Crerar Hotels announces raft of initiatives for NHS and care workers as part of new Scottish Hospitality for Heroes scheme
CRERAR Hotels has launched a new campaign designed to thank health workers, care staff and their families for their efforts during the coronavirus outbreak.
The Scottish Hospitality for Heroes scheme will see the hotel group book out all of the rooms at each of its seven venues for around 2000 frontline staff to enjoy a free Friday and Saturday night stay with their families when the lockdown is lifted. Evening meals and breakfasts will also be included in the special weekend package, for which the group has pencilled in a tentative date of the end of August.
Crerar – whose hotels include the Golf View Hotel & Spa in Nairn, the Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa and Oban Bay Hotel in Argyll and the Isle of Mull Hotel & Spa – is also urging local businesses to get on board with the initiative and donate activities for the staff to enjoy during their complementary weekend break.
Chris Wayne-Wills, the recently-appointed chief executive of Crerar Hotels, said: “This is everyone’s business and a chance for everyone to say thank you, when we welcome these frontline heroes we’d like to have help from our local partners and we are talking with them right now. Tickets to distilleries, wildlife boat trips, a fiddler for entertainment, access to museums, a cask of beer behind the bar from a local brewery or whatever a local can give would be great. Everybody can make this their special thank you.”
Gift vouchers will also be available to purchase for NHS and care staff as part of the campaign and Crerar Hotels said it will increase the value of each gift voucher worth more than £50 by 50%.
Paddy Crerar, chairman of Crerar Hotels, said: “These have been exceptionally challenging times, terrifying in fact, and we have a way to go yet. Day in and day out the NHS folk and care workers have stepped up; and if we ordinary folk stuck at home have been fearful, how must it be for those that had no choice. We should all be rightly proud of our NHS workers, the carers and all of those who have done all they can despite the grave risks to themselves.”
Wayne-Wills added: “Throughout the company we are all extremely grateful to the true heroes of this crisis, the NHS workers. We wanted a way to express that gratitude and the way to do that is by doing what we do best, that is the hospitality we offer every day at every Crerar Hotel. This is a wonderful opportunity for us all to say thank you. I am particularly looking forward to the NHS Heroes Celebration Weekend when I will be back working on the floor at a few of the hotels to get the chance to personally thank as many NHS heroes as possible”
The Crerar Trust, which is funded by the hotel group, has also donated £25,000 to allow Crerar Hotel guests and employees to nominate local heroes in their communities – such as shop workers, emergency response personnel and refuse collectors – to receive gift vouchers for Crerar Hotels.
