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After the emergence of Covid, generosity has become a trend in Spain. Especially among some famous entrepreneurs, who have turned to make donations to get material or financing for a campaign. Kike Sarasola (56), owner of the Room Mate hotel chain, has not been left behind, although his role during the pandemic has been more linked to the controversy than to the help he has provided.

"I make two of my hotels available to attend to all the cases that may be necessary in the face of this health crisis," Sarasola posted on Twitter on March 12, after reading the news that the Community of Madrid would transform some hotels into hospitals. In this way, Sarasola became an indispensable ally for healthcare , as well as an example for other businessmen to follow. Still, the hotelier has sparked a flurry of criticism this week, after a video leaked to its employees, who are in an ERTE.

On July 24, a recording of Kike Sarasola was broadcast in the press in which he directly rebuked his workers. "They inform me that when we are calling people to go back to work, people are making excuses, that if they are on vacation, if it hurts. You are not on vacation, you are in an ERTE!" He said in front of a camera, and then finish with a warning: "As I find out that someone is making a single excuse again, my attitude is going to change and it would annoy me that a few have to pay a lot," he said in a serious tone.

Some Internet users took his notice as a threat ... "This is called publicly lynching kellys and waiters" , "he only lacked to say 'you will see how I take off the shoe'", some Twitter users have said, while many others have recalled that, three months ago, the businessman was the target of strong criticism, after it was revealed that the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz-Ayuso (41), was passing the confinement in one of his luxury apartments.

On May 12, it was reported to the media that Díaz-Ayuso had been in a royal suite - located at the Be Mate Plaza España hotel - since March, when he tested positive for coronavirus. At first, some media speculated that Sarasola had given the apartment to the president of the Community without charging her the corresponding fee: 2,400 euros per month. However, the hotelier offered another version of events. "She is going to pay for it. Díaz-Ayuso entered the hotel and for me it was perfect, since I have my hotels closed," he said in Espejo Público , in addition to referring to his altruistic streak that, according to his words, some wanted attack with false information.

For example, with the news that the Community of Madrid had awarded him a contract for 560,000 euros so that he could transfer two hotels in his chain and accommodate the elderly. But, although there are documents that support the existence of the alleged tender, Sarasola and the Community of Madrid affirm that this contract is nothing more than an error. "I have never been awarded a single euro from the Community . Everything I have done, we have done for free," said Sarasola to Susanna Griso. But what exactly is it that he has done?

In mid-March, the president of the Room Mate chain announced that some of its hotels had been transformed into hospitals to help stop Covid. "The health personnel have already entered Mario, we have filled it, they have asked us for a second hotel, we are going to open Óscar tomorrow and we are going to fill it, later it will be Laura. I am proud," explained the businessman, who -finally- offered six hotels such as healthy old people's homes and more than 250 rooms to help healthcare staff in Madrid. In total, according to their social networks, 13 of their hotels "provided help worldwide."

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On the other hand, Sarasola has also actively cooperated with the revival of the hotel sector in Spain. In fact, this week Room Mate opened its sixth hotel in Madrid. This is Room Mate Macarena, a 130-room hotel whose name is inspired by the friend of Sarasola Macarena Rey, the current CEO of Shine Iberia. Likewise, the businessman has been in charge of encouraging all hotels to activate anti-David protocols, which are already defined as rigorous and exhaustive.

Although not everything is good news for the entrepreneur because a few days ago, he was forced to announce that his Valentina hotel in Mexico has closed due to lack of income. Despite this, Sarasola assures that this will not affect its workers. "We are making a great effort so that you receive 100%. The company has been billing zero and even so you know that we have always been thinking of you," she confessed in the same video in which she "invited" her employees to

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