Three influencers spend a day at ILUNION Hotels
From reception to food and beverage, content creators discover how disability fades into the background when the environment adapts to people.
December 19, 2025
What happens when three content creators used to inspiring thousands of people through social media join, for a day, the team of a company where more than 60% of the professionals have a disability or are in a situation of vulnerability? The result: a transformative day in which inclusion is lived, felt, and learned.
Enrique Alex, host of the program Esto es España (RTVE) and a reference for conscious tourism; Ander Arteagabeitia, a communicator who inspires with his story of overcoming challenges after a spinal cord injury; and Marta Casado, a creator who raises visibility about life with a prosthesis after overcoming osteosarcoma, joined the team at ILUNION Atrium (Madrid) to discover, from the inside, how a truly inclusive hotel model is managed.
During the day, they participated in different areas of the hotel—reception, housekeeping, and food and beverage—accompanying the teams and seeing how disability ceases to be a barrier when the environment is designed so that everyone can develop their talent.
“It is one thing to talk about inclusion in theory and another to see the efficiency and professionalism with which a diverse team works. At ILUNION Hotels, diversity acts like a gear: where one person leaves off, a colleague picks up, and they do it with amazing naturalness. Here, when everyone’s abilities add up, individual disability fades away,” explains Ander Arteagabeitia.
“This experience can really help change perspectives: someone who isn’t close to disability might think we can’t do many of the things we actually can, and here it is demonstrated and normalized,” adds Marta Casado.
More than inclusion: admiration and learning
For Enrique Alex, “we live in a world where inclusion, diversity, and sustainability have become empty marketing slogans. It is refreshing and hopeful to see that here it is not preached, but practiced: mixed teams that work, adapted procedures that don’t infantilize anyone, and an internal culture that isn’t just for show, but is felt in the hallways. I also take with me the satisfaction of seeing that this model not only works and is profitable, but is also exportable and a beacon of change for the industry.”.
The day culminated with a meeting with some of the protagonists of Dreamers, the audiovisual series by ILUNION Hotels that already has three seasons and in which its own professionals share their stories of overcoming challenges, lessons learned, and aspirations.
Among them, David Levecq, a former Paralympic athlete and the company’s current DEIB Coach; Arif Mirzad, reservations agent; and Lidia Espinosa, dining room waitress, spoke with the creators about how inspiration can be born both from social networks and from the daily life of a hotel.
“We have a lot to learn from each other. Even after so many years living with my disability, there are days when you feel alone. Experiencing this encounter, hearing such powerful stories, and feeling that support encourages you to improve and keep moving forward,” says Marta Casado. To which Enrique Alex reflects that “these experiences help change perspectives, not just by living them, but because of the direct exposure to realities that are normally glossed over or treated with condescension. Hearing the team itself talk about challenges, failures, and successes with such honesty makes you understand that real inclusion is not perfect, but it is deeply human. That, in the end, is what makes it credible.”.
ILUNION Hotels: Where sleeping is an awakening
The encounter left a clear idea: at ILUNION Hotels, inclusion is not told, it is demonstrated. A company that has turned diversity into a competitive advantage and its reason for being, demonstrating that excellence in service and social inclusion can (and must) go hand in hand. “Here it is shown how the perspective changes from ‘compassion’ to ‘admiration’. I take with me the confirmation that excellence in service and social inclusion can (and must) go hand in hand,” concludes Ander Arteagabeitia. For her part, Marta Casado adds that “I take with me a sense of hope: if this works this well, other places will be able to take note to create more inclusive tourism where we are all included when we travel.”.
