Across the country, social service agencies are stretched thin trying to respond to housing crises. Emergency shelters remain a cornerstone of safety, but they’re not always the right fit—or they’re simply full. In these critical gaps, hotels can provide a powerful, trauma-informed bridge to stability.
That was the focus of our recent webinar, “Flexible Housing Solutions for Social Services: Bridging the Gap,” hosted by ReloShare with guest speakers from Lutheran Settlement House’s Bilingual Domestic Violence Program in Philadelphia.
Here’s what we learned—and how The Grove and Safe Stays work together to give providers more options, faster.
Why Hotels Matter in Emergency Housing
Shelters save lives, but real-world realities mean they cannot meet every need. Survivors may:
- Require privacy and anonymity that a shelter cannot provide.
- Need only a short stay—just one night or a few days—while waiting on an apartment lease, travel plans, or space at a shelter.
- Have safety concerns tied to an abuser knowing shelter locations.
- Be part of larger families that shelters may not be equipped to accommodate right away.
For these situations, hotels offer flexibility, dignity, and choice—allowing people to keep routines (school drop-off, medical appointments) while regaining a sense of control.
How Safe Stays by ReloShare Removes Barriers
Agencies know hoteling can be complicated. Traditionally, staff have had to use credit cards at check-in, spend hours calling hotels, and chase receipts.
Safe Stays changes all of that.
- 18,000+ partner hotels across all 50 states
- Alias check-in at thousands of hotels—so survivors can use a safe name
- Consolidated monthly billing—no more juggling receipts
- Free to use—agencies only pay for the stays they book
- Human support from former advocates who understand crisis work
As Lutheran Settlement House shared, these features save staff time, reduce stress, and empower survivors with real choices.
NEW: Meet The Grove—Find Open Beds in Minutes, Not Hours
While hotels bridge time-sensitive gaps, the best outcome is often a timely, appropriate shelter placement. That’s where The Grove comes in.
The Grove by ReloShare is a simple, mobile-friendly tool that helps agencies find, share, and report shelter bed availability—so clients get placed faster and staff get hours back.
- Instant Search: See up-to-date shelter availability by location and date.
- Find Services: Filter by demographics served, family size, access needs, and more—so referrals match the client’s reality.
- Easy Reporting: Track bed availability over time and export data for grant and outcomes reporting.
- Mobile Compatibility: Search and post availability right from your phone.
👉 For a limited time, we’re offering up to 12 months of free access to The Grove for domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking shelter programs. Learn more in our announcement article here.
How it works together: Use The Grove first to identify open beds and right-fit programs. If nothing is available—or a safe alternative is needed immediately—use Safe Stays to secure a hotel under an alias with consolidated billing. This one-two workflow shortens time-to-safety while protecting dignity and choice.
Philadelphia example: When a large family needs space that shelters can’t immediately accommodate, staff can search The Grove for the soonest opening and place the family in a Safe Stays hotel until that bed is ready.
Real Stories from Lutheran Settlement House (Philadelphia)
Over the last decade, Lutheran Settlement House’s Emergency Placement (EP) program has used hotels as a lifeline when shelter wasn’t available or appropriate. In the past two years, Safe Stays has streamlined that process. Examples from the webinar included:
- One-night runway to safety: A survivor with plane tickets for the next morning needed a single night near the airport. Safe Stays made it easy to secure a hotel with a kitchenette and family-friendly amenities.
- Hospital discharge with a pet: A survivor referred from a hospital needed a pet-friendly placement. Staff filtered and booked the right hotel the same day, then coordinated travel to a safe relative out of state.
- Medical follow-up & nutrition needs: A survivor needed a hotel next to her hospital, with a kitchen and pet accommodations. Safe Stays filters made it straightforward.
Beyond convenience, staff emphasized how this approach reduces burnout and keeps attention on safety planning, not paperwork.
Honest Barriers & Lessons Learned
The team also acknowledged real-world constraints:
- Funding limits impact length of stay.
- Some survivors may find hotels triggering based on past trauma.
- Hotels can feel isolating compared to the community of a shelter.
- Check-in issues can occur—but rapid support from ReloShare helps resolve them quickly.
This is precisely why pairing The Grove (to surface the right shelter fit) with Safe Stays (to bridge short-term gaps) gives agencies the flexibility they need.
Get Started
- Find open beds, filter by services, and export availability data in minutes.
- Build a shared, region-wide picture of capacity to speed placements.
- Book hotels under an alias with no card at check-in and consolidated monthly billing.
- Free to use; pay only for the rooms you book.
👉 Book a 1:1 Demo to explore The Grove and Safe Stays for your agency.
Final Takeaway
Flexible housing saves lives. With The Grove surfacing real-time shelter options and Safe Stays removing hotel barriers, agencies can move faster, reduce staff burden, and—most importantly—offer survivors real choice on their path to safety and stability.
