Good hotels have the best amenities but great hotels offer the best service. It's true that most hotels are anchored by good service but there's only a few that serve the community beyond marbled walls and carpeted floors, especially during a crisis.

Robinsons Hotels and Resorts (RHR) is taking good service outside its properties through extending help during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in the Philippines, which was extended recently. While some of its hotels temporarily ceased operations due to the lockdown, the hotel group is still doing its part to help aid frontliners in the battle against coronarvirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

As the operator of Robinsons Land Corporation's (RLC) hotel properties—Summit Hotels, Go Hotels, Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria, Holiday Inn Manila Galleria—RHR is taking necessary and much needed steps to help the community. The group donated thousands of essential items to several hospitals and some local government units (LGUs) around the country.

Earlier, the Gokongwei group through its Gokongwei Brothers Foundation pledged P100 million to aid health workers during the pandemic. RLC is JG Summit Holdings' real estate developer arm, which also operates Robinsons Malls, several office buildings, and other properties. 

Doctors, nursers, and other medical staff have been in the front lines ever since the virus outbreak began spreading across the country. However, most hospitals—especially government owned facilities—have been regularly asking for assistance from the public and the private sector due to the shortage of medical supplies and other essential items.

What hospitals need most are the personal protective equipment (PPE) for the healthcare workers. This essential gear protects them against the contagious disease and the frontliners go through a lot of PPEs in a single day.

One of the beneficiary hospitals is the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in the city of Manila. As one of the major public hospitals in the country that has been continuously detecting, treating, and saving COVID-19 patients, it is in constant need of PPEs and other essential items.

The hotel group recently donated 5,500 shower caps (used as PPE head caps and shoe covers), 5,000 shampoo bottles, 3,500 pieces of soap, 1,500 dental kits, and assorted linens to PGH. Personal hygiene products and linens are likewise needed for proper sanitation and for the safety of workers and patients as well.

Likewise, RHR also donated items to some LGUs outside of Metro Manila. Towels and bedsheets from Go Hotels Iloilo were donated to the Iloilo City government while Summit Ridge Tagaytay gave sanitized items like 500 shower caps, 500 sanitary bags, 300 combs, and 100 packs of cotton to the Tagaytay City LGU, important items for hygiene kits.

On the other hand, Summit/Go Hotel Naga employees chipped-in to produce 160 snack packs for hospital frontliners. The group was able to distribute the snack packs to Bicol Medical Center, St. John Hospital, NICC Doctors Hospital, and Mother Seton Hospital.

RHR's hotel brands are known for its exceptional service. And although the tourism sector has been greatly hit by the lockdown, the group has committed itself to serve not only its guests but the community around its properties. It is a responsibility a true service-oriented company can offer in this trying times.