Vacation Marbella joins the Hotel Friends of UNICEF Spain Programme

Vacation Marbella is proud to welcome over 20,000 tourists to holiday in Marbella every year, to stay in the 100+ properties that we manage and market on the Costa del Sol. We support our owners to maximize their rental income, and give our guests the best possible experience during their holiday, but wanted to do more to help others. That’s why we were delighted to learn about UNICEF Spain’s programme aimed at the hospitality industry, to improve lives of hundreds of thousands of children who are suffering from a lack of drinking water due to climate change.

Hotels and rental properties are in contact with so many visitors to Spain, so we have a unique opportunity to help UNICEF fundraise and help our visitors to give to a fantastic cause, in a really easy way. We’re asking our guests to add a €3, €5 or €10 donation to UNICEF Spain when they pay for their stay with us, and every donation will mitigate the impact of climate change on children through UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programmes. It might not seem a lot, but it really makes a difference! For a donation of €3, UNICEF can give 2 children safe drinking water for a whole month.

What is the Hotel Friends of UNICEF Spain all about?

We all know that international travel contributes to climate change, but that it also benefits the communities where tourism is strong. Many travelers are looking for ways to minimize their impact, through carbon offsetting, shorter flights, or more green travel alternatives. However, it can be hard to know how best to help during your holiday and this scheme gives you a really simple way to mitigate the effects of climate change on children.

Spain is one of the most visited countries in the world, coming second only to France in 2022 in international tourist arrivals. Tourism is a major part of Spain’s economy, and so UNICEF Spain has seen a fantastic fundraising and awareness raising opportunity. With over 71 million international tourists visiting Spain in 2022 and the majority booking accommodation with hotels or holiday rental companies, the charity realized that these hospitality businesses could easily and safely take donations during the booking process from their clients on behalf of UNICEF.

The hospitality businesses simply needed to add a donation option as part of the payment for the accommodation, and the guest could choose from three low donation amounts. As just €3 allows UNICEF to give two children clean and safe drinking water per month, imagine how many children could be helped if 70 million of the 71.7 million each donated that low amount!

What are the aims of the Hotel Friends of UNICEF Spain Project?

The Hotel Friends of UNICEF Spain scheme gives hotels, vacation rental companies and tourists an easy way to help counter the effects of climate change. It removes the effort and cost of reaching so many million people from the charity and utilizes the booking systems that these hospitality businesses have in place, to reach these people and ask for a small donation to simply be added to their payment.

Through this fundraising method, they hope to be able to help millions of children have access to clean and safe drinking water in the short and long term. Small donations from such a large number of people will allow them to save lives during climate emergencies such as droughts and floods through distributing drinking water to where it is needed most and also building water systems that can give communities stable access to drinking water, despite the worsening climate crisis.

Why have Vacation Marbella joined the Hotel Friends of UNICEF Spain Project?

Unfortunately, 100 million children live in countries where safe drinking water is hard to come by. 270 million children live in countries with limited access to sanitation and over 500 million children live in a country with a high risk of flooding. We were shocked by these numbers and after our own small experience of a drought here in Spain, we decided to take action. The Hotel Friends of UNICEF Spain Project offers us a really easy way to make a difference to this global issue.

UNICEF Spain is working hard to solve the problems of lack of drinking water through designing and constructing water and sanitation systems to reduce the impact of droughts, floods and landslides on the access to clean drinking water. They also educate children on how to wash their hands and deal with natural disasters and keep themselves safe. UNICEF also distributes drinking water, water purification tablets and water containers to places suffering from water shortages or floods.

This fantastic work really saves lives and is laying the groundwork for a better future for these vulnerable children. But it’s expensive to undertake these projects and so they are asking hotels and holiday rental companies in Spain, such as ours, to get onboard and help them to raise funds. We do that by asking every person who stays in one of our holiday rentals in Marbella to make a small donation (€3, €5 or €10) to UNICEF Spain as part of the booking process.

Vacation Marbella are proud to be able to welcome more than 20,000 guests per year and can now offer them the chance to give to this very worthy cause. If every guest gave just €3 when they booked their vacation rental in Marbella, we’d be able to give €60,000 to UNICEF every year and each guest would allow UNICEF to supply two children with water for a month, as part of their holiday spending money. What a great thing to do!

How can you be part of the Hotel Friends of UNICEF Spain Project through Vacation Marbella?

It’s easy to join this project and make a difference to millions of vulnerable children around the world. Simply browse our selection of holiday rentals on the Costa del Sol on our website. You have a selection of over 100 stunning properties to choose from, which have been handpicked and vetted by our Costa del Sol holiday experts.

Find the perfect holiday rental property for you, decide on how many nights you want to stay and when you want to visit and then hit the Book Now button.

You’ll then be able to choose from our guest services and extras if you want to add them to your booking. These include extra beds, baby items, parking, services and tours and even an option to stock the fridge for you. On this page of extras, you’ll see three different donation options for UNICEF Spain – €3, €5 or €10. Choose the one you want, or decide not to donate at this time, before completing your booking and paying securely online.

If you have any questions or concerns, just contact our helpful team and we’ll guide you through it.

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who donates and collaborates with UNICEF in the defense of children’s rights. Children are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, a phenomenon that harms their health, education, safety and development, especially in the poorest areas of the world. Every day 1,000 children die from causes related to lack of access to clean water, hygiene and adequate sanitation, but thanks to your donation, UNICEF will work tirelessly to provide children with the water and sanitation they need to survive and grow.

On behalf of all the children UNICEF works for, thank you very much for your trust and your generosity.