Would You Donate a Portion of Your Hotel Room Rate to a Local Charity? wakeandwander - HotelChatter
go to original June 7, 2013

Over the past few years, we've seen a variety of attempts by charities to grab the loose change from people's pockets - the most common example being the option to round up to the nearest dollar and donate the difference at the grocery store checkout. But this trend is also spreading to the travel industry.

Airlines have gotten on board, both on-site and in the booking process. Jaunted reported in April that UNICEF's "Change for Good" charity campaign would ask travelers for their excess change at the end of a flight, and you can now also "round up" when purchasing a ticket on certain airlines.

So naturally, we can't help but wonder if hotels will get on board too. We've seen some hotels here and there donating a portion of the room rate to a specific charity cause but that only happens if a guest books a specific package that mentions the donation. And the donation is usually only offered for a short period of time. Yet what if hotels began taking a small percentage of the room rate - all the time, on every booking, no matter what - and gave that to charity?

We think this would be a great thing, especially if the donation was absorbed by the hotel as opposed to the customer (obviously). That said, how would you feel if the hotels raised their room rates by a dollar and then donated it to charity? Or asked you to round up to the next dollar when booking? Personally, we'd prefer the latter, mainly because we think people should have the option. A donation ceases to be a donation when it becomes mandatory. At that point, it's a tax.

Read the original at HotelChatter

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