Cristiano Ronaldo made his hotel a shelter for victims of the September 2023 earthquake in Morocco.
The Pestana CR7 Hotel did not provide shelter to victims of the Moroccan earthquake. However, some people actually stayed at the hotel after the event.
The recent earthquake in Morocco killed at least 2,681 people and was the country’s worst earthquake in 60 years. As of this writing, rescue efforts are ongoing, particularly in remote areas where blocked roads impede access.
In September 2023, a rumor spread social media Account and website, international football star Cristiano Ronaldo invited victims of the Moroccan earthquake to his hotel in Marrakech. “Cristiano Ronaldo has offered his Hotel Pestana CR7 to provide shelter to people affected by the earthquake in Morocco,” read One post on X (formerly Twitter) has been viewed more than 1 million times. Likewise, another article on the subject is titled “Cristiano Ronaldo’s hotel on the outskirts of Marrakech serves as shelter after Morocco earthquake”.
Cristiano Ronaldo opened his Hotel Pestana CR7 to provide shelter for people affected by the earthquake in Morocco.
❤️❤️❤️
(master) pic.twitter.com/FzzWfusJkq
— Football Accumulator (@FootyAccums) September 10, 2023
French organization Check News contacted the Pestana CR7 hotel, which denied it was acting as an evacuation center after the earthquake in Morocco. “This is false information. All of our customers are currently booked as normal,” we can read on the organization’s website. Ynetnews, a news portal from Israel, also received a reply from the hotel where Ronaldo stayed:
We received many requests to accommodate guests as the hotel was not affected by the earthquake.There have been many guests over the past day, but it is not accurate to say that we receive refugees and victims
Most likely, the rumor originated from interview Join Irene Seixas, a woman affected by the earthquake who stayed at the Ronaldo Hotel.
he #Canal24Horas Talk to Marrakech-based Spanish woman Irene Seixas to learn more about the aftermath of the earthquake in Morocco.
🔹 https://t.co/0Ix6dDsBAd pic.twitter.com/LCDnZWeOCj
— RTVE News (@rtveoticias) September 9, 2023
The interview was conducted in Spanish, and Seixas told the story of spending the night on the street and later finding a room at Ronaldo’s hotel:
Spanish Transcription: We started looking for flights. Flights are sold out. At one point we had to take a €1,000 flight to leave early because we were leaving the following Wednesday. Hotels are all the same. (…) Now we have found a room at the Hotel Cristiano Ronaldo on the outskirts of Marrakech. We are waiting. We slept on the street all night and now at 07:00 they told us we could come and they would give us a room as soon as possible. We’re in the hallway now. Lots of people of different nationalities waiting to see if we could get a room but we all slept on the street.
Our translation: We started looking for flights. Flights are sold out. At one point we had to take a €1,000 flight to try and leave early as we were due to leave the following Wednesday. Hotels are all the same. (…) We quickly found a room at the Hotel Cristiano Ronaldo on the outskirts of Marrakech. We are waiting. We slept on the street all night and now at 07:00 they told us we could come and they would give us a room as soon as possible. We’re in the hallway now. A lot of people of different nationalities were waiting to see if they could find a room, but we all slept on the street.
Given that the Pestana CR7 Hotel did not serve as a shelter after the earthquake in Morocco, but people did stay at the hotel afterwards, we rate this statement “Mostly False.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve written about Cristiano Ronaldo. For example, in July 2022, we reported on a fake Ronaldo live broadcast that attracted attention on TikTok.