This award-winning property strives to continuously evolve the guest experience to ensure that each visit to Chaa Creek Lodge is not only memorable, but intentional. A recent example is the Butterfly Release Program, where a cocooning butterfly is left in each guest room, along with a release poem and instructions on how to release the butterfly into the wild, as a way to directly connect guests with the message of conservation in an unforgettable way.
“As our lives unfolded these last forty years in Belize, and our vision unfurled, we’ve crafted our space to compliment nature-based travel with culturally engaged and regenerative tourism in Belize,” said Lucy Fleming, Chaa Creek Lodge Founder and Owner. “At the lodge, we want to ensure that everyone who comes to visit can have a positive impact, and the Chaa Creek Cares Program is this vision in action. Ten per cent of all room revenue is put directly towards the lodge’s sustainability and community initiatives, allowing every visitor to give back to Belize and actively participate in regenerative programs as they wish.”
The Chaa Creek Cares Program supports the community and environment through initiatives, such as:
- The Pack-a-Pound Program, which encourages guests to dedicate one pound of their luggage space for scholastic supplies to be donated to a local school, The Octavia Waight Old Age Center, or pet care supplies to be donated to the Humane Society.
- The Eco-Kids Summer Camp, which gives 24 Belizean school children an opportunity to learn about Belize’s natural beauty and conservation efforts on a weeklong, full sponsored summer camp.
- Various environmental and conservation initiatives, including The Belize Foundation for Conservation (BFC), Birds without Borders, and the Howler Monkey Reintroduction project.
Amid the pandemic, Mick and Lucy Fleming’s care and compassion for their community guided Chaa Creek Lodge’s action plan. The lodge remained open to support Mick and Lucy’s staff – their Belizean family – who were feeling the weight of the situation deeply. Chaa Creek Lodge retained approximately one third of their staff for property maintenance and went to great lengths to take care of their remaining staff. Mick and Lucy:
- Arranged financial assistance with Social Security, and in some cases their own savings.
- Met with banks to request one-year relief on all employees’ loans.
- Enacted the Employee Dollar Club to provide support to staff requiring medical attention.
- Made staff severance payouts available to long-term employees without effecting their period of employment going into the future.
- Paid out staff holidays for the year in advance.
- Implemented a subsistence employee relief program that matched the government subsidy of $150.00BZ per person per month.
- All top management took a 40% – 50% pay cut.
And today, almost all Chaa Creek Lodge staff are back working at minimum three days per week. The lodge proudly boasts the Belize Tourism Board’s Tourism Gold Standard Certification, but perhaps more noteworthy is that the Chaa Creek Lodge is 100% vaccinated after Mick and Lucy worked to secure vaccines for all staff, driving them to and from vaccination clinics as needed.
