SMART TR AVELLER
Donating hotel points to charity
F
ollowing our February round-up of frequent flyer programmes that allow you to donate unwanted air miles to charity (see businesstraveller. com/tag/loyalty), here we look at what some of the main hotel loyalty schemes have to offer in this regard.
Accor
The Accor Live Limitless (ALL) programme lets you convert your points into a donation to either the Accor Solidarity, an endowment fund that helps local NGOs supporting people at risk of poverty, or Plant for the Planet, a initiative for planting trees globally and supporting small-scale farmers. all.accor.com 66
Best Western
The Best Western Rewards scheme allows guests to donate points to the hotel group’s partnered charity, Shelter. bestwestern.co.uk
Hilton
Hilton Honors has teamed up with Point Worthy to enable you to donate points to a good cause. To take part, you have to open an account on pointworthy.com, which links to your Honors account. Make a donation of at least 4,000 points to one of the charities, which include American Red Cross and Make A Wish Foundation, and Hilton will convert this into an equivalent cash sum – 4,000 points equates to US$10. hiltonhonors3.hilton.com
Hyatt
IHG’s Rewards Club allows you to redeem points within a 12-month period. On the drop-down “More Rewards” tab, choose “IHG Rewards Club Charities”, which in the UK includes five organisations: Care International UK, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Goodwill Industries International, the Prince’s Trust and Youth Career Initiative. You can donate 2,500, 5,000 or 10,000 points. ihg.com/rewardsclub
Marriott International
Marriott Bonvoy allows you to donate First Climate. There is a 3,000-point points as part of its Serve 360 CSR minimum for the first two charities, and a programme, which has four pillars, with 4,000-point minimum for the third. associated charities for each one. Nurture radissonhotels.com focuses on aiding communities, Sustain on reducing the brand’s Shangri-La environmental impact, Wyndham’s Rewards The Golden Circle Empower on ensuring programme allows you access to opportunities, and online shop lets to donate your points Welcome on advocating you donate to to Oxfam Hong Kong for human rights. There its 15 partnered and Med Art, a Hong are 25 charities, including Kong charity that cares American Red Cross, charities for people in psychiatric Unicef, International institutions, prisons Rescue Committee, and and hospices, and the Immigration Equality. You medical needs of orphaned can donate in increments of 2,500 points, children. You can also from a minimum of 2,500 (US$10) donate to the brand’s to 125,000 (US$500). corporate social responsibility giving.marriott.com projects. Donations start at NH Hotel Group 2,000 points and cap at 10,000, With NH Rewards you with 1,000 points equal to US$20. can contribute your reward shangri-la.com points to non-governmental Wyndham Hotels and Resorts organisations. Let NH Hotel Group know Wyndham’s Rewards online shop lets you how many points you wish to donate and it donate to its 15 partnered charities – these will transfer the equivalent amount in cash include Save the Children and Clean the on your behalf. nh-hotels.com/nhrewards World Foundation. Donations start at Radisson Hotels 500 points for all charities, apart from Radisson Rewards enables you to donate Jack and Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation, points to SOS Children’s Villages, American which starts at 3,000. Red Cross or carbon offset organisation wyndhamhotels.com
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The World of Hyatt programme does not have a points donation platform, but the group allows members to convert points into a cash donation to the American Red Cross and Mercy Corps during times of natural disasters in areas with a Hyatt presence – members last year donated points to the former during Hurricane Dorian which hit the Bahamas. world.hyatt.com
IHG
