Baby Boom: Why Polish hotelier is rewarding couples who conceive on his properties

A Polish hotel and property owner is offering to celebrate couples who conceive while staying at his hotels.

Władysław Grochowski, who runs one of Poland’s biggest hotel and property groups, has promised to organise the party.

Couples who go on to have children after buying a house from the company will also receive 10,000 zlotys (nearly Rs 2.5 lakh).

So why is the hotelier giving money and hosting parties for couples who start families in his hotels?

Let’s take a look:

What are the rewards and why is he offering them?

The Polish property group is giving incentives to couples who conceive in its hotels as a way to address the country’s declining birth rate.

On its website, the Arche group, which runs 23 hotels and owns several buildings across Poland, points to the demographic crisis caused by 12 years of falling birth rates.

To counter this, the company has launched a scheme that promises “free special events” such as a baptism celebration to couples who can show that “the conception” of their child was “linked to the couple’s stay” at one of its hotels.

Parents who buy a home through the group will also be given 10,000 zlotys (nearly Rs 2.5 lakh) for each child born after the purchase.

The programme, called Arche Generations, applies to “couples (man and woman)” and requires at least one partner to be an adult Polish citizen living in the country.

Employees of Arche who have children will also qualify for rewards.

To claim the free baptism party, parents must provide proof of their stay at one of the 23 hotels together with their child’s birth certificate.

‘One of the greatest challenges of our time’

Launching the initiative, Grochowski and his wife, Lena, described Poland’s shrinking birth rate as “one of the greatest challenges of our time”, British newspaper The Times reported.

Grochowski said: “In 2026, Poland will spend nearly 5 per cent of its GDP on defence. But what good is that if demographics wipe us out?”

Some have welcomed the plan for drawing attention to Poland’s demographic struggles.

He told financial site money.pl that “parents of the first child born under this program will also receive a stroller and a special welcome package.”

Why is Poland facing a falling birth rate?

Like several other countries, Poland is grappling with a steady decline in the number of births.

In 2023, the country recorded 1.2 live births per woman, down from 1.33 in 2021 and 2.06 in 1990, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency.

By late June, Poland’s population stood at about 37.4 million, one million fewer than in 2015, figures from the National Statistics Office GUS showed.

In 2024, deaths outnumbered births by 157,000, and experts expect this pattern to continue.

Rising poverty levels and Poland’s near total ban on abortion have both been cited as reasons behind the slow progress in addressing the problem.

The new hotel scheme is one of several initiatives aiming to reverse the decline through financial rewards.

Karol Nawrocki, Poland’s newly elected conservative president, also pledged during his campaign to introduce a zero per cent income tax for parents with two or more children, on annual earnings of up to 140,000 zlotys (nearly Rs 35 lakh).

With inputs from agencies