{"id":4758,"date":"2026-09-22T17:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/?p=4758"},"modified":"2026-09-23T00:23:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T22:23:37","slug":"grant-peires-room-for-kindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/solidaridad\/grant-peires-room-for-kindness\/","title":{"rendered":"There is always room for solidarity"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Kind Holidays to Room for Kindness: when a spare room can become a memory to last a lifetime<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant Peires \u00b7 Head of Solidarity and Kindness at IDILIQ Group<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tourism has the power to create experiences, generate employment and\ntransform destinations. But it can also become a powerful\ntool for solidarity when it puts its resources, its capacity and,\nabove all, its people at the service of those going through\nparticularly difficult times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to visit Grant Peires at Wyndham Costa del Sol to find out more\nabout Kind Holidays and Room for Kindness. During our\nconversation, I discovered not only two unique initiatives, but also\na person deeply committed to them. Grant speaks of these\nprojects with a passion that is difficult to convey solely through figures or\nresults: behind every stay there are people, families and stories\nthat explain the true meaning of what they are doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that meeting, I realised that Kind Holidays had paved the\nway by offering holiday experiences to families who need a\nbreak in particularly difficult circumstances. Now, Room for\nKindness aims to expand on that philosophy by involving the\nhotel industry itself and turning available rooms into opportunities to\ngive the gift of time, rest and memories to those who may\nneed them most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to continue that conversation in At Sinergia Sk\u00e5l,<\/a> I wanted to continue that conversation here at Sinergia Sk\u00e5l, to find out how these projects came about, the stories behind them, where they hope to go next and, above all, what drives Grant Peires to speak about solidarity with the same passion with which others speak about occupancy, destinations or results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\na holiday becomes a lifeline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Grant, when we talk about Kind Holidays and Room for Kindness,\nyou convey something that goes far beyond a professional\nresponsibility. Where does that personal commitment to these\nprojects come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It stems from seeing the incredible impact these holidays have on the\nfamilies who have been able to enjoy them with us. It also stems from a\nvisit to Noah\u2019s Ark Children\u2019s Hospice, on the outskirts of London, one of\nthe organisations to which we donate stays at our hotels. Most\nof the children cared for there are in the final stages of\ntheir lives and, due to their deteriorating health, are usually unable to\ntravel abroad \u2014 our resorts are in Spain and the\nUnited States. We offer holiday accommodation to their parents and\nsiblings following their passing, as a way for them to find some\ncomfort during what must be the most painful period a\nfather, mother or sibling can go through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noah\u2019s Ark is a beautiful, peaceful place that allows these families\nto spend what little time they have left together in a calm and\ncaring environment. The visit ends in a small room, decorated\nwith rainbows and teddy bears. It is the room where parents come\nto say their final goodbyes to their child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a room that no parent should ever have to visit and which,\nas a parent, has left a lasting mark on my heart. I think of\nit every time this challenge I\u2019ve set myself seems difficult or\nnever-ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jennie
Jennie Bond shares a hug with a girl in a wheelchair.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kind Holidays is based on a seemingly simple idea:\nto offer a holiday to individuals and families who are going through\nsome of the most difficult times of their lives. How did the\nproject come about, and when did you realise that a stay could mean so\nmuch more than just a holiday?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, we were among the first to donate hotel stays to\nGive Us Time, the charity set up by Lord Liam Fox, the former Secretary of\nState for Defence of the United Kingdom, which supports service personnel and their families, many of\nwhom are affected by post-traumatic stress and\/or physical injuries. Three years\nlater, in 2016, our group\u2019s chairman asked me to identify\norganisations focusing on children with severe disabilities and\nillnesses that limit their life expectancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before Christmas 2023, IDILIQ Charity Holidays, as it was then known, was featured in a Forbes article entitled \u201cTravel For Good: How Some Companies Are Giving Back This Season\u201d. Another of the hotels mentioned, the NH Collection New York Madison Avenue, offers free accommodation to families of children receiving medical treatment at St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital in New York. Reading that article, I realised that, as an industry, we can do so many good things with spaces that, to a large extent, remain unused. Very few hotels operate at 100 per cent occupancy all year round, and we are in a unique position to help families create their most cherished memories, or to enable them to stay close to their children during hospital treatment when they live too far away to commute daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2024, we launched KindHolidays.com<\/a> as a guide so that\nother hoteliers could also start donating stays. It includes the\ncontact details of some of the organisations we\nwork with in the UK and guidance on finding a partner organisation\nanywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Families from Dreams Come True during a visit to Walt Disney World.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I realised that a stay could mean so much more than just a\nholiday when I first heard Scotty Darroch, a former soldier,\nspeak at a Give Us Time fundraising event in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scotty was diagnosed with hyperactivity at the age of 4 and was sent\nto hospital at weekends to give his parents a break. At\nthe age of 12, he witnessed the aftermath of the Lockerbie\nair disaster. As a child, he was abused by a family friend, and\nafter serving his country for almost 10 years in Northern Ireland,\nwith missions in Bosnia and Kosovo, Scotty became addicted to heroin.\nHaving witnessed \u201cthe worst that humanity can do to\none another\u201d, after his service, Scotty spent nine years experiencing episodes of\nself-harm and multiple suicide attempts \u201ctrying to make\nthe images go away\u201d before being diagnosed with\nSevere Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. Scotty is grateful\nfor the holiday he spent with us in 2013, as it helped him\nregain his balance and set him on the path to recovery. He\ncalls this holiday a \u201clifesaver\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Kind Holidays, you help families and individuals who need\na break from particularly difficult circumstances. Is there a\nstory that has made a particular impression on you and that explains why you remain\nso committed to this initiative?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phoenix Sea was just ten years old when he passed away from\ninfantile neuroaxonal dystrophy, a rare and degenerative neurological condition. His\nmother, Sarah, had spent years watching her son gradually lose\nthe ability to walk, speak and, eventually, smile. When we offered\nthe family a week at Wyndham Costa del Sol, it was never going to\nchange Phoenix\u2019s diagnosis, but it did change the way they spent\nthose days together. Phoenix couldn\u2019t swim or run, but he could\nfeel the sun on his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah and her other son, Rico, returned to the resort a few years later\nto scatter his ashes into the sea near the resort, the place where\nthey had shared some of their most cherished memories, watching\nthe sunrise together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Phoenix
Phoenix Sea standing next to the luggage packed for the family holiday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What happens from the moment a partner organisation identifies\na family until that family is able to enjoy their stay? How\ndo you ensure that the whole process is carried out with the sensitivity\nrequired in such sensitive situations?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every September we contact all our partner charities\nand ask them how many weeks they would need at each\nof our resorts for the following year and which periods would be\nmost suitable for them. The average is around ten weeks per organisation per\nyear, usually in two-bedroom flats accommodating\nsix people: approximately 40 per cent during peak season and 60 per cent\nduring the off-season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation then decides which families to give the holidays to.\nThey often work with healthcare professionals and social workers\nwho put forward specific families. In many cases, these organisations\nalso provide financial assistance, organise travel arrangements and even contribute\nmoney towards expenses. Our hope is that one day\nairlines, car hire companies, taxi firms, restaurants,\ncruise lines and other industry players will also get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisations themselves take the lead in managing the holidays.\nThey simply write to our bookings team, who have already\nreserved the weeks for them, and provide the families\u2019 names.\nIf a family has to cancel, we allow them to transfer the booking to\nanother family\u2019s name. We frequently use wheelchair-accessible\naccommodation, but apart from that, the process is very straightforward and quick for\nthe bookings team. We\u2019re in the hospitality business and\nour job is to help our guests enjoy\na wonderful and memorable stay, but these families are our\nVIPs and we treat them as such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way in which we allocate rooms may not necessarily\nsuit all hoteliers. I know of hotels that donate rooms at the last minute\nthat have become available. Each operator can do so in the\nway that best suits their circumstances; there are no set rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Kind Holidays to Room\nfor Kindness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After years of developing Kind Holidays, Room for\nKindness has arrived. What made you think the time had come to take a\nstep further and turn your experience into a model that other hotels could\njoin?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kind Holidays is, in essence, a practical guide for fellow hoteliers.\nRoomForKindness.com<\/a> goes one step further: as well as including links to our\npartner organisations in the UK and now also in Spain,\nit offers hotels templates for staff T-shirts, reception signs,\nand digital and print-ready logos that they can\nuse freely, provided they commit to donating at least one\nweek a year for the next ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We donate more than 200 weeks each year and do not expect\nothers to be quite so generous. However, we are convinced that,\nonce they get started, they will see the enormous impact this has not only on the\nbeneficiary families, but also on the morale of their own\nteams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altruism can even prove profitable for those who get involved. Room for Kindness includes a list of all participating hotels with direct links to their booking pages. The idea is that, by giving away just one week a year \u2014 which could be a week in the low season, with costs limited practically to supplies and cleaning \u2014 they also gain a free source of bookings. Many of us pay between 17 per cent and 25 per cent to OTAs, tour operators or direct marketing. Imagine how much more profitable a booking can be if securing it costs nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Room for Kindness turns spare rooms into opportunities for families to relax.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Room for Kindness aims to transform available hotel capacity\ninto opportunities for rest and recuperation for those who need it most.\nWhat would you say to a hotelier to convince them to make one of their\nrooms available for this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These families are some of the most grateful and kind guests\none could hope to look after. Room for Kindness is consistently cited\nby housekeeping, reception and management staff as\none of the greatest sources of pride in their work. In an industry\nknown for its high staff turnover, teams that find a\nsense of purpose stay longer. Staff retention, pride and\na sense of purpose more than make up for the cost of those\nrooms, and guests, too, take pride in staying\nat a hotel that gives something back to society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A human responsibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At Room for Kindness, you use a very powerful phrase: \u201cThis isn\u2019t corporate social responsibility. This is a human responsibility.\u201d What does that distinction mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many hotels around the world, corporate social\nresponsibility is largely dominated by sustainability. Climate change\nis important to us all and, judging by this year\u2019s weather and the\nforecasts for El Ni\u00f1o in the coming years, it is a cause for concern. But\nthis initiative touches the beneficiary families and members of\nour teams at the very core of their humanity. It allows us to give\nfamilies the opportunity to create their most cherished memories, find\nsome comfort after losing a loved one, or even save a\nlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A family during one of the holiday stays offered by the initiative.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The name \u201cRoom for Kindness\u201d itself plays on a very simple idea: a room can become an act of generosity. Rather than relying on standard industry indicators such as occupancy rates or revenue per room, you propose also measuring impact. Do you think the hotel sector needs to adopt this alternative way of measuring its success?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely. The impact can be seen in the smile of a child who\nhad never been able to go on holiday and who has endured more physical\nand emotional pain than many people will experience in several lifetimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the doorman who, at six o\u2019clock in the morning and without asking for any payment,\naccompanies a single mother and helps her push her\nson\u2019s wheelchair down to the beach so that they can watch the sunrise together. It is that\nsense of pride and purpose that can save the\nHuman Resources department a fortune and forge a bond with guests\nthat is difficult to achieve in any other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nmovement open to the entire tourism industry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Room for Kindness aims to involve establishments and\nprofessionals in various destinations. How far do you want to take the\nproject? Is the aim to get other hotel chains,\neven those that compete with one another, to adopt the model?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want every hotel that is able to do so to join us, regardless of its brand or how close it is to our own properties. We want hotels from all over the world. Personally, I won\u2019t rest until more than 1,000 hotels are giving away tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of free weeks every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019d also like airlines to get involved. Wizz Air currently donates more than 50 flights a year to When You Wish Upon a Star, one of the organisations we work with. If they can do it, so can the others. The same applies to taxis, trains, car hire companies, restaurants, cruise ships... anyone involved in the hospitality sector can get on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID put our industry in intensive care;\nfortunately, we\u2019ve returned to 2019 levels. Now we\u2019ve\nunleashed a \u201cvirus of kindness\u201d. When you experience it, you\npass it on to your friends and your competitors. Let\u2019s make the world a\nkinder place, one holiday at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What role can tourism professionals\nplay on an individual basis? Not all of us have hotel rooms to\ndonate, but many of us can help raise awareness, put\norganisations in touch with one another or open doors.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would ask professionals to speak to their contacts within the\nsector \u2013 not just hotels \u2013 and to encourage them to find out about\nRoomForKindness.com<\/a>. We are also asking our guests and the\ngeneral public to tell their favourite hotels\nabout the initiative. Tell them that you will become even more loyal customers if\nthey start donating stays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, <\/a>RoomForKindness.com<\/a>\/find-a-hotel\/ offers a free listing\nfor all hotels that commit to donating just one week a year\nto a charity. It is a commission-free marketing channel.\nImagine if all the relevant hotels were listed there and it\nbecame a major source of bookings. The profitability of\nthose taking part could increase dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What solidarity\ngives back<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After so many years working in tourism, what have\nthe families who have stayed with Kind Holidays taught you that you wouldn\u2019t have\nlearnt by working solely in the tourism industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have taught me just how lucky I am to be able to enjoy\nregular holidays with my family and, above all, how lucky\nI am to have a wife and children in good health. They have also shown me\njust how strong and resilient human beings can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s a former soldier trying to lay his demons to rest once and for all, or a\nmother who has lost one child and continues to care for the other despite\na pain that is impossible to imagine. They are real-life heroes. They inspire\nme and my colleagues every day with their strength of spirit and their\nability to remain kind despite everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Families
Families from Dreams Come True during a stay at Regal Oaks, Orlando.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to finish on a personal note. Today, listening to you\ntalk about these projects, it\u2019s clear that there\u2019s a\nvery strong emotional connection behind them. What do you get out of all this? What\nkeeps Grant Peires feeling inspired and keen to involve more\npeople in this initiative?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not a religious person, but I firmly believe that what\nyou give eventually comes back to you. To tell you the truth, I\u2019m a very\nselfish person and I\u2019m in this for what I call \u201ckarmic points\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joking aside, as well as offering some of the most\nwonderful and courageous people I have ever met the chance to create their\nmost cherished memories and\/or find some comfort, I have seen the\nenormous impact that all of this has had on me and my colleagues. I want\nthe rest of our industry to be able to feel it too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Room for Kindness website, there is a six-minute video featuring\nsome very moving interviews with some of our most special guests\nand members of staff. Having watched it, I can only ask that you\njoin us and\/or help us spread the word about the project. Thank you.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grant Peires talks to Juanjo Oliv\u00e1n about Kind Holidays and Room for Kindness, two initiatives that turn spare rooms into a chance to relax and create memories for families in need.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-4758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solidaridad","tag-solidaridad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4758"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4765,"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions\/4765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sinergiaskal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}