Rosen Hotels & Resorts® First In Orlando And Among The First In Florida To Receive APEX Designation For Green Practices

ORLANDO (September 14, 2015) — Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® in Orlando announced today that the company’s three convention hotels have been awarded the coveted APEX designation for sustainable meetings standards. The APEX initiative is a partnership of the Convention Industry Council (CIC) and ASTM International and is the meetings industry’s first standards designation for environmentally sustainable meetings.

The 1501-room Rosen Shingle Creek®, 1334-room Rosen Centre®® and 800-room Rosen Plaza®® are the first hotels in Central Florida to receive the coveted designation for venue and accommodations. To earn the certification, the company underwent a vigorous evaluation process, known as being one of the most detailed and comprehensive of its kind.

Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® is a dedicated leader of environmental practices in the hospitality industry. The company’s three convention hotels were the first in Central Florida and the state to receive the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Green Lodging Two Palm designation in 2007 and Three Palm designation in 2009 for remarkable conservation practices. In 2009, owner Harris Rosen received the Legacy Award, Sustainable Florida’s highest honor. Most recently in 2012, the company built its first LEED Certified building, the 12,000 square-foot Rosen Medical Center, a Place for Healing and Wellness.

“As a company, we’ve always been dedicated to environmentally sound practices and keenly focused on evaluating and improving our green standards whenever possible,” said DeeDee Baggitt, Director of Engineering & Facilities, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®. “This spans to services that would benefit those hosting ‘green’ meetings at our hotels, which is why we are so honored and pleased to have obtained the APEX designation.”

Meeting planners looking for options for hosting an environmentally sustainable meeting or event will find a comprehensive menu of programs created by the company, and most importantly ways to measure results to show the impact a group’s efforts have made.

“Groups and meetings are as important to us as are our company’s green efforts — vital to how we evaluate our success as a business and as a global community partner,” said Leslie Menichini, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®. “Marrying our environmentally sustainable business philosophy to those groups who want to make a positive eco-impact at their meetings at our hotels is just another way we strive to exceed our clients’ expectations.”

Groups interested in learning more about hosting a sustainable meeting or event at one of the three Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®’ convention properties can visit www.rosenhotels.com/greenmeetings.

Rosen Shingle Creek® Named A 2015 Best In Stay Elite Hotel By Orbitz Worldwide Customers

For more information, contact:
Robert Hubler.
(407) 639-4212, rhubler@RosenHotels.com

ORLANDO (Nov. 24, 2015) – Rosen Shingle Creek® is the winner of a 2015 Orbitz Worldwide Best in Stay Elite Award for being the highest-rated hotel in Orlando. The 2015 Orbitz Best In Stay Awards honor nearly 400 top-rated hotels in 125 popular destinations based on reviews by Orbitz Worldwide consumer brands (Orbitz.com, ebookers, and HotelClub) customers. There are up to three Best In Stay winners in each destination, and hotels with the highest customer rating are given special distinction as a Best In Stay Elite hotel.

“We’re elated to be named a Best In Stay Elite Hotel by Orbitz Worldwide,” said Leslie Menichini, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®. “It’s a distinction that means even more to us because it’s based on the guest experience and feedback. We are dedicated to providing our guests with exemplary personalized service and world-class guest rooms and amenities that only an independent hotel company like Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® can provide. Our guests are like family to us. It’s a pleasure and honor for us to be selected to serve them and to create their most memorable Orlando experience.”

Orbitz Worldwide Best In Stay Award winners are selected based on the overall numeric score of verified hotel reviews submitted by Orbitz Worldwide customers that have booked and stayed at hotels over the past year. Customers are asked to rate a variety of hotel attributes on a scale of 1 to 5, including amenities, maintenance, hotel staff, room comfort, location, and value. Those ratings are supplemented by input from Orbitz Worldwide hotel experts who factor in other market conditions, such as the number of reviews, frequency of booking and reputation of hotel staff.

“Each day, our customers utilize the nearly two million reviews across our sites to get real-time advice from other customers on where to stay when planning vacations,” said Peggy Bianco, group vice president of global hotel services for Orbitz Worldwide. “We are happy to once again honor the best-in-class hotels around the world that display outstanding amenities and service based on the review scores by Orbitz Worldwide customers.”

As a special recognition to Orbitz guests for the 2016 calendar year and based on availability, Rosen Shingle Creek® will provide an upgrade to a suite for an additional $70.00 per night, plus tax at check in. For details, call (866) 996-6338.

Orlando’s Rosen Hotels & Resorts® Once Again Named American Heart Association Gold Fit-Friendly Worksite

For more information, contact:
Robert Hubler
(407) 639-4212, rhubler@RosenHotels.com

ORLANDO (March 11, 2015) – Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® is proud to announce that it has been named a Gold Fit-Friendly Worksite by the American Heart Association. This marks the 5th year that the Orlando-based independent hotel group has received this distinction.

To receive the gold level award, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® fulfilled “key criteria” and demonstrated a “strong commitment to providing a healthy workplace for employees.” As an American Heart Association Fit-Friendly Worksite, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® will receive recognition on the association’s website and local recognition at events and in communications materials. The hotel group also will be able to use the Fit-Friendly Worksite Gold Seal on its communications. Its associates may also take advantage of free tools such as the American Heart Association’s online Activity Tracker.

The honor is just one of many bestowed upon Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® for its commitment to better health for its 4,600 associates and dependents. For more than 20 years, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® has offered an innovative, in-house healthcare program for associates and dependents. In recent years, it added to that plan all students from the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. In November 2014, the hotel group partnered with Wal-Mart to provide free generic prescriptions for those covered on its in-house plan. And, in 2012, the hotel group opened a brand new associate medical facility, The Rosen Medical Center, A Place for Healing and Wellness, located on International Drive.

“We are honored that the American Heart Association has once again recognized Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® for our commitment to the health and well-being of our associates and their families,” said Harris Rosen, President & COO, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®. “We hope that our in-house healthcare model is an inspiration to other companies and individuals who want to take control of their greatest asset – their own health and that of their associates.”

Features of Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®’ associate healthcare program include an array of free preventative care opportunities such as annual physicals, comprehensive screening lab tests, well-baby care, pregnancy case management, weight management and dietician services, smoking cessation, flu shots and vaccines, mental health benefits, as well as exercise programs, classes and fitness groups.

For more information, visit www.rosenhotels.com.

Hotelier and Philanthropist Harris Rosen Launches Second Multimillion Dollar Community Education Initiative in Orlando’s Parramore District

Rosen Builds on Success of Tangelo Park Project with Free Preschool and College Education for Parramore Neighborhood Children

For more information, contact:
Robert Hubler
407-639-4212, rhubler@RosenHotels.com

ORLANDO (Feb. 6, 2015) – For the past 21 years, Orlando hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen has provided residents of Orlando’s Tangelo Park disadvantaged neighborhood with free preschool for their children, free college or vocational school for every graduating high school senior, and a neighborhood center offering free parenting classes. Since then, high school graduation rates have soared from XX to XX, and to date, more than 280 young people have attended college or vocational school, up from just one or two per year in the 1990s. Now, Rosen has announced that he will offer a very similar education program for residents of Parramore, an underprivileged community located west of downtown Orlando.

Rosen has partnered with Orange County Public Schools to offer a free preschool program at a brand new $41.3 million public school in Parramore. When the school opens in August 2017, it will serve approximately 800 to 900 students in preschool through eighth grade. Two-, three-, and four-year-old children will be able to attend the preschool at no cost, with teacher salaries paid for by the Harris Rosen Foundation. Plans for the school include up to 24 preschool classrooms designed to accommodate up to 12 children each. The current supervisor of the Tangelo Park preschool program, Patti Jo Houle, will also oversee the new program at Parramore.

And, much like the Tangelo Park Program, all those who attend the new public elementary and middle school and go on to graduate from Jones High School will receive a free two or four-year college or vocational school education, also paid by the Harris Rosen Foundation. The free tuition offer includes all associated costs, including meals, books and transportation. Rosen estimates the new program will eventually cost his foundation approximately $4.5 million per year. By comparison, the Tangelo Park Program costs approximately $1.5 million per year.

“QUOTE,” said Barbara Jenkins, Superintendent of Orange County Public Schools.

The new Parramore program is also supported by Valencia Community College and the University of Central Florida (UCF). Dr. Dale Whittaker, provost of UCF, announced that the university will provide scholarships for a four-year degree to the school’s College of Medicine to any student who attends the new Parramore school, graduates from Jones High School and finishes an undergraduate program at UCF.

“I am so pleased to see the Orlando community come together in support of the young people in the Parramore neighborhood,” said Harris Rosen, President & COO, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®. “This new partnership proves that the successful program we created in Tangelo Park 21 years ago can indeed be duplicated and adapted to fit the specific needs and assets of any community. I hope that these Rosen Foundation programs will serve as an inspiration to other businesses, school districts and universities, and empower them to create positive change in their neighborhoods here in Central Florida and throughout America.”

The new 14-acre Parramore campus also will include a separate building for an onsite Boys & Girls Club, helping students to stay on track with homework and stay out of trouble after school.
Harris Rosen recently received the 2015 Coretta Scott King A.N.G.E.L. (Advancing Nonviolence through Generations of Exceptional Leadership) Award at the King Center in Atlanta. Rosen was recognized for his more than 20 year commitment to the Tangelo Park Program, a three-fold educational community service initiative within the once drug- and crime-ridden Tangelo Park neighborhood of Orlando.

About Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®
Located in Orlando, Fla., Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® comprises nearly 6,500 guest rooms at seven hotels: three convention and leisure properties – Rosen Plaza®®, Rosen Centre®® and Rosen Shingle Creek®, as well as four value-priced leisure properties – Rosen Inn International; Rosen Inn Closest to Universal; Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando; and Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista. For more information, visit www.rosenhotels.com.