The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed people’s lives in every community and across every country. Health workers across the globe have stood at the forefront of this crisis, working long hours to fight the virus, often at great risk to their own health and wellbeing.

As the cases of COVID-19 continued to rise, my colleagues here at Amadeus wanted to help the industry supports these healthcare warriors – physicians, nurses and care team personnel.

Our approach was based on a few factors. We know that many medical workers need to be close to work, and many have decided to take extra caution with their families by staying away from home. They also need space to rest, away from their workplaces. There are also medical staff and teams who transport supplies and equipment to other cities and need accommodation during their travel. Our travel seller customers, particularly in business travel, asked if we could create a specific rate code to serve some of their clients in the medical sector. This inspired us to help.

Our Travel Channels and Hospitality teams worked together to create the H24 rate code to make it easy for hotels to discount or fully waive rates for medical workers via business and leisure travel agencies serving their medical facilities. Amadeus is also providing further support by waiving booking fees for transactions using this rate code. As of now, 4,700 properties of hotel chains such as Hyatt, Best Western, Magnuson, Marriott, Premier Inn, Red Lion and Louvre are participating.