Notfairbnb is an exact copy of the real Airbnb website, but instead of luxury lofts and dream houses, it featured real places in Brussels where the homeless are forced to sleep. By symbolically ‘booking’ one of the homeless places, visitors automatically donate to the homeless organization Solidarité Grands Froids.
The website launched on December 21st, the first official day of winter, and attracted immense media interest. Both in Belgium and around the world. And just when the idea couldn’t get any bigger, we received requests from international homeless organisations to launch Notfairbnb in their own countries. So we decided to open up our platform. At this moment, Notfairbnb is operating in three different continents and more countries will be launching soon.
Execution
Notfairbnb is an exact copy of the real Airbnb website. People can search for accomodation types such as public buildings, portals or sidewalks. Each accommodation included cynical descriptions of the harsh conditions the dispossessed endure. By symbolically ‘booking’ one of the homeless places visitors automatically donate to Solidarité Grands Froids. The website launched on December 21st, the first official day of winter. We created additional digital buzz by offering our accomodations to famous people, like musicians after a gig in Brussels or world leaders during the European council. Targeted Facebook ads promoted our platform to tourists visiting the city
Great results for a small organisation in a small country:
Ð Zero media budget!
Ð 18 952 unique visitors in just 10 days
Ð Worldwide media coverage: Picked up by national press, radio and tv
Ð Website visitors from 12 different countries all over the world
Ð Donations from as far as away as New Zealand
Ð Requests from international homeless organisations to launch Notfairbnb in their own countries
Ð We decided to open up our platform to other homeless organisations around the world. Notfairbnb will be soon operating in three different continents and 5 more countries such as Canada, Germany, … who will join later this year and more will follow…
Ð And for Belgium, we raised 500 % more money than previous years
The Situation
Every year, when winter comes and x-mass is near, journalists starts to write about the homeless in Brussels and the harsh conditions they have to live in. This year we encouraged them to do so even more, but more importanty made sure they also talked about how people could be part of the solution by donating online!
To grab journalists’ attention we piggy banked on the worldwide popular Airbnb, and changed it in #Notfairbnb.
Notfairbnb is a parody website that smartly uses the popularity of Airbnb to raise awareness and funds for the homeless people in
The Strategy
Although the main focus and starting point of the campaign is the homeless issue in Brussels, homelessness is a global problem. By parodying the popular platform Airbnb and by making use of free media (press / Twitter posts / Facebookposts), this small, local initiative received worldwide coverage. By opening up the platform to other homeless organisations, Notfairbnb is now becoming a global charitiy campaign for homeless people all around the world