After another hotel cancelled an original booking for the 24th and 25th, one Hilton hotel has offered up rooms to 28 homeless folks in an act of generous holiday spirit.
Immediately after Britannia Royal pulled out of a booking close last minute, the DoubleTree Hilton in Hull, England, is offering a bed for two nights, breakfast and dinner for those in need.
A non-profit community organization by the name of Raise the Roof Hull put together the accommodations to help homeless folks in the area.
Carl Simpson, the organizer, found fault with the Britannia Royal after the hotel cancelled the booking and refunded the £1,092 (Around $1,300 or so) the group had paid. They claimed they were discriminating against.
Simpson posted to Facebook, saying:
“Absolutely gutted and very angry.
We have been on the phone with the Royal hotel Hull and they tell us that the 14 twin rooms we had booked for the homeless on Xmas Eve and Xmas day have been cancelled and money refunded.”
“Before we booked this hotel we informed them that we was a homeless project and what it was for and they [were] fine about it so we paid £1092.
I asked for a reason and was told there isn’t one, I’ve asked for a email to be sent asap giving reason for this action so will update you when it arrives but in my eyes this is nothing more than discrimination especially after we [were] so open about what it was for.
Our Xmas hotel campaign is now in serious doubt being so close to Xmas we need a miracle.”
According to Sky News, the Britannia hotel later shared how it cancelled the booking as they received reports of poor behavior when the booking was made at another hotel the previous year.
But in another post to the group’s Facebook page, it was said that the claims of the bad behavior were untrue and the Ibis hotel – which hosted the group’s previous booking – had no issues with the group. The group alleges that the claims were spread by someone who was not affiliated with either hotel.
But thankfully, DoubleTree Hilton discovered the cancellation and offered the group complimentary accommodations for two nights, as well as breakfast and Christmas dinner.
Several businesses in the area heard about the group’s plight and offered to pay for rooms as well as provide additional meals for the homeless people.
The group wrote:
“On a much happier note we can confirm that the Doubletree Hilton have offered to put up 28. People for 2 night’s with breakfast and Xmas dinner provided and they are doing this complimentary.
Thank you so much we will be accepting this kind offer.
We have also been offered help by several businesses including Nationwide Building Society who had offered to pay for the rooms, the Village hotel offering Xmas dinner and lots of others thank you all.”
“Who says miracles don’t happen!
We have had an amazing amount of donations that we [were] not expecting, we will be having a meeting in the new year to decide who to best use them to support the homeless further.”
After the first booking was cancelled, the group reported that they received close to £10,000 (or around $12,000) in donations.
They plan to use the funds to help as well as rehabilitate homeless folks in the area.
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