WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation (AH&LEF), the not-for-profit affiliate of the American Hotel and Lodging Assn. (AH&LA), has released a new survey, The Quiet Good: Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility within the Lodging Industry.
Commissioned by AH&LEF and the board of International Society of Hotel Association Executives (ISHAE), the study measures the contributions made to the community by lodging properties, lodging corporations, and lodging industry-related foundations throughout the United States. A total of 469 properties and corporations responded to the survey, and 54 out of 70 industry-related foundations were analyzed.
In 2005, the total national value of contributions at the property level was $815.2 million, which equates to .06 percent of annual sales or 3.6 percent of gross profits. Additionally, a conservative number of reporting corporations claimed a total value of $8.6 million, as well as an estimated lodging-related foundation contribution of $53.2 million, bringing the grand total to $877 million.
The study, conducted by the Virginia Tech Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, aimed to measure quantitatively the value of community charitable and volunteer contributions of lodging properties at both the national and individual state levels; of lodging corporations at the national level; of lodging-related foundations at the national level; and to gain preliminary insight into the specific motivations to perform these types of services to the community, as well as the level of institutionalized policy currently established among hotels of all sizes and types throughout the United States.
Among the many major findings, the survey revealed the following at the property level:
• Ninety-eight percent of responding properties reported making contributions of sleeping rooms, cash donations, restaurant gift certificates, etc. to various individuals or organizations within their community.
• Sixty-eight percent of responding properties reported they track contributions to their community.
• Thirty-one percent of responding properties reported having written policies in place that direct the contributions of their hotel property.
• Nearly half (46 percent) of those who responded stated they contributed considerably more (15.2 percent) or somewhat more (31.4 percent) as a direct result of the unusually severe 2005 hurricane season in the United States.
• Thirty-five percent of the respondents indicated they agreed that the unusually severe hurricane season impacted the type of giving (cash, volunteering, in-kind contributions, etc.) and 35 percent expressed the hurricane season had no effect on the type of giving than what was given in 2004.
Corporate Level Findings
• Ninety-six percent of responding corporations reported making contributions of sleeping rooms, cash donations, restaurant gift certificates, etc., to various individuals or organizations within their community.
• Forty percent of responding corporations reported they do not track contributions.
• Twenty-four percent of responding corporations reported having written policies in place that direct contributions.
In 2005, 36 percent of the respondents indicated they strongly agreed or agreed the unusually severe hurricane season impacted the type of giving (cash, volunteering, in-kind contributions, etc.) and 55 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement.
Reporting corporations claimed a total value of $8.6 million (total average value of contribution per corporation is $360,000) in 2005.
Thirty-seven percent of responding corporations claimed donations equal to 0-.5 percent of their 2005 annual sales revenues and 44 percent claimed donations equal to .5-1 percent of annual sales revenues for 2005.
At the foundation level, the survey revealed over the past five years, lodging industry-related foundations have contributed an estimated total of $53.2 million per year, an average of $761,000 per each of the 70 foundations.
“This study proves what we’ve known for years—lodging businesses throughout the country are actively contributing to their communities in ways that have not been fully measured or appreciated,” says AH&LA President/CEO Joseph A. McInerney, CHA. “We can now use these bottom-line findings to inform government officials at the local, state, and national levels about the quiet good works of the industry to expand the industry’s impact.”
