Marriott International has developed and is piloting in five U.S. cities a service in which room nights are donated on an emergency basis for short-term stays for human trafficking survivors and their care providers, the hotel company announced Tuesday.Dubbed HotelHelp, the service now is available in Marriott properties in Atlanta, Detroit, Phoenix, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and the hotel company plans to expand it in January 2025 to 25 cities throughout North America. Eventually, according to Marriott, the company will expand it globally and to other hotel companies.Through HotelHelp, care providers can reserve up to five room nights per person and make reservations for the trafficking survivor. The service matches care providers to participating properties. The service is modeled after HospitalityHelps, a program established by travel club room-swapping firm HotelSwaps and lodging consultancy PKF International, in which short-term stays were provided to Ukrainian refugees of the war with Russia, according to Marriott, which participated in the program.”Survivors of human trafficking often face a shortage of dedicated shelter beds that put them at greater risk of being re-trafficked after exiting their trafficking situation,” Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said in a statement, adding that “we look forward to working with other hotel companies to extend the reach of this effort.”The hospitality industry in recent years has escalated its campaigns to raise awareness of and combat human trafficking, as hotels are a key conduit for traffickers. RELATED: Moving Human Trafficking Awareness Beyond the Travel Industry’s Front Lines
