Coronavirus: the positive hospitality industry moves
- Camden Market owner LabTech has announced a series of initiatives to aid the emergency services and vulnerable during the Coronavirus epidemic. They include: complimentary apartments for NHS workers and their families, the elderly ,and people at high risk of eviction to stay in (LabTech has apartments to donate across its Camden estate); the provision of Camden House as a common room for the emergency services to use during breaks (LabTech is also providing free tea, coffee and breakfast to anyone using the space); and the transformation of Camden Kitchen into a soup kitchen, which The Camden Soup Kitchen will be able to use three days a week as a space to cook for the increasing numbers of homeless in the area. LabTech says it is already working with the emergency services and Camden Council to implement the initiatives.
- BrewDog CEO James Watt has announced on Twitter that the business is providing free home deliveries of school lunches to those in isolation in its local community. What’s more, the company has begun bottling and distributing its BrewGel hand sanitiser. In another Tweet, posted on Sunday (22 March), Watt said: “Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's Intensive Care Unit got in touch to tell us that they [were] out of sanitiser. So we are delivering to them, for free.”
- Luxury property owner UnderTheDoormat is offering accommodation for NHS staff to stay in for free while the Coronavirus crisis is ongoing. The London-based homes, which would normally be used as short let accommodation for guests staying in London, will be made available to qualifying key workers who want to stay close to their place of work or away from the rest of their families to reduce possible infection.
- Some hotels in the UK that have been forced to close as a result of the Coronavirus crisis have said they will offer rooms to NHS workers wishing to avoid going home between shifts. They include the 42 Apart Hotel in Scunthorpe; and The Grand Hotel on Brighton seafront. Meanwhile, Best Western is expected to open its first hospital support site at one of its south London locations this week, with every bedroom used to house lower-risk patients and NHS staff.
- Healthy fast food chain Leon has said it will continue to keep its sites open for NHS teams and other essential workers still rely on its services. In the last week the company says it has served 13,843 takeaway and delivery meals to NHS workers; all of which were sold with a 50% discount. The business has also confirmed that it is offering all staff members the option of whether they wish to continue working or not during this time; and any profit made by the business throughout this crisis will be spent directly on feeding hospital teams.
