Press

Figures, Data, Facts

Start of the project: 2018 - at that time as a project of the Enactus association at the University of Cologne

Start as a startup: Foundation July 2021

Founding team: Nils Lohmann and Alexander Haufschild

Registered office: Cologne

Team size: 5 people

Projects: 350 projects in 45 countries (as of 03/2024)

Our story

In Cambodia, we met the tuk-tuk driver Seng Chanty. Seng wanted to build a school in his village to give children free English lessons. However, his social project lacked the necessary donations. Together we developed the idea of renting the empty rooms of his house to travelers and letting them participate in the everyday life of the village.

Within three months, Seng visited so many travelers that he was able to build the school from the income and hire an English teacher. The idea of using the enormous power of tourism to finance sustainable projects did not let us go. In addition to studying, 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 socialbnb decided to start as an independent social startup.

The problem

Traditional tourism excludes the local population in many parts of the world. This leads, on the one hand, to the fact that income does not remain on site and, on the other hand, to the absence of contact between travelers and locals.

Mission & Vision

Our mission is to create meaningful encounters that have a long-lasting positive impact on travelers and the local population.

This fulfills our vision of fair tourism that creates unique experiences and benefits the local population.

Impact Report 2022

In order to make visible what was created by the bookings, we would like to introduce you to our first impact report. The Impact Report presents each accommodation booked in 2022 with the associated project and evaluates the actual added value of each overnight stay.

Methodically, we work with qualitative and quantitative social research methods to investigate the effect of the target group. The impact analysis uses the iooi method and thus clarifies the relationship between input, output, outcome and impact.