A new partnership between United
Way, Radisson Hotels & Resorts and Hope for the City hopes to have the
whole community resting easier. The three entities have created a
public-private coalition to find charitable homes for the thousands of
beds the hotel chain will be replacing over the next two years. Radisson recently announced that it will be exchanging its existing king,
queen and double-sized beds for the Sleep Number(R) bed by Select
Comfort(TM) at 249 Radisson hotels and resorts in the United States,
Canada and the Caribbean, with the majority of Radisson’s 90,000 beds to
be upgraded in 2005 and 2006.

“Our exclusive agreement with Select Comfort will bring hotel bedding to a
new level of comfort and choice in our industry and will help our hotels
increase guest satisfaction and obtain a leadership position in the
marketplace,” said Bjorn Gullaksen, executive vice president of Carlson
Hotels Worldwide Full Service Hotels and Brand Leader for Radisson Hotels
& Resorts. “We also wanted to provide an option for our hotels to put
their existing beds to further good use and help those in need, rather
than just liquidating the beds or having them end up in a landfill.”

Those beds donated will be made available—in bulk—to nonprofit
agencies. The Radisson Plaza Hotel Minneapolis, Radisson’s flagship
property, is the first hotel to begin to donate beds to the coalition.
Organizations must commit to taking at least 200 beds to qualify for the
program. Greater Twin Cities United Way is now working with other United
Way organizations across the nation to spread the word about how agencies
can receive donated beds. Hope for the City is another driving force
behind the partnership, distributing the beds with the help of its
connections across the nation and in Canada and of Single Source Solutions
(SSS), a Denver-based company that will coordinate the removal of the beds.
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