Hotel welcomes landmark key worker guest
A popular Birmingham hotel has welcomed its 400th key worker guest – Birmingham healthcare worker Charles Ndemera.
Team members at Premier Inn Birmingham New Street are marking the milestone number by saying a huge thank you to its key worker guests, including Charles, who is a Senior Healthcare Assistant at St Andrew’s Healthcare.
The hotel is one of 39 Premier Inn hotels open up and down the country to support the nation’s key workers, a number which also includes Coventry East and West Bromwich Central.
Usually full of leisure business guests and leisure travellers looking to enjoy local attractions and shops, instead the hotel is supporting key workers including those working in the NHS, delivery drivers, railway workers and others providing essential services.
Hotel Manager, Laura Bishop has worked for Premier Inn for 11 years, during which time she has welcomed thousands of guests to the city.
Laura’s team has been working especially hard to ensure key worker guests feel welcome and supported, including enlisting the help of Laura’s daughter, Brooke 11 to design Rainbow pictures for every window of the Birmingham New St hotel that is open for key worker guests.
The hotel, like the rest of Premier Inn’s estate, is of course operating with strict safety procedures, including the provision of hand sanitiser, screens at check-in, floor markings to enforce social distancing and enhanced hygiene and cleaning regimes.
Laura said: “We are privileged to be one of 39 Premier Inn hotels open to support key workers like and our team has so proud to welcome people from Birmingham and the Midlands, like Charles, as they help keep the country going at this unprecedented time. It’s certainly not business as usual for anyone right now but the whole team has pulled together to support our guests. We’ve heard stories from people keeping the delivery network going and from those providing life-saving maintenance on hospital equipment and we’re all blown away by their stoicism and efforts. We want to say a massive thank you to all our key workers and we couldn’t be more pleased to reach our landmark 400th guest”.
Premier Inn owner Whitbread continues to play its part in the current circumstances.
Whitbread has announced a new strategic partnership with food charity FareShare and has already donated enough fresh food to make 335,000 meals, most will be redistributed through FareShare’s national network of charities and community groups. Schools, foodbanks, care homes and homeless shelters will all benefit as they work to support those most vulnerable during this unprecedented crisis.
Whitbread is also playing a role in supporting supermarkets to feed the nation by freeing up its logistics network which has been made available to transport food to where it’s needed most.
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