QUARTERS: A WORLD OF GOOD

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Charity can begin away from home, too. As part of our series on inspiring places to stay, Rosanna de Lisle picks out hotels with a social conscience ...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Spring 2010

Hotels are under increasing pressure to green up their act. Where once it seemed enough to cut down on towel-washing, these days discerning guests expect renewable energy, waste recycling, water conservation and local produce. But eco-consciousness is only half the story: to be ethical, hotels need a social conscience too. While many hotels employ local people and support charities, the five featured here actually exist to improve the lives of their neighbours. It’s no coincidence that they are all in the developing world, since that is where the worst poverty—and hence the greatest scope for tourism to relieve it—is found.

What does a hotel with a social conscience offer guests? The chance to meet local people, join in community projects and go home knowing that your holiday didn’t just do you the world of good. The only guilt involved is the flight. But Justin Francis, who co-founded responsibletravel.com and the Responsible Travel Awards and recently denounced carbon offsetting as a “medieval pardon”, gives this advice: “If you’re going to fly, make it count and go somewhere where you’ll do more good than harm.”

Kasbah du Toubkal, Morocco
An inspired joint venture between a Briton, Mike McHugo, and a Berber, Hajj Maurice Ait Bahmed, the Kasbah du Toubkal was an early paradigm of responsible tourism. It opened in 1995 and has supported Imlil, the village over which its fairy-tale form looms, ever since. Thanks to a 5% levy on guest bills the village has a hammam, the valley has an ambulance and girls are going to secondary school for the first time. There are 14 bedrooms, a garden house and, six hours’ hike away, a solar-powered mountain lodge. Rooms from €168, b&b.

Guludo Beach Lodge, Mozambique
In 2002 Neal and Amy Carter-James asked the people of a village on the northern coast of war-torn Mozambique if they’d like to create a hotel to relieve their poverty. Guludo Beach Lodge now affects 15,000 people for the better. Through its Nema Foundation, funded by a 5% levy on bills plus donations, Guludo provides clean water, education, health care and malaria nets and won the 2009 Responsible Tourism Award for Poverty Reduction. The nine beachside bandas are chill-out havens but most guests are moved to visit the village rather than flop. Rooms from $255, full-board.

Jungle Bay, Dominica
This eco retreat was conceived by a Dominican couple, Samuel and Glenda Raphael, as a building project on which to employ some of the 8,000 banana-workers who were left destitute when Dominica’s banana trade collapsed in the 1990s. Today, guests stay in 35 stilted hardwood cottages, enjoying rainforest walks, diving and yoga, while the hotel supports a home for disabled orphans and a women’s shelter as well as paying the school fees of more than 200 indigenous Carib children. The staff contribute 10% of their tips, the Raphaels match that, and guests make voluntary donations. Rooms from $197, b&b.

Nihiwatu, Indonesia
Americans Claude and Petra Graves discovered Sumba, one of the poorest islands in Indonesia, in 1989 and built an eco retreat there. With ten thatched villas, a top-class surf break and a dining room with a floor of raked sand, Nihiwatu is nirvana to barefoot-luxury nuts. To 20,000 Sumbanese people, it’s a lifeline. The Sumba Foundation has brought water to 147 villages, opened clinics, schools and libraries, and reduced malaria infection by 75%. Most guests contribute generously. Rooms from $612, full-board; minimum stay five nights.

Hotel Shinta Mani, Cambodia
Travellers come to this elegant 18-room hotel in Siem Reap for easy access to Angkor Wat. But Shinta Mani translates as “the gem that provides everything one desires” and for the students of the hotel’s Institute of Hospitality the promise is genuine. Each year, the institute provides free training, food and a stipend to 25 disadvantaged Cambodians, who go on to good jobs. Shinta Mani also helps rural communities by digging wells, building homes and giving families pigs to breed and sell. The projects are funded by guest donations (brick house, $1,250; pair of piglets, $80), with the proprietor covering any shortfall. Rooms from $117, b&b.