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Hotels that can sleep well at night
By Kathy Chin Leong

In the last decade and particularly since Sept. 11, philanthropy and activism in the $113-billion hotel and lodging industry have ramped up. Independent city hotels, chains and luxury tropical resorts are doing more than cutting checks. They are getting staff and guests to invest expertise, time and labor toward such endeavors as saving young girls from prostitution, equipping at-risk youth with job skills and even giving free manicures.

Supporting young artists

At the Hotel Metropolis in San Francisco, guests support the Tenderloin Learning Center when they purchase one of the $60 framed canvas paintings hanging throughout the hotel. The paintings are created by the center's toddlers and elementary-school children.

When Yvonne Lembi-Detert, president of Personality Hotels, opened Hotel Metropolis in 1999, she carted brushes and paints to the low-income learning center and had the children create their own versions of earth, wind, fire and water.

"Each time a picture comes down, I put another one back up," she says. "Maybe I haven't purchased a playground for them, but every bit helps. Plus, I've made their community known to out-of-towners."

Lembi-Detert is deliberate and focused in her goodwill mission, underscoring the fact that it takes time and effort to make a social commitment.

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