Wuhan’s Restriction Lifting—Hotel-Apartment Volunteer Alliance Said Goodbye
2020-04-10News
When Wuhan was ready to lift its restriction and to reopen on April 8th, the 77-day voluntary operation of Hotel-Apartment Volunteer Alliance was coming to an end.
Such alliance was initiated by TravelDaily, from Jan. 23 until the reopening of Wuhan. In the 77-day operation, 312 hotels and 115 volunteers in Wuhan had participated the Alliance, providing more than 200,000 free-of-chargeroom nights for more than 10,000 medical staff from over 100 hospitals in Wuhan, delivering extraordinary contribution to the anti-virus fight.
Since Jan. 23, Wuhan was closed, and all internal transportation was shut down. The urgent transportation needs of medical staff appeared overnight.
Upon knowing that, Xiao Yaxing, owner of 3 hotels in Wuhan, energetically changed her hotels into “Medical Station” without any hesitation, and called for many other hotels in Wuhan to act in accordance, forming a Hotel-Apartment Volunteer Alliance (originally named “Wuhan Healthcare Hotel Support Alliance”). And the Alliance started working right away, immediately providing free-of-charge accommodation for medical staff in Wuhan.
As the co-founder of the Alliance, TravelDaily called for major hotel chains to join in, in an effort to offer accommodation for medical staff.
In just 3 days, about 300 hotels, including 15 chain hotels, individual hotels and home-stays, vigorously joined the Alliance. By the end of Jan. 31, the Alliance had provided more than 40,000 free-of-charge room nights for more than 6,000 medical staff.
In just 77 days, nearly 10,000 working staff and 115 volunteers from 312 hotels created many miracles again and again:
Providing more than 200,000 free-of-charge room nights for more than 10,000 medical staff from over 100 hospitals in Wuhan,
Assisting hotels, hospitals and local communities to receive 30 batches of over 500 tons of disinfected products, food, green vegetables and fruits,
The City Together Medical Worker and Hotel Accommodation Platform, developed by the Alliance, had finished program development, commissioning and team training within 48 hours, and successfully published the program to on-line platform on Feb. 25. The program had nearly 200 hotels to have had provided 4,000 rooms, through on-line platform. Source code of this website had been uploaded to https://github.com/pariswang/CharityHotel
After the on-line publication of the platform, the Alliance quickly set up a standardized operation procedure and communication service system, and had nearly 50 volunteers working for 16 hours per day, to properly maintain 4 WeChat groups and 1 on-line platform. By proper coordination and communication with multiple parties, we had developed Hotel Price Control Policy, aiming at providing the most affordable and reliable service to medical staff and volunteers.
When Wuhan was ready to reopen, our task was going to stop temporarily, and people’s life was going to be restored, though the global fight against COVID-19 is still going on. “Day-and-night Correlation” Platform will still be working, and volunteers will continue to receive on-line consultation concerning medical services and hotels.
Looking back to the past 77 days, we will find that, starting the Alliance maybe just a flash of ideas suddenly coming to mind, we had as well feelings of panic, helplessness, lost, anger, and even wanted to give up sometimes, during the course. But we had reaffirmed our confidence and belief again and again, decided to carry on, whenever we heard gratitude from medical staff, and received support and encouragement from ordinary people. A call of duty and commitment from our inner heart is always driving us to move forward, and forge ahead to form such a shocking force, thankfully to Internet which had closely bound us together to move as one, to encourage us to persist, persist and to persist even longer!
The past 77 will certainly become the most shiny and memorable moment in our life. Thanks to our effort, and to each one of you, who helped and cared about us!
Thanks to all medical staff, volunteers and friends from hotel industry, for your silent support and contribution. Let us meet in Wuhan.
