Aramark Boycotted Loews Hotel After Alleged Sexual Assault

Aramark’s corporate headquarters in Philadelphia. (Wikimedia Commons)

After a 52-year-old Aramark employee from Texas alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a massage therapist inside the spa at Philadelphia’s Loews Hotel last October, Aramark refused to allow employees to stay at the hotel for a period of six months (until April 2015), according to a source close to the situation.

According to the source, Aramark provides “10,000 night stays” per year to the Loews — which is just across the street from the Aramark corporate headquarters at 1101 Market Street — with large numbers staying at the hotel during weekdays.

Philadelphia magazine has obtained a letter written by Loews managing director Sean Clancy to three Aramark executives that outlines the hotel’s “endeavors to restore” its “15-year business partnership with Aramark.” Clancy also included a separate document that detailed Loews’s standard operating procedure for handling sexual assaults.

“I would like to keep you updated on the agreed upon safety and security initiatives we have in place to ensure your employees have a comfortable and inviting experience at Loews Philadelphia Hotel,” the letter states.

Clancy says in the letter that Loews will continue using background check provider, Sterling Infosystems, for criminal and sex offender checks. It also says that Louis Reigel, Aramark’s vice president and director of global security, visited the hotel on February 25th, “where he was able to familiarize himself with this comprehensive screening process in person, and to verify the components with Jerry Meade, our Corporate Director of Security for Loews Corporation worldwide.”

“During his visit to our property, Louis Reigel had the opportunity to tour our hotel, be made privy to our training standards firsthand, and to verify that our Security staffing, training, surveillance, and empowerment are consistent with the industry standards for a luxury level city hotel,” Clancy says in the letter.

Clancy further states that third-party operators like the 12 FIT Gym & Spa — the facility operated inside the hotel by the owners of 12th Street Gym in which the alleged assault took place — and other businesses working in the hotel “have all been contacted in person, verified that background check procedures are currently in place, and have each agreed to support our corporate initiative to make this practice compulsory.”

The letter is addressed to three Aramark officials: Stephen Reynolds, executive vice president and general counsel; Lynn McKee, executive vice president of human resources; and Reigel.

Officials at Aramark and Loews declined to comment for this story.

In mid-July, Loews posted a job opportunity for a security supervisor but a hotel spokesperson said it has nothing to do with the alleged assault.