UNICEF's corporate partnerships

Signature Partnerships: Check Out for Children™

Check Out for Children flyer for guests staying in Sheraton Hotels in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Check Out For Children™ is an alliance between Starwood Hotels & Resorts and UNICEF. The Check Out For Children™ mechanism is incredibly simple yet effective. Upon arrival at a Starwood hotel, guests are advised they will be invited to add one US$1 (or local currency equivalent) to their bill upon check out, as a donation to UNICEF. Any guest not wishing to donate merely informs reception accordingly. Guests wishing to make a larger donation are invited to contact any member of the front office staff.

This unique partnership between UNICEF and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and their guests has raised over US$21 million to support life-saving programs for children throughout the world.

Between 1995 and 2008, the money raised was used to support UNICEF’s immunization work, helping to immunize over 1 million children against the six major childhood diseases (polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, tuberculosis and measles).

Since 2008, Starwood Hotels in Europe, Africa and Middle East have supported the following new areas of UNICEF’s work through Check Out for Children™:

• Sheraton Hotels support UNICEF projects focused on helping orphans and vulnerable children around the world through the ‘Kids Belong’ program,

• Four Points by Sheraton hotels support programs preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV under the banner 'Keep it Simple, Save a Life',

• Westin Hotels and Resorts support water and sanitation programs for schools and communities through their ‘Water for Life’ program,

• Luxury Collection Hotels’ ‘Life is Unique’ program support UNICEF’s work in protecting children from malaria,

• Le Méridien hotels joined the Check Out for Children™ program in January 2009, and support HIV prevention programs for young people.

Since its launch in 1995, Check Out for Children™ has reached thousands of Starwood’s guests, demonstrating Starwood’s commitment to supporting the communities in which it operates and at the same time increasing awareness of UNICEF’s work. To find out more...

What is the story behind Check Out for Children™?
Check Out for Children™ was launched in Europe in 1995 in Sheraton Hotels, Asia Pacific in 1996, and finally hotels in Africa and the Middle East joined the program in 1997. The program expanded to include other Starwood brands including Westin Hotels & Resorts, Luxury Collection, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Four Points by Sheraton in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The commitment and dedication of Starwood staff in more than 200 hotels in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and over 50 properties in Asia Pacific is critical to the program’s long-lasting success.

Robert Scott, former Senior Vice-President, General Counsel for Starwood Hotels & Resorts - Europe, Africa and Middle East Division, was the pioneer of the initiative, which now operates in more than 250 hotels all over the world. Robert was motivated by the belief that Sheraton, and its guests would welcome the opportunity to put something back into the international community and approached UNICEF with the idea of helping some of the world’s most vulnerable children.

Starwood senior executive team of cyclists participating in the Road to Awareness bike ride in France, May 2008

Employee Engagement
Check Out for Children™ has become an integral part of the Starwood Hotel operations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and Asia Pacific properties. Since 2000, Starwood associate fundraising campaigns have raised over US$1 million, in addition to the core guest program.

Europe, Africa, and the Middle East (EAME)
In 2008, Starwood associates showed their commitment to Check Out for Children™ by raising over $500,000, the highest amount since the partnership began, including a grueling sponsored cycle ride along 450km of The Tour de France route which raised over $350,000 for a child to child radio project in Mozambique.

A health worker immunises an infant at a makeshift rural health clinic in the village of Dishet Abaraji near Bahir Dar, Ethiopia in February 2006.

Ethiopia
In 2005, donations raised in EAME hotels were used to fund immunization programs in several regions of Ethiopia, where urgent intervention was required to improve the coverage and quality of immunization services in order to reduce the number of deaths form vaccine preventable disease.

In February 2006, Starwood EAME President Roeland Vos, accompanied UNICEF to Amhara region in Ethiopia to see first hand how COFC donations are saving lives. He says, “If you look at what's happened over the past eleven years of the COFC partnership, we have made huge inroads when we consider how many children we have been able to vaccinate, close to a million children. However, it's only at the moment that you see one child that is being held by its mother, being immunized that you start realizing that actually you are saving a life. And that's what it's all about."

Asia Pacific
In Asia Pacific, Starwood employees run an annual UNICEF Check Out for Children™ Challenge. The Challenge is a staff fundraising competition between Starwood hotels in the region. The hotel that hosts the most creative and effective fundraising campaign is invited on a UNICEF field trip to see an immunization program in action. In 2006, the Challenge raised over US$81,000.

Miguel Ko, President, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., Asia Pacific says, “It is thanks to the dedication and motivation of Starwood employees that we have been able to raise an impressive sum for UNICEF to date,” “I am delighted that we are rising to this new Challenge.”

In 2006 the Starwood staff attended a UNICEF supported national polio immunization day in Bangladesh. They saw first-hand how their fund raising efforts have saved thousands of children from a crippling disease. Funds raised in Asia Pacific have helped to immunize thousands of children in many countries including Indonesia, Cambodia, Viet Nam, and Thailand.
Funds raised in Asia Pacific in 2006-2007 supported three immunization initiatives:

• Myanmar: Polio immunization with the aim of immunizing approximately two million children under five years of age.
• Mongolia: Strengthening and expanding the immunization program in remote districts through improving the health system delivery.
• Bangladesh: Expanded immunization program to vaccinate against seven preventable diseases (tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, hepatitis-B, and measles) targeting children under 12 months and women aged 15- 49 years in remote areas.

Back to Signature Partnerships