Roy Peires on the Role of Hospitality Accommodation During Family Bereavement

For hospitality businesses, available accommodation can serve a purpose beyond a conventional hotel stay. Roy Peires, who started what would become the IDILIQ Group in the 1980s, has connected hospitality operations with charitable initiatives through the IDILIQ Foundation. Roy Peires’ work through Kind Holidays has included providing free accommodation to families supported by charities dealing with serious illness, bereavement, children’s hospice care, and military welfare.

Kind Holidays has provided free stays to more than 2,300 people through more than a dozen charities. The programme reflects a practical use of hospitality resources to give families time together during difficult periods while working through established charitable relationships.

The Gap Bereavement Leaves Behind

Bereavement can affect families at a time when practical and financial pressures are already significant. For Roy Peires, hospitality accommodation offers one direct way the industry can contribute, particularly when hotels have rooms available that can be allocated through charitable programmes.

Hotels and resorts already provide places where families can spend time away from their normal routines. Kind Holidays applies that existing hospitality function to families referred through participating charities, allowing recipients to stay at IDILIQ Hotels & Resorts without paying for their accommodation.

The emphasis is practical rather than abstract. Families facing serious illness or bereavement may have limited opportunities to take a break, while hospitality businesses are in a position to provide accommodation through their existing operations.

What Kind Holidays Demonstrated

Kind Holidays began supporting Give Us Time in 2012. The charity arranges free hotel and resort accommodation for military personnel and their families facing service-related health and personal challenges.

The programme later expanded its charitable reach. The Content & Messaging material records that within 18 months of bringing a dozen new charities on board, positive effects were being seen among holiday recipients and members of the IDILIQ team.

Roy Peires Extends the Model to Bereaved Families

In 2016, Roy Peires decided to broaden Kind Holidays so that accommodation could also be donated to charities supporting very sick and terminally ill children, bereavement charities, children’s hospices, and the Carers Trust. This placed bereavement support within a wider programme designed to help families experiencing serious health and social challenges.

The initiative gives participating charities access to free accommodation at IDILIQ Hotels & Resorts for eligible families. Rather than treating accommodation as a separate form of financial donation, Roy Peires’ approach to hospitality philanthropy uses a resource that hotels and resorts already operate.

The programme has also generated direct accounts from recipients about the significance of time spent together away from hospitals, treatment schedules, or other difficult circumstances. These individual experiences form part of the documented history of Kind Holidays without requiring broader claims about clinical or psychological outcomes.

A Structured Framework, Not a One-Off Gesture

Kind Holidays has developed beyond individual accommodation donations. The programme includes a guide intended to show other hoteliers how they can establish a similar initiative and provides contact information for charity partners seeking additional holiday accommodation in the United Kingdom and abroad.

That framework supports a wider goal behind the Kind Holidays initiative developed by Roy Peires: encouraging other hospitality businesses to consider how their own available accommodation might be used for charitable purposes.

The model remains closely connected to the hospitality sector’s existing capabilities. Hotels provide the accommodation, while charitable organisations already working with families can participate in programmes designed around the needs of their communities.

The Case for Industry-Wide Adoption

Roy Peires has also encouraged the idea to extend beyond IDILIQ Hotels & Resorts. His stated hope is that Kind Holidays will inspire other hoteliers as well as airlines, cruise operators, restaurants, taxi companies, and other businesses involved in holidays and hospitality.

The argument is based on the resources those businesses already manage. Hotels have rooms, airlines and cruise operators manage travel capacity, and other hospitality businesses contribute different parts of the holiday experience.

This industry advocacy gives the programme a broader dimension while keeping its focus on practical assistance. Roy Peires’ approach is not dependent on every company adopting the same format. The existing Kind Holidays guide is intended to give accommodation providers a starting point for creating their own programmes and contacting charities seeking support.

Building Charitable Infrastructure Over Four Decades

Kind Holidays sits within a longer history of charitable involvement connected with the IDILIQ Foundation. The Foundation spent €1.6 million constructing the F. Cruz Dias-ADIMI Care Centre, which provides treatment and services to more than 500 people with cognitive and developmental disabilities.

The Foundation has also maintained long-term support for Cudeca, which provides free specialised palliative care and companionship to patients and their families dealing with advanced terminal cancer. Its contributions have included support for Cudeca’s Walkathon, donated goods for charity shops, a vehicle for the Home Care team, and free accommodation for patients and families through Kind Holidays.

Roy Peires has supported Christel House for more than two decades. The organisation builds schools and provides educational opportunities for children in under-resourced communities around the world.

These initiatives show that accommodation support is one part of a broader record of community involvement spanning healthcare, disability services, education, and assistance for families facing difficult circumstances.

A Replicable Response to a Universal Experience

Bereavement affects families in communities served by hospitality businesses around the world. The practical contribution demonstrated through Kind Holidays is straightforward: where accommodation can be made available, it can give families an opportunity to spend time together without bearing the cost of the stay.

Roy Peires has used the programme to encourage wider participation from the hospitality industry while maintaining relationships with established charitable organisations. More than 2,300 people have received free holidays through more than a dozen charities under the programme.

The strength of the model lies in connecting an existing hospitality resource with organisations already supporting families in need. For Roy Peires, that connection has become a continuing part of the relationship between hospitality operations, charitable work, and community support.

About Roy Peires

Roy Peires started what would become the IDILIQ Group in the 1980s and has more than four decades of experience connected with hospitality. Based on Spain’s Costa del Sol, his work has included hospitality development and long-term charitable involvement through the IDILIQ Foundation, including Kind Holidays and support for organisations serving families, healthcare needs, disability services, and education. Readers can learn more through Roy Peires’ official website.