Fairbnb.coop – Community powered tourism

Service    International    Move & Travel

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picture on top: fairbnb.coop

Fairbnb.coop is a cooperative platform that aims to reduce the conflicts of tourist rentals and massive tourism to harness the potential of sustainable and community-powered tourism.

The plaform offers the potential for authentic, sustainable and intimate travel experiences while facilitating the development of socially relevant projects within worldwide’s communities.

What is the mission of the project?

Fairbnb.coop offers a community-centered alternative that prioritises people over profit and facilitates authentic, sustainable and intimate travel experiences.

Where and when did the project start?

We started our journey in 2016 as a movement seeking to create a just alternative to existing home-sharing platforms.

Initially the movement emerged in Venice, Amsterdam and Bologna, but soon other groups from all over Europe joined the debate and helped us in shaping the final model that we are seeking to implement.

In late 2018, we created a co-op to serve as the legal entity behind the project, an open organisation where in the near future we plan to welcome all actors of our ecosystem.

We have now based our headquarters in Bologna, Italy.

 picture: fairbnb.coop

Where (in which countries) is the service offered today?

We are currently present mainly in Europe but we have an extensive network of collaborators around the globe who are preparing the activation of new destination in their countries. Our service is currently (2020) offered in Spain, Netherlands and Italy.

To whom is this service aimed?

Our service is addressed to:

Travelers who are concerned about the impact they have both in the environment and in the communities of the places they visit.

Host, managers of small hotels, camping sites, farmhouse or B&B who want to build a sustainable business creating a positive impact for their neighbour.

Entities, organisations and individuals willing to become our local partner to promote a sustainable tourism model in their cities.

graphic: fairbnb.coop

What do you consider to be the most innovative aspects of your offer?

We offer a fair, collectively-owned and transparent alternative:

People over profit. Half of the commission charged is returned to empower the local community, sustaining projects selected by local residents.

Transparency over opacity. We collaborate with municipalities to ensure the legality of rented properties. We offer specific tools and technologies to ensure compliance. Local communities can complement official regulation with additional policies that define how the platform works at a local level.

Real home-sharing. We avoid the entrance of multi-hosts that have more than one accommodation to ease the effect of over-tourism over the residential accommodation.

Democratic Decision-Making. The company is a cooperative where decisions are made collaboratively.

As a cooperative, our growth model is not based on competency but on cooperation with local organisations that share our values. We collaborate, empower and grow by creating partnerships with other organisations and local stakeholders that can become part of the cooperative and support us opening a new destination in their cities. This growth model help us creating a more resilient structure that fosters local economies keeping wealth within the territory where it is generated.

What are the most important impacts of your service in terms of sustainability?

1. Economic sustainability. Our model is designed as a resilient circular system where the creation of value through the tourism industry serves to foster local economies by creating employment opportunities through our Local Node partners, by funding the local social economies, and by connecting and reinforcing local network of sustainable small businesses who can offer their services through our platform.

2.  Social Sustainability. Our platform puts local communities in the centre. Through our ‘Local Nodes’ model the local communities are empowered to define how our platform works at a local level.

By funding social community projects and by bringing them to the discussion we contribute to reinforce the social tissue of the places where we are active.

3. Environmental sustainability. We want to become also a platform for sustainability awareness. In order to promote a wider environmental sensitivity we are implementing a self-assessment system where hosts and guests can evaluate their behaviour related to their environmental impact when traveling. This system is based on the SDGs (sustainable development goals).

Which aspects are particularly interesting from a design perspective?

We have designed a whole system thinking that focuses on social, economic and environmental values. Through our cooperative structure and our network of local communities we have designed a series of interdependent subsystems that make us more resilient, sustainable and locally rooted. We are a “community-powered/empowered-communities” platform.

Do you also offer the service digitally?

We have built a multilingual web platform where users can offer and buy services related to sustainable vacation rental.

What are some interesting numbers about the project?

Autumn 2020:

We have around 15,000 registered users worldwide.

We are currently activating 40+ destinations mainly in Europe and South America.

What happens next? What are your goals?

We are focused on improving our product, consolidating our presence first in Europe and preparing further developments in America and Australia.

Our goal is to transform the tourism industry toward a more sensitive approach that is more sustainable and respectful with the planet and the local communities that inhabit the places we visit. After the Covid-19 crisis we have a very challenging scenario that can also be a big opportunity to rethink the whole model.

picture: fairbnb.coop

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