the idea of staying in a hotel if needed as they adjust.

There is also the scenario of routing their prospective employees over if and when they arrive in town for an interview. Those interviewing have to stay somewhere. Why not with your employer?

Get creative and see what their relationships could go. Value alignment makes the responsibilities endless if you can get the interested parties to come to the table.