Human Rights Policy
At Choice Hotels International we strive to conduct our business operations free from violations of human rights. In January of 2008, our Board of Directors adopted a Human Rights Policy. Our Human Rights Policy condemns human trafficking and child exploitation and commits to raising awareness of this issue among the owners and staff of our franchised hotels.
In November 2010, we leveraged our relationship with ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) to create a training module for hotel management and staff. The training is available to all of our franchised hotels via Choice University, an online learning portal. The training has been included in the Choice University new hotel employee recommended training checklist. As of June 30, 2013, approximately 3,000 hotel employees have viewed the training. We are currently working on updating the training module.
screens at more than 5,100 of our U.S. hotels. The messages appear almost as soon as they have been issued by law enforcement. When the front desk staff are checking guests in and out, looking up the housekeeping status of a room, or conducting any other managerial tasks, they will see the AMBER Alert. Hospitality Technology Magazine awarded Choice Hotels the 2013 Visionary Award for this feature. This award recognizes companies that take creative approaches to innovation and utilize technology in compelling ways.
Under our former Choice Hotels Music program, original songs were featured on our website and we donated $1 for every download to a selected charity. In June 2011, the selected charity for the song “California” by Asia Whiteacre was Children of the Night, a privately funded non-profit organization established in 1979 and dedicated to rescuing America’s children from the horrors of prostitution. Featuring Children of the Night on Choicehotels.com and in our press releases not only provided monetary support, but also helped bring awareness to this issue.
In November 2010, we leveraged our relationship with ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) to create a training module for hotel management and staff. The training is available to all of our franchised hotels via Choice University, an online learning portal. The training has been included in the Choice University new hotel employee recommended training checklist. As of June 30, 2013, approximately 3,000 hotel employees have viewed the training. We are currently working on updating the training module.
| Other methods used to raise awareness at franchised hotels include articles in our franchisee newsletter, communications to our international master franchisees, and alerts to hotels located in areas of high risk events such as the Super Bowl. We also utilize our field-based associates to visit the hotels and encourage them to view the training. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, we sent messages to our London area hotels informing them about the issue of trafficking and exploitation and encouraging them to view either our training or the training available through ABTA, the British travel association. Since 2010, we have supported the efforts of the Polaris Project, a leading organization in the global fight against human trafficking. When a person is rescued from a trafficking situation, one of their immediate needs is shelter. We have donated 800,000 Choice Privileges® points which are used to provide free nights for these victims at our franchised hotels. We collaborate with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to broaden the reach of their AMBER Alert Program. A feature was built into our choiceADVANTAGE property management system that allows for AMBER Alert messages to post on the computer |
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Under our former Choice Hotels Music program, original songs were featured on our website and we donated $1 for every download to a selected charity. In June 2011, the selected charity for the song “California” by Asia Whiteacre was Children of the Night, a privately funded non-profit organization established in 1979 and dedicated to rescuing America’s children from the horrors of prostitution. Featuring Children of the Night on Choicehotels.com and in our press releases not only provided monetary support, but also helped bring awareness to this issue.