Corporate
Social
Responsibility
(CSR)
About
this
Report
This report introduces our Sustainability
Agenda and focuses on our action and
progress made during 2014.
Index
A message from Thanos Michaelides Managing Director
Our Sustainability Actions
Our Values
Our Mission / Vision
Sustainability Organizational Structure
Issues in our Sustainability Agenda and Actions
Our Sustainability Plan and the Way Forward
Final Thoughts
Thanos Hotels:
Our Journey
to Sustainability
A message from
Thanos Michaelides
Managing Director
Sustainability involves individual organizations
considering the social, economic and environmental
effects of their activities – and taking steps to reduce
or mitigate any undesirable impacts that may occur. Here
at Thanos Hotels, sustainable tourism underpins all of our
activities and is integral to both our success and our
values.
Our approach in order to ensure that we deliver sustainable
tourism includes retaining the economic and social
advantages of our operations while taking the necessary
steps to protect and support the local natural, historic
and cultural environments, and local community.
We understand that environmental conservation and
community engagement is more than a moral imperative,
it also makes good business sense. Consumer demand for
a more sustainable approach to tourism is growing,
and increasingly becoming a determining factor in
consumers’ choice of tourist destinations and providers.
Ensuring that we continue to meet and exceed these
demands will not only benefit visitors and our stakeholders,
but will result in higher environmental and social
standards in our locality. To ensure that we meet and
exceed our goal for sustainable tourism, we choose to
embed the concept of sustainability and social
responsibility in our entire ethos: we continually evaluate
and consider our operational decisions; and incorporate
strategic actions in areas such as the environment and
energy, community, people and marketplace.
This ensures that we offer the highest quality services;
deliver a true and authentic tourism experience; consider
and protect the environment; and treat all individuals
with respect.
Thanos Hotels:
Our Journey
to Sustainability
A message from
Thanos Michaelides
Managing Director
We run each hotel as a unique property, on its own path,
towards five star positioning and beyond. Our hotels are
exceptionally welcoming, individual and distinctive, each
proudly supporting local culture and traditional values
through everything from handmade artisanal furniture
to regionally sourced produce. We are driven by quality,
which is our guests’ first priority when choosing a holiday
– and key to providing sustainable profitability.
Furthermore, by investing in our staff and communities
we improve their wellbeing and ensure the dedication of
a loyal and focused team, working together in unity for
one goal.
Unless otherwise noted, this report is based on data from
the 2014 fiscal year and reflects operational performance
of our 3 hotels. Our sustainability report includes details
of our ongoing tasks in the areas of sustainability and
social responsibility. We invite you to take a look to see
where we have made important progress and what our
future plans are. We welcome your input and encourage
you to join us as we invest in the communities where we
do business.
Sustainability
Actions:
Highlights
Our Values
To support our vision for our Hotels, we base every
aspect of our service offering on the following values:
Our Vision
/Mission
Our Commitment is…
To conduct our business ethically and responsibly
according to our values for our customers, communities
and our people, in respect to the environment.
Our vision
is to be recognised as
the embodiment of
Mediterranean
hospitality.
our
Our mission is
to create authentic
Mediterranean hotels
with personalities as
distinctive as the guests
who identify
with them.
• Thanos Hotels has proven that the exceptional quality
of its properties is the main driver of its operations. By
offering an outstanding service experience and creating
long lasting memories for our guests, we achieve a high
repeat guest ratio.
• The main priority of each hotel is to ensure that our
clients have an unforgettable holiday experience.
Our Vision
/Mission
• At Thanos Hotels we believe that maintaining high ethical
standards is very important, as strong ethics and good
business go hand in hand. Therefore, we have created an
environment where our people should feel comfortable
speaking up when they suspect potential violations of
laws and policies. Additionally, we urge our employees
to demonstrate high standards of integrity and lead by
example.
• Our employees should always behave in a manner that
is consistent with the company’s values in their day to
day interactions.
• At Thanos Hotels we understand the importance of
treating all people well not just our hotels’ guests.
• We urge our employees to use common sense and good
judgment when giving or accepting business courtesies,
so as to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
• We have a strong and lasting commitment to transparency.
• We are committed to carry out our business operations
with honesty and integrity and according to the highest
ethical standards.
Sustainability
Organizational
Structure
Based on our decision to expand, the company has created a structure to allow it to operate additional hotels.
Having been in the hospitality industry for more than 35
years, Thanos Hotels has learned to be flexible and adjust
the company’s structure according to the needs of the
market. The company has formulated a clear structure
that distinguishes the individual hotel operations from
the corporate administration.
Our Company’s structure is illustrated below:
Sustainability
Organizational
Structure
By creating a strong corporate team the company has
managed to build on economies of scale and create an
effective and efficient corporate administration for its
operations.
The corporate team’s main objective is to ensure that the
hotels are promoted efficiently and that all hotel operations’
needs are met in order for the hotels to deliver high quality standards and desirable guest experiences. Recruiting
needs and product needs are handled by the corporate
administration.
To support our Sustainability Strategy we have engaged
our people and formed a sustainability team. Each one
of our hotels has formed its own CSR Committee. Our
Group CSR Committee has the overall responsibility for
the development and implementation of the Company’s
CSR Strategy.
Our sustainability group structure is shown in the adjacent
diagram:
In addition to our CSR committees presented above,
each hotel has a HACCP Committee (Hazard Analysis &
Critical Control Points), a H&S Committee (Health &
Safety), a Welfare Committee and a Staff Committee
responsible for decision-making about economic,
environmental, health and safety and social matters.
Issues in our
sustainability
agenda
We understand that sustainable tourism delivers positive
economic, social and environmental outcomes with
consideration to visitor’s needs, the hospitality industry,
legislation, the local community and the environment.
We also understand that the tourism industry has negative impacts especially on the environment, sometimes
affecting the biodiversity and local habitats close to
seashores, producing solid and liquid waste, using natural
resources, consuming energy and producing emissions.
We remain focused on what we do well, which is the
provision of hospitality services and experiences, taking
care of our guests, and controlling our operational costs.
However, we are also investing in innovative conservation
initiatives designed to provide long-term solutions to
critical social and environmental issues. Our continuous
focus on sustainable hotel development generates
opportunities to increase local tourism, to create new
jobs and support local communities.
At Thanos Hotels we manage our material aspects and
impacts following a proactive approach that consists of
our organisational structure (we have specific sustainability teams at hotel level), internal policies, processes
and procedures formulated, developed and implemented
as part of our management systems and comprehensive
action plans. Additionally, the mechanisms for evaluating
the effectiveness of our approach and our compliance include communication plans with stakeholders, materiality
analysis for strategy development, a rigorous monitoring
and audit programme and performance indicators (action
plans).
Issues in our
sustainability
agenda
We follow and implement these action plans on an annual
basis and at the end of the year we review, update and
adjust our targets according to our overall performance
and end of the year results.
We understand that significant challenges must beaddressed in order to achieve our objectives and our vision.
These challenges are presented in the figure below:
Sustainable tourism
can be defined as tourism
that delivers positive economic,
social and environmental outcomes
with consideration to the needs
of the visitor, industry,
community and environment.
Issues in our
sustainability
agenda
At Thanos Hotels we have been engaging with our people
in an effort to identify and prioritise our most significant
sustainability issues that occur as a result of our hotels’ operations. Following this engagement process, we grouped
our significant issues under four pillars:
Environment, Market Place, Community and People.
The figure below outlines the focus areas for each pillar:
Our Sustainability
Actions:
Marketplace
In delivering our hospitality services it is very important
to meet our clients’ expectations in order to ensure continuous improvement and growth of our business.
In a very competitive tourist market understanding our
clients’ needs and expectations is imperative for sustainable
growth.
In the following areas, we discuss the ways we are managing matters in regards to meeting client expectations,
ensuring product quality and promoting and sustaining
our destination image.
Meeting Client Expectations and Product Quality
At Thanos Hotels we are proud of the fact that we are
achieving a high repeat guest ratio, by offering an
outstanding service experience and creating long lasting
memories for our guests.
Our actions and commitments in order to satisfy our
clients and other stakeholders include:
• Commitment to ensure our product safety.
• Commitment to satisfy our clients’ needs, requirements
and expectations.
• Commitment to satisfy our tour operator partners’
agreed requirements.
• Management of product quality by maintaining structured
procedures and Standard Operating Practices (SOP).
• Working with local and international partners with
similar quality and work ethics.
• Maintaining open communication with our employees,
clients, suppliers.
Our Sustainability
Actions:
Marketplace
• Incorporating high quality, food safety, health and
safety and environmental management standards into
everyday business practices.
• Creating and delivering a unique product based on our Vision.
• Ensuring hotel grounds are maintained to the appropriate levels needed for international guests.
• Preventing accidents/incidents in the workplace by
appointing a Health & Safety Officer, by performing training
for our staff and by carrying out regular risk assessments
of our properties.
• Identifying, evaluating and monitoring all food safety
risks from production through to delivery through the
implementation of HACCP and ISO 22000 guidelines in
all three hotels.
• Continually improving our product offering. Since our
first hotel launch, we have developed two award-winning
spas, we operate a very successful group of luxury boutiques in Cyprus, we have partnered with a like-minded
brand on our kids club and we have introduced a series of
highly successful new dining concepts.
• Preserving our guests and employees trust by safeguarding and handling their information in a private and
confidential manner.
• Educating all our employees in regards to the
importance of guest privacy.
• Exchanging of confidential information is prohibited.
• Collecting and using guest information, with their
permission, to provide them with better and more memorable experiences. We carry out guest satisfaction surveys
each year and analyze data to better understand their
preferences. In 2014, all our hotels have achieved high
scores from our guests.
Our Sustainability
Actions:
Marketplace
Tourism Seasonality
Seasonality in the hospitality industry presents a number of
issues that require special attention and strategies. More
specifically, seasonality affects the number of tourists that
visit the island and therefore can threaten the viability of
our business.
Many hotels in Cyprus close during the winter due to the
decrease in the number of tourists that visit the island.
At Thanos Hotels we believe in remaining open throughout
the year, however, we are obliged to close Anassa because
of its location. Nevertheless, our other two hotels remain
open all through the year and as a result we employ staff
and minimise unemployment, we contribute to the local
economy, and we contribute to the increase of winter
tourism overall.
It is noted that in order to increase the number of tourists during the winter season and remain open, we offer
off-season packages to both locals and foreigners.
Image of destination
Destination image is commonly accepted as an important
aspect of successful tourism management and destination marketing. The information about a specific destination is an important means of promotion for the tourism
industry and influences the choices of tourists. We carry
out different activities in order to promote the destination image such as:
• Cleaning of the beach and the sea every year.
• Supporting and assisting local sport activities and
encouraging usage of local municipality grounds.
• Engaging with local communities and other
stakeholders to improve the tourism product at the
destination level.
Our Sustainability
Actions:
Community
We support and invest in our local communities and as a
result, we create value for both our business and society
by contributing to the local economies, developing
talented local workforces and fostering local relationships
that help ensure success.
We recognise our responsibility to respect the environment
and manage our impacts for the benefit of the communities
in which we operate.
We shape economies and strengthen communities by
providing employment and income to local residents, as
well as by purchasing local produce.
Local Community Engagement and Involvement
We are committed to strengthening the communities
where we operate, recognizing that when a community prospers, so does our business. Additionally, we are
committed to measure and manage our societal impacts
and finding innovative ways to mitigate them. Measures
already implemented on a continuous basis include:
• Working closely with suppliers in order to identify
opportunities to source locally produced goods and
services. More specifically we buy local products such as
Nuts, Raisins, Sausages, Fruit, Vegetables, Lountza,
Tsamarella, Carob Syrup, Epsimon, Olives, Olive Oil, dried
Fruit, Dairy Products, Bread sticks, Wine, etc
• Employing local people: 51.12% of people employed in
our hotels are locals versus 48.88% foreign staff.
• Working with local partners to support projects that
increase community well-being.
Our Sustainability
Actions:
Community
• Sponsoring a number of local events, sporting teams etc.
• Incorporating regional food and/or wine as part
of our product experience.
• Providing information to guests about the area’s
cultural and natural characteristics.
• Encouraging our employees to volunteer in
organizations, local communities, associations etc.
• Offering work experience for students.
• Donating to charities e.g. donations to the Sophia
Foundation.
Our Company recognises its environmental responsibilities and is highly committed to ethical business practices
that avoid activities with a significant environmental
impact and/or mitigate the impact of such activities to
acceptable levels.
We believe that the inclusion of environmental responsibility in our business strategy and hotels’ operations will
play a vital role in the continuous viability of our business
and the hospitality industry.
Our Sustainability
Actions:
Environment
Waste Management, Recycling
• Currently large quantities of waste goes to landfill and
the tourism industry is a large contributor to the amount
of waste produced. Waste disposal in landfills has significant adverse environmental impacts such as soil pollution, water and groundwater pollution, air pollution etc.
Additionally, natural resources are becoming more and
more limited. Therefore, it is critical to adopt waste
reduction measures and rational waste management
practices in order to minimise our impact. Proper management can avoid the generation of unnecessary waste
but also reduce disposal fees and transportation costs,
both financial and environmental.
• Waste management measures include:
> the implementation of a paperless system in order to
reduce paper.
> the recycling of various streams of waste such as pmd
(plastics, metals and drink cartons), paper, glass etc.
Water Management
• Water is a serious issue for the tourist industry especially due to the water shortages we experience on the
island. As part of our hotels’ operations, we have a bathroom in every room and various swimming pools on the
premises, therefore, water forms an integral part of every
guest experience. However, rational water management
is essential so as to ensure that not only we minimise our
water consumption but we also eliminate the possibility
of water pollution.
Our Sustainability
Actions:
Environment
• We have been implementing water conservation
measures by reusing water coming from pool operations
for irrigation purposes (hotel gardens). Through these
actions our water consumption in 2014 has been reduced
by 5.9% in comparison to 2013.
Energy Management
• Electricity consumption is one of the most costly aspects
of hotel operation from both a financial and environmental
point of view. With careful design and through the implementation of green measures, we are positive that we will
be able to reduce consumption without diminishing the
well-being of guests and employees.
• We are pleased that our target to reduce electrical
energy consumption in our hotels has been achieved with
our average consumption in 2014 being reduced by 9.2%
in comparison to that of 2013.
Our Sustainability
Actions:
People
• Thanos Hotels is a genuine family business which runs
on an ‘extended family’ concept – our management, staff
and guests are all part of the family.
• Our goal is to create a friendly and ideal environment,
which our people feel proud to be part of.
• We invest in our staff as we know the importance of a
loyal and dedicated team working together in unity for
one goal.
• We employ capable individuals and we provide continuous training to all our employees so as to satisfy our
clients increasing demands.
• Additionally, we are dedicated to providing fair working
conditions and supporting human rights throughout our
business.
• We strongly support the elimination of employment
discrimination and promote diversity in the workplace.
During the reporting period, Thanos Hotels employed 650
people during the summer period (April – November) and
400 people during the winter. More specifically, throughout the year the company employed 53% male and 47%
female permanent employees per hotel.
We are a company of diverse cultures, providing hospitality services to diverse guests. It is noted that 51.12%
of our employees are Cypriot, 13.71% Greek, 8.05%
Pontian Greeks, 26.38% Europeans (20% Bulgarian, 20%
Romanian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Hungarian and others)
and 0.75% non-Europeans.
Staff Engagement and Motivation
At Thanos Hotels we firmly believe that excellence and
client satisfaction cannot be achieved without the active
engagement of our people.
We are investing in developing our staff through several
initiatives:
Our Sustainability
Actions:
People
• Incentive plan based on KPI’s.
• Equal gender job opportunities.
• Sporting events, social events, sponsorship, football
tournaments.
• Staff canteen.
• Incentive programs.
• Birthday parties/employee of the month parties.
• Yearly appraisals - 100% of all our hotels’ employees
received a performance review during 2014.
• Be a guest programme / mystery shopper: “Try Us”. The
purpose of the “Try Us” Policy is outlined as follows:
> To provide employees the opportunity to obtain a firsthand experience of the Hotels’ services in specific outlets
and departments which will assist them in promoting and
selling these outlets more effectively.
> The Policy is used also as a motivational tool for
employees as it promotes a sense of “belonging” to the
company.
Health and Safety
Health and safety issues are very important to us because
we want to protect the health and safety of our employees, guests and suppliers/contractors. Beyond achieving
compliance, our approach has been to manage risks
effectively:
• Every hotel implements and maintains an occupational
health and safety management system that consists of
comprehensive policies, procedures and instructions. It is
noted that these documents are available to our employees.
• Legal requirements are closely monitored, ensuring
company’s compliance i.e. by keeping an accident register
and statistics, and having a Health and Safety Committee
in each hotel.
Our Sustainability
Actions:
People
• The company employs a Health and Safety Officer in
order to ensure compliance with legislation.
• All our employees are responsible for identifying and
responding to health and safety hazards within our company’s premises.
• The Health and Safety Officer is responsible for all
aspects of Health and Safety in our hotels e.g. he suggests measures for the protection and safety of employees and guests, he keeps track of numbers and nature of
accidents - incidents and near misses that occur in
the hotels grounds, performs staff training, inspects hotels
premises and suggests measures to improve overall
Occupational Health & Safety and compares data between
semesters so as to decide the way forward in regards to
health and safety issues.
• The Health and Safety Officer prepares 6-monthly reports
with the accident-incident analysis for the respective
period. In 2014, two such reports have been issued and
sent to Company management.
• We are providing health and safety training to our
employees.
• Thanos Hotels is taking steps to prevent accidents/
incidents in the workplace by appointing a Health & Safety
Officer, by performing staff training and by performing
regular risk assessments of its properties.
• It is noted that the hotels also implement and follow the
HACCP and ISO 22000 Food Safety System guidelines.
Our
Sustainability
plan and
the way
forward
This summarizes our process for defining our material
sustainability issues in 2014 in order to create a comprehensive sustainability strategic plan.
To ensure that we have a robust sustainability program in
place, we also present the key initiatives we plan to
implement. We have set these commitments below.
The progress we made against each initiative is indicated
using the symbols shown in the table below.
We track and review our sustainability program using our
sustainability governance structure (see Sustainability
Organizational Structure)
Final
Thoughts
Sustainability is not only looking after our natural
environment. Sustainability is also about considering the
social and economic impact of what we do. At Thanos
Hotels we are committed to continue our efforts towards
sustainability. Our main objective is to address challenges
and embrace future sustainable opportunities in a
coordinated manner so as to improve business performance and achieve economic benefits.
For more information about this report, please contact:
Natasha Michaelides,
Company’s Marketing & Communications Director
Tel: +357 26 888714
Website: http://www.thanoshotels.com/
For more information about our Company and Hotels
please visit us at: http://www.thanoshotels.com/
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