There’s a special reason guests keep returning to this unique Sydney hotel

Would you choose a hotel because it actively helped women affected by domestic violence or provided housing for people in need?

According to a new study by Griffith University’s department of Tourism and Marketing, younger travellers are the most influenced by a hotel’s social impact policy, with hotels that genuinely strive to do good in their communities gaining strong loyalty from customers.

Trust matters, according to the report, which drew on meta-analysis of 37 studies involving more than 26,000 individuals across 18 countries. “Reputation and trust, once relatively modest influences on hotel choice, have become some of the strongest predictors of patronage”.

Song Hotel, two minutes’ walk from Museum Station, near Sydney’s Hyde Park, is Australia’s only wholly profit-for-purpose hotel. Owned by YWCA and built on the footprint of a former YWCA hostel, the bright four-star hotel ploughs all the revenue it generates into the organisation’s housing and support projects.

In 2023, YWCA provided 130,000 nights of safe accommodation to women and girls in need, supported 6000 people through additional projects and provided homes for 529 people. Most of those people in need are women and families escaping domestic violence. The charity and its partners are funding about $100 million worth of housing construction around Australia.

The YWCA has supported women, children, young people and communities for 130 years. And it’s more important in these troubled times. Family and domestic violence related offences rose by 8 per cent in 2024-25 and continues to rise. As of late August, 49 women have allegedly been killed this year by domestic violence.

Knowing that part of your room tariff goes to worthy causes might make you feel good, but Song Hotel’s manager, Jon Ackary, says most guests don’t select a hotel primarily based on its social enterprise credentials.

They make their choices based on location first, budget second and thirdly, the rating the hotel has achieved on booking engines such as Tripadvisor and Expedia. Currently, Song is seventh out of 195 Sydney hotels on Tripadvisor.

After they stay, though, “they get the warm and fuzzies about it, and they keep coming back”, he says. The hotel has around 91 per cent occupancy year-round, with many repeat customers, so the hotel’s social enterprise does drive guest loyalty, and distinguishes it from other four-star hotels.

Song Hotel exudes a sunny friendliness. The rooms can be small, but they are light and comfortable with a soothing colour palette. Gender-neutral in design, they especially feel welcoming and safe for female travellers, with added touches such as a hair-straightener as well as dryer in the bathroom.

There are also 10 themed rooms celebrating trailblazing Australian women, including former SBS TV presenter Lee-Lin Chin; writer, actor and comedian Nakkiah Lui; musician Missy Higgins and LGBTI rights campaigner Sally Rugg.

It’s a bit of a relief to find a hotel, which is open to male travellers and families as well, that thinks so carefully about its women guests.

That goes back to the beginnings of the YWCA in Australia, Ackary says. It was founded to provide accommodation for young women who arrived at the docks from overseas into a Sydney that was predominantly male.

Coincidentally, Ackary says his grandmother arrived from Finland with her best friend when she was about 17 years old – “I don’t know if they got picked up by the YWCA, but probably they were.”

Ackary is a director of Hotel Etico Australia, which is based in Leura in the Blue Mountains and in Canberra. The institute trains and employs people with intellectual disabilities, giving them meaningful careers and creating inclusive workplaces in the hospitality industry.

You can find graduates working in hotels run by groups such as Mercure, Crowne Plaza, Novotel and TFE. And you can find them at Song and in its restaurant Song Kitchen.

Ackary believes in investing in people. He speaks about Fred on reception who is deaf and non-verbal and worked at the hostel then hotel for 30 years – “he’s the life of the party”.

The hotel is also fully accessible for people in wheelchairs, with a wheelchair lift transporting guests who need it between levels of the restaurant and bar that fronts the street.

“The reaction from customers is really heartwarming”, Ackary says. “We get 4000 reviews a year. We do 3000 surveys. Guests say we’re attentive, friendly and kind.”

Being kind is “the secret sauce”.

Hotels have never really sought a reputation for kindness. And travellers probably don’t expect it. But when it happens spontaneously it can make a hotel experience quite wonderful.