On 21 April 2010 Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) sent a letter to the CEOs of eight major international hotel chains in South Africa, asking them to report on specific actions they are taking to prevent human trafficking in advance of the World Cup.  The letter noted that “the travel and lodging industry is well-positioned to help prevent human trafficking” and gave recommendations for actions the hotel companies could take.

On 1 June CBIS posted an update on its website announcing that two hotels of the chains – Accor and Carlson – had responded to their inquiry, Intercontinental had sent a response which did not address their concerns, and five of the hotels chains – Best Western, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels, Intercontinental Hotels, NH Hotels, and Starwood Hotels – had not responded at all.

On 2 June, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre invited the five non-responding companies and Intercontinental Hotels to issue responses.  Below are the responses of those companies:

Best Western response [DOC] 3 Jun

Hilton Worldwide response [DOC] 14 Jun

Hyatt Hotels response [PDF] 17 Jun

Intercontinental Hotels response [DOC] 7 May (sent their original letter to CBIS as their response)

NH Hotels response [DOC] 9 Jun

Starwood Hotels response [PDF] 15 Jun

On 28 July CBIS issued its final report highlight the major findings and providing recommendations based on CBIS’ review of the hotels’ responses, policies and programs to address human trafficking in South Africa and around the world. 

"Final Results of the Initiative on Hotels and Human Trafficking at the World Cup"[PDF], Christian Brothers Investment Services 28 Jul 2010

The report named Accor and Carlson the "leading companies".  The other firms did not respond to this rejoinder.