PRESS - socialbnb

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About us

The social impact startup socialbnb is developing an online platform that connects travellers with social and ecological projetcs or social businesses around the world. We offer their unused spaces as overnight accomodations to travelers who want to travel in a more sustainable and authentic way. By staying overnight on site, the projects receive a sustainable source of income apart from donations and can thus finance their valuable work.

This supports projects in the field of environment and animal welfare, as well as education, equality or health. Meanwhile, travelers have the opportunity to have an authentic and local travel experience, to immerse themselves in local life and to learn more about the respective project. In this way, we create a new form of sustainable tourism that benefits everyone. Founded by Nils Lohmann and Alexander Haufschild, socialbnb is based in Cologne in Germany.

Figures, Data, Facts

Start of the project phase in 2018 – started as a project of the association Enactus at the University of Cologne
Founding Team: Nils Lohmann and Alexander Haufschild
Location: Cologne
Team size: 10 persons

Our Story

In Cambodia we met the tuk-tuk driver Seng Chanty. Seng wanted to build a school in his village to provide free English lessons for children. However, his social project lacked the necessary donations. Together we developed the idea of renting out the empty rooms of his house to travelers and letting them participate in the daily life of the village. Within three months, so many travelers visited Seng that he was able to build the school and hire an English teacher from the income.

The idea of using the enormous power of tourism to fund sustainable projects stuck with us. Alongside our studies, we continued to pursue the idea over the years in a growing team. After overwhelming feedback from various projects and travelers, Alex & Nils from the team decided to found socialbnb as an independent social business in 2020.

The Problem

Around the world, social and ecological projects are underfunded. Local projects in particular are highly dependent on donations, which often fail to materialize due to a lack of attention. As a result, they are unable to implement their valuable work. However, some projects have premises that we make bookable as sustainable accommodation for travelers. We advise the projects on how to get started in sustainable tourism and create additional attention through our platform.

Mission and Vision

Our mission is to sustainably fund social and environmental projects worldwide while creating authentic experiences for travelers.

We believe in sustainable tourism that benefits everyone. We are convinced that travelling is an ideal way to break down prejudices and promote global exchange. We want to organize travel in such a way that the income from tourism benefits local people.

Impact Report 2022

To make visible what has been created by the bookings, we want to present you our first Impact Report. The Impact Report presents every accommodation booked in 2022 with the corresponding project and continuously evaluates the actual added value of each overnight stay.

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