HOSPA, the Hospitality Professionals Association, has launched a hospitality crisis support hub, which aims to highlight businesses looking to offer help during the ongoing coronavirus crisis – be that services offered gratis, or at greatly reduced cost to help hospitality businesses continue to operate.
Frontline hospitality businesses – hotels, restaurants, pubs and more – have been forced to close their doors following COVID-19 shutdown measures. However, many are still operating in some capacity, with some having revamped business models to provide takeaway, delivery or even call and collect groceries. Others have gone above and beyond, repurposing as NHS accommodation and homeless shelters.
Whilst still running, even in a reduced capacity, these operators will need the appropriate infrastructure in place to work. In light of this, a number of hospitality industry providers have come forward to offer their services either entirely free of charge, or at a reduced rate to help facilitate continued operation for those businesses that are able to do so.
Jane Pendlebury, CEO of HOSPA, said, “The hospitality industry is in dire straits, with many businesses having had to close. However, some are soldiering on regardless – either launching new, reworked offerings, or by offering their services to the sectors and sections of society that need them most.
'The businesses that are still operating – and even those that are practically on full lockdown – still need infrastructure and support functions to keep going. Many of our members at HOSPA are stepping forward to offer their services, either gratis or at a much reduced rate to help them stay open.”
She continued: “With that in mind, we wanted to collate these into one, easily accessible hub. That way, businesses can simply take a look through and see if anything fits their present needs, or see if there’s anything extra that could enhance their capabilities, and then engage with the provider accordingly.”
The crisis support hub isn’t just limited to HOSPA members, with any suitable businesses able to put their services forward for inclusion.
Pendlebury continued, “We’re seeing some fantastic gestures across the hospitality spectrum. For instance, the wonderful move of Gary Neville and GG Hospitality, which, as well as promising no staff redundancies, is offering free accommodation to NHS staff who need to stay away from their families, with others going even further, such as Best Western, which is offering 15,000 beds to NHS staff in a similar fashion.”
She concluded, “Within this wider theme of the industry pulling together, there are also those businesses who don’t have a primary offering, but who can help in a support function. These are the businesses who are contributing to our crisis hub. We’ll be updating it continuously as offers of help come in so do please check in regularly to see what’s on offer.
To access the crisis support hub, please visit: https://www.hospa.org/crisis-support
To add an offering to the hub, please email hospa@hospa.org and for more information about HOSPA, please visit https://www.hospa.org/.
