Hotels Do Their Part for Charity,
Adding Donations to Guest Bills

By DIANE BRADY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

CHARITY CAN BEGIN at your hotel, so be careful to check your bill.

ITT Sheraton has taken to automatically adding a US$1 donation from every guest to its UNICEF "Check Out for Children" campaign. As Susanne Barfoed, a spokeswoman in the company's Sydney regional headquarters explains, "the amount is added to a guest's bill, and the guest has the option, of course, to remove the donation." That said, how many are likely to be so cheap with their -- or their company's -- money?

In its first year in Asia, the program has raised almost A$500,000 (US$365,000) for the charity. A similar push in Europe proved so successful that Sheraton is now considering expanding the drive to the rest of its world-wide operations. While its guests unwittingly raise the money, Sheraton offers promotional support and hosts fund-raising events for the charity.

Other hotels have occasionally used similar automatic-donation schemes to raise money for local causes or individual events such as the Southeast Asian Games. Then there are the places that automatically add an extra service charge to the entire bill. That practice annoys even people in the industry. Not only did Nelli Yong of Westin Hotels & Resorts protest a charity donation hidden on her hotel bill in Venice, but she was furious to see that the hotel added an extra US$80 fee for "things like asking the concierge questions." When challenged, the hotel took both charges off the bill, says Ms. Yong, who adds that she caught the fees only because her friend spoke Italian.

Accor Asia Pacific, one of the largest hotel groups in the region, is looking at raising money for World Vision but has "problems with the automatic inclusion on bills," says spokesman Peter Hook. Volunteer donations, he argues, drive home "the point that they have made a contribution towards a worthy cause, as opposed to it being seen as another tax or levy."

Other hotel groups take a different approach to doing good deeds. Four Seasons-Regent Hotels holds an annual Terry Fox run to raise money for cancer-related causes in the various cities where it has properties. Le Meridien Hotels & Resorts has taken to planting trees to help the environment. Hilton International, meanwhile, focuses on organizing events throughout the region to raise money for causes that help children. "We do not put donations on guest's bill automatically," says Hilton spokeswoman Adlina Borhan. "I think guests should be informed first."

Adrienne Wells of Australia's Southern Pacific Hotel Corp. goes so far as to suggest that any fund raising for charity shouldn't be conducted until hotels get "the customer to understand what it's all about." That's one reason, she says, why the group has yet to push its Save The Children Fund campaign beyond hotels in Australia.