Digest #8 – Fairbnb.coop start up 2022 on the right foot
Check out all the progress made by our project in the monthly Fairbnb.coop Digest #8, with the latest news from our coop ecosystem, area by area: we start up 2022 with new destinations, important partnerships, and the launch of the Fair Academy for Local Ambassadors!
After being mentioned in the latest magazine Le Routard as an ethical and solidarity-based booking platform, and while the EU Commission summons us to listen to our proposals on short term rentals regulation, we are developing a certification management system – FairCert – to ensure legal compliance, local communities approval and sustainable practices for each of our listings, which are growing by the day.
To get an idea of the progress made by our project, just take a look at the spread of B&B and vacation rentals listings on our platform: they are now nearly 500! Comparing the map we published in the last Digest of 2021 with the new one of last January, it is easy to notice the great increase especially in Belgium and in Italy, where we can now offer ethical vacations in big cities of art like Rome or Florence as well as in rural destinations, perfect for wine and food vacations or to discover amazing archaeological sites like in Cuneo or in Tuscia, or in the beautiful seaside resorts around Lake Garda, easily reachable from all over Europe, and in the South of Italy. And to think that until a few months ago we were only present in our pilot cities: Venice, Bologna, Genoa, Barcelona, Valencia, Porto, and Amsterdam.
So, just go to fairbnb.coop and click on in the destination field to start traveling with your mind, before choosing your next holiday home. You will also enjoy the new search interface, which is just the first of the important improvements that are underway: just consider that in a few weeks we will release the first version of our new platform to offer experiences!
And that’s not all! We will soon give the opportunity to get benefits and access to services from a wide range of cooperatives, just by registering with one of them. This is the revolution of the CoopCreds system, which we are developing together with the Resonate and Pavilion cooperatives.
Finally, empowered by our new collaborator Jaka Godejša, in 2022 we will enhance the activities on our own social media, social.fairbnbn.coop, which will also be the home of our Fair Academy, a learning program to onboard new Local Ambassadors. The first course, starting this February, already has many candidates from 9 different countries!
Areas Digest
Every month we publish the latest news from our organizational areas. Let us remind you that all our managers are available for questions, so if you need some details or if you want to discuss some opportunities with them please don’t hold back: mail to info@fairbnb.coop.
Enjoy your read, let us know your thoughts and thank you for your support.
The Fairbnb.coop Team
News update from Community – Lead: Domenico Di Siena
The community area team start up 2022 with a special intensity. We are working on various fronts to improve the activation and training of our ambassadors and to enrich our community in general.
Social.fairbnb.coop
We have done some initial work to simplify our communication with ambassadors and started to strengthen our internal platform where we can meet and dialogue. We are also celebrating the arrival of a new collaborator, Jaka Godejša, who will take care of coordinating and enhancing our activities on this platform. By the way, if you haven’t already done so, sign up here: social.fairbnbn.coop.
Scattered hosts: from Italy to the world!
We’re seeing the huge results we’re getting through the diffuse hosts model in Italy. In particular we are celebrating the activation in Naples and Tuscia. We are working with our ambassadors and partners to accelerate this model in other European countries.
Fair Academy
Among the main actions this month and after the experiments developed in the past we can finally announce the launch of the Fair Academy with the first course. By the way, if you know people, companies, and organizations interested in becoming Ambassadors, signal our course: link.fairbnb.coop/become-ambassador.
News update from the Coop Ecosystem
Team: Jonathan Reyes (lead), Federico Piovesan (partnerships office), Emanuele Dal Carlo
EU Workshop + Conversations with Cities
Last 10th of December we were invited to participate as Fairbnb.coop in a workshop organized by the EU Commission within the framework of their Short Term Rental initiative to regulate the STR market in the EU. The workshop attracted 183 participants from 23 Member States (national, regional, and local level, including regulatory authorities, relevant tourism authorities, cities, and their representatives), online intermediaries and their representatives, associations representing hotels, representatives of businesses, chambers of commerce, academics, non-governmental organizations, and journalists.
We had the chance to present Fairbnb.coop and take part in the debate for the future STR regulation showing our perspective and proposals. Our model and proposals raised interesting questions, feedback, and debate for the future of STR in Europe.
You can find here the public report with the conclusions on the debate we had including our presentation and proposals to the EU.
Together with the cooperatives of Resonate and Pavilion and other cooperatives joining we are currently working on the creation of a Co-operative Credential as a portable membership between cooperatives and companies sharing our Fair vision.
Based on mutual trust and a ‘commons’ of membership and resource exchanges between co-operatives, Co-operative Credentials will allow to reduce sign-up friction, boost membership between different platform cooperatives, services and products exchange and cost-sharing across co-ops.
It means that you as an user could register with one unique credential on Resonate to follow your favorite artist on tour, book an apartment on Fairbnb.coop in the city where your artist plays and order your dinner in CoopCycle before going to the concert. All of this managed in your personal and secure wallet, ensuring you do a responsible and cooperative consumption.
While CoopCreds is being built and tested, we’re also collaborating with other co-operatives and relevant stakeholders to foster its adoption within to the platform coop’s ecosystem. We want to build a solution that is made by platform coops for platform coops, and are dedicating the next two and half months to learning from our community.
Would you like to join this process? Visit our page and join our Forum (where we just published a demo of the sign up process). Are you part of a platform cooperative interested in the project? Take our Stakeholder Welcome Survey
FairCert: A community-based certification system is coming
As you know we have been working in the last months to build a local and community-managed blockchain-based certification system created to guarantee the positive impact of the tourism products and services offered through Fairbnb.coop platform in the host communities.
Through FairCert our certification management system we ensure legal compliance, local communities’ approval, and sustainable practices for every listing. This is done thanks to the use of smart contracts where both Fairbnb.coop but also local communities and Ambassadors can set the legal conditions and sustainable practices to be met in every destination by our hosts and guests and then co-sign them once checked.
We are currently in our test phase, but very soon you will be able to see documented local rules divided into compulsory rules on one side, and “soft rules” or best practices at the local level.
News update from the Product Area: – Lead : Jan De Bock
Maybe the most important change is the new search interface: go to fairbnb.coop and click on in the destination field. The following will pop up:
But also, once you press the search, you will now see very quickly your results. We brought it back from several seconds, to less than 1 sec.
We invite you all to test this and promote it to your friends and family!
See here how it will look like very soon. We are still making a few adjustments.
Our Ambassadors will have new tooling soon: they will be able to review your listings and certify them. This is a whole new process that we created so we can walk the talk: we will document and enforce the local rules for every listing we publish.
Once the Ambassadors finished all of the certifications, guests and hosts will be able to see the certificate. It will be transparent to the public. Of course, you will hear more about this soon.
Do you know people who want to offer experiences via our platform? Within a few weeks, we will release our first version for this. This version is mainly targeted at hosts so we can build a good basis for a wider rollout scheduled in April.
Marketing Area – Lead: Isabel Duregger
Boosted by the enthusiastic participation of hosts, agritourisms, and B&Bs in #Italy and #Belgium, we are about to reach 500 listings published all over #Europe. We would like to celebrate this goal by dedicating a special blog post to our Host#500!
If you manage a lawful vacation rental or an accommodation, don’t miss the opportunity to be promoted in our network and tell what makes you a Fair Host to the tens of thousands of responsible travelers who follow Fairbnb.coop!
After being suggested by Lonely Planet, Fairbnb.coop is mentioned in the latest magazine Le Routard as an ethical and solidarity-based booking platform! Thank you!
Let’s keep talking about Fairbnb.coop around us, together we can make positive changes in the tourism sector while continuing to travel!
If you are on Facebook, please share the news on your network!
Call for Content Creators
Are you a passionate traveler? Are you an expert in your region or would you like to share your passion for local food with our community? We are always looking for new, inspiring and authentic content from locals. To share your opinion, there are several ways: You can either write a blog, suggest a post, create a fun quiz or send us your favorite travel pictures.
Have an idea but need creative support? NO Problem! Contact our marketing team and share your plans with us! Let us get creative together!
Reach out to our Marketing Manager isabel.duregger@fairbnb.coop
Content Digest
10 CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS 2021: BRING JOY WITH A FAIR TRAVEL
We ended 2021 suggesting Christmas gifts that are perfect for any occasion: a vacation in Paris, Vienna, Rome, Florence, or in one of our other beautiful destinations would definitely be appreciated as a gift for Valentine’s Day. A Fair travel certainly fills with joy those who receive it as a gift, but makes happy an entire community: so here are our ideas, valid in every season.
FAIRBNB.COOP NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
We began 2022 with the same spirit that has guided us since we conceived the Fairbnb.coop project: engaging alongside our communities to support important projects, such as those mentioned in this blog. The last point on our New Year’s resolutions list is up to you: help us bring our sustainable tourism model to your place!
YOUR NEXT HOLIDAYS IN SPAIN CAN SUPPORT A REFUGEE PROJECT!
Thanks to our partnership with Refugees Welcome Spain and to the new national project, travellers can now turn their holiday in Spain into a gift for refugees and asylum seekers across the country. Scattered hosts in Spain can offer their holiday homes on our platform. Refugees and asylum seekers will no longer be stigmatized and excluded.
FAIRBNB.COOP REACHES CANADA
Our project is coming to Canada! This is not just a great achievement for our platform, but also proof that we can change tourism and help resolve some major issues for our local communities. The first initiative that will be supported with 50% of our booking fees is the Kensington Market Community Land Trust (KMCLT), to protect and expand affordable housing.
ANTWERP – THE PERFECT WINTER CITY BREAK
Thanks to the local knowledge of our fair Host Paul, you’ll have a great time in the Belgian city of Antwerp. And while there are so many amazing things to discover, Paul is confident that his street has all you need to experience Antwerp at its best, most authentic and welcoming. Read our interview with Paul to find out more!
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Why Fair?
How it works:
The Host earns the same,
the Guest pays the same
but the benefits are for the whole community.
50% of our platform fee is used to fund a project of your choice for the communities you visit.
This is a what we call
Community Powered Tourism.
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