Alessia Ferrari
Sara Corvi Cardona
francesca tufano
Camilla Mito
Irene Pozzi
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)
Riccardo Torelli
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The project is by Antonio Pelosi, engineer, and hotelier, belonging to a historic family of Roman hoteliers. In 2007, after a serious motorcycle accident, Antonio remained in a coma for three weeks, followed by a long and hard rehabilitation. Then his desire to do something was born, his very ambitious dream was to give concrete possibilities of rebirth to those who in life had to face many difficulties: create a hotel in the heart of Rome to give disabled people the opportunity to work, winning the trust of customers, the trust that sometimes you lose due to severe trauma.
As a result of some trauma, you lose self-esteem and the ability to feel autonomous in life, so training is an important part as it is not only vocational training, but also training to regain some autonomy in life.
To realize this project the investment was about one and a half million euros, but his Ethical Hotel invests all earnings back into the business or into other non-profits. All earnings are used to pay wages, rent, fixed costs and start-up debts. What is left over is donated to other non-profit organizations for the disabled.
Furthermore, “Albergo Etico The First In Rome” belongs to B Corporation, which is an American private brand and there are not many companies like this in Italy. In fact, there are only two hundred B Corporation in the whole of Italy, even though this model is innovative. To join B Corporation, it’s not important the statute by which you set up your company, but they evaluate the results you have already achieved. They give you a score and if you exceed a certain threshold, you can take the brand of B Corporation (benefit corporation).
“I want to give a chance to those guys who have had or currently have difficulties, so that everyone gives what they can”.
“The objective/purpose is that everyone can find a job that enhances to the maximum its abilities”.
"Disability is only in the eyes of the beholder".
If you talk about innovation inside the “Albergo Etico The First In Rome”, There are no great technological innovations. Mr. Pelosi told us that his idea was not born with the purpose of making innovation but with the goal of helping people with difficulties. The idea of creating this hotel was taken from a hotel in Asti, transformed and transported to Rome.
We asked Mr. Pelosi what the original idea of this hotel came from, he replied that he was already dealing with the hotel world and after his experience with the accident he decided to put the two together to help those people in need by giving them a new chance.
The aim of innovation is to give a second chance. The entrepreneur already had a good experience in managing a hotel and in disability and putting together the two factors brought the idea of the “Albergo Etico The First In Rome”.
Potentially Scalable: the business solution in our story can be used on a bigger scale in other places. The original idea was not just to do business or make more money, but to give and do something for people with disabilities, to give a job training. His hotel is better than others because in managing a hotel it is important to have experience. The main focus of a hotel is to sleep and stay, but they try to give guests a different experience to differentiate themselves from others.
It is called ethical hotel the first Rome because the entrepreneur hopes to convey this business idea to other people and that there will be a second and a third. Unlike start-ups or other companies that have their patent and do not want to be copied, he hopes that he can be an example for other people who want to do this type of business.
The impact of the business on society in this case is great because people with disabilities who did not think they could work or contribute to society now they have a chance. For all the people within their family who have to face disability, seeing the opportunities that can give Ethical Hotel, they can feel understood and included in society, they see a light at the end of the tunnel, and they realize that all is not lost. Instead, they did not have a great impact on the environment. The hotel is plastic free, but their main focus is not being green, but being socially sustainable.
The strength of the hotel is to offer the opportunity to have a richer experience. People choose one hotel rather than another because they have a better experience, for example a beautiful view or a starred hotel because it has a restaurant with a well-known chef. The hotel offers a much richer customer experience than other. From this point of view the possibility of having this experience is a wealth for the company.
The advantages that the company has obtained because of this innovative choice have been mostly reputational, marketing and advertising. This choice led them to be on television and in newspapers. The company was interviewed by LE IENE and even by the BBC. Without this choice they would not have had the opportunity to be filmed from such important channels. In addition, this reputation increases the demand which also allows to raise prices and to have an economic advantage.
The purpose of the Ethical Hotel in Rome is to give a second chance to all those people who otherwise would not have it and to help people find or regain a purpose, for example beers brewed by guys who were in prison are sold. In fact, the novelty lies in making inclusion, that is the idea of taking these guys, training them, and then allowing them to stand on your own two feet. Also, because many companies hire one or two boys with disabilities, they take care of them from the age of 20 to the age of 50, and thus They fulfil their legal obligation to include them in their work. Unlike other companies he takes 10 guys a year, trains them and then he sends them out. This is highly innovative for this aspect.
We asked Mr. Pelosi what has been the reaction of the guests and he replied that he did not expect this kind of reaction from the guests. He thought that most customers who would chose this type of hotel did it because they knew about the mission and wanted to help. This is true for about 1/3 of the guests. Most customers choose it because it is a beautiful hotel which has great reviews and do not realizing the social impact of the hotel. For example, a customer who was at the restaurant, when he paid the bill, he told the person who worked at the cash register that he had eaten very well but he did not understand why this hotel was called ETHICAL. He didn’t even realize he was being served by people with disabilities.
The hotel is a benefit company, these companies are S.r.l. or S.p.a. In addition to the normal objectives that commercial companies have (making profits for shareholders), they also pose other objectives like a delicate approach to the environment and to the world, for example like Illy. So, the hotel aims to make a profit but also to mediate it well with the interest of all stakeholders while providing a benefit to disabled populations by providing jobs and training.
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Antonio Pelosi, Founder and CEO
22 December 2018: the first ethical hotel is born, located in the center of Rome. It’s the first hotel in Rome that combines Hospitality and Social Responsibility: The Ethical Hotel was born from the meeting between a Roman hotelier (Antonio) and a non-profit organization, where he regularly performs voluntary work, following a period marked by a serious car accident in 2007.
An entrepreneurial project with a broad social challenge, one of the first examples in Italy of social inclusion. It differs from other hotels, not for the reference market, but for workers: the mission is the integration and professional growth of guys with different forms of disability, in a real working context, supported by professionals in the sector. It’s an accommodation facility where diversity is not feared, and limits are transformed into occasions.