CHICAGO, February 1, 2022—Safe Stays by ReloShare, which is transforming the way social service agencies secure safe emergency lodging for victims of crime, is building on its early success through expansion to all 50 US states, alliances with national hotel brands, and the closing of ReloShare’s pre-seed round of capital investment.
“I’m proud of our rapid growth and the positive impact that Safe Stays by ReloShare is having on the lives of so many people,” said Matt Singley, co-founder and chief executive officer, ReloShare. “We have solved a long-standing problem that has vexed nonprofit and governmental agencies—finding safe shelter quickly and privately in a way in which vulnerable survivors can remain anonymous and virtually untrackable by their abusers.”
Recent developments contributing to the growth of Safe Stays by ReloShare include:
- Alliances with national hotel brands, with local rooms available for emergency booking through the ReloShare platform. Choice Hotels International, Inc., one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors, and a second national hotel owner/operator with hundreds of US properties, were the first two national brands to work with Safe Stays by ReloShare. Other hotel brands are in the process of joining the platform.
- Onboarding more than 100 social service and governmental agencies that now are using the custom ReloShare hotel-booking platform to secure local lodging for crime survivors, with complete anonymity via name aliases and without credit card and identification requirements upon check-in.
- Expansion to all 50 states, covering thousands of hotel locations across the US. Safe Stays by ReloShare bookings exceeded 1,000 room nights in January.
- Completion of pre-seed funding totaling $1.5 million.
“Choice Hotels is pleased to work with ReloShare on this great community initiative,” said Chad Fletcher, vice president, Global Sales, Choice Hotels International, Inc. “We are happy that our various local properties across the US can be a safe location for victims during trying times. Together with ReloShare, we can potentially help significantly reduce the number of unmet requests for emergency housing throughout the nation every day.”
The custom Safe Stays by ReloShare platform was introduced in 2020 to address the immense social service challenge of finding emergency housing for survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault, and other crimes.
This first-of-its-kind technology platform and operational alliances ensure private yet safe housing for those who often are in desperate and dangerous situations while streamlining and simplifying processes performed by social workers and agencies. In addition to enabling anonymous bookings, Safe Stays by ReloShare provides monthly consolidated hotel billing—instead of separate time-of-booking credit card charges—to agencies, enabling staff to redirect time to more critical social service support. Also, all bookings are manually verified with the hotel to help ensure the check-in process is handled anonymously and seamlessly upon guest arrival.
“Safe Stays by ReloShare has been an invaluable resource for our agency,” said Andrea Strough, residential services director at Domestic Violence Shelter and Services, Inc., Wilmington, NC. “What used to take hours – searching for, booking and checking clients into hotel rooms – now takes just minutes. The time our staff would have spent researching, securing, and arranging accommodations can now be focused on the survivor’s safety planning, healing and moving forward. With the large number of hotels available on Safe Stays, we were even able to book hotel rooms for a survivor of domestic violence and her children as they traveled across the country for safety.”
According to a recent one-day census of domestic violence victims, on just one day in 2020 there were more than 19,000 adults and children in emergency housing programs, while 4,000 additional requests for emergency shelter were unmet that same day across the United States.
“Far too often, agencies that work with crime victims spend countless hours negotiating with hotels to make necessary accommodations needed for the safety of their clients. This leaves less time for providing essential supportive services,” said Paige Allmendinger, head of Safe Stays at ReloShare. “Safe Stays by ReloShare enables agencies to spend more time focusing on their clients and less on the administrative burdens of finding them safe emergency housing. We believe Safe Stays can save agencies more than six million hours cumulatively each year in administrative tasks, enabling them to reinvest time into survivor support services.”
About Choice Hotels®:
Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the largest lodging franchisors in the world. With more than 7,100 hotels, representing over 600,000 rooms, in nearly 40 countries and territories as of September 30, 2021, the Choice® family of hotel brands provides business and leisure travelers with a range of high-quality lodging options from limited service to full-service hotels in the upscale, midscale, extended-stay and economy segments. The award-winning Choice Privileges® loyalty program offers members benefits ranging from everyday rewards to exceptional experiences. For more information, visit www.choicehotels.com.
