In Taiwan, neglected seniors issue doesn’t get enough attention, and has to compete among hundreds of other charity fundraising projects when fundraising . Hondao modified those neglected seniors’ homes into “Lonesome Hotel”, Launch integrated promotions, reservations, exhibitions and actual accommodation, allowing people to experience the daily real-life dilemma of neglected seniors. Successfully attracted public and media attention, and increase donations.

“Hondao Senior Citizen’s Welfare Foundation“ has been helping neglected seniors In Taiwan for 12 years, However, the issue doesn’t get enough attention, and has to compete among hundreds of charity fundraising projects.

More over adding on the pandemic effect, donations were estimated to declined 50%. how do we address public awareness and increase donations with zero budget?

In the peak tourist season for Taiwanese, Hondao modified neglected seniors’ homes into “Lonesome Hotel” , an hotel that people couldn’t stand for even a night, where provide the same living conditions and experiences as theirs, and open to the public for reservations and stay during the season.

Target Audience :Potentially, the general public who may donate to charity.

To raise public awareness of neglected seniors issues and increase donations amid challenges, such as low attention and has to compete among hundreds of charity fundraising projects.

Because of the lack of understanding, it is difficult for people to empathize with neglected seniors, so why not let them experience it firsthand?

The end of the year to the CNY(Feb.) is the peak travel season for Taiwanese. But adding on the pandemic effect, it’s difficult to travel abroad, and they choose domestic travel instead, including experiencing different accommodation methods. So we decided to modified those neglected seniors’ homes into “Lonesome Hotel”, an hotel that you couldn’t stand for even a night .Where provide the same living conditions and experiences as theirs. And open reservations and stay to the public during the season with an integrated opening campaign.

In the peak tourist season from Nov.to Feb., Hondao modified neglected seniors’ homes into “Lonesome Hotel”, and turned their real dilemma stories into special services. People can make reservation and are in for the helpless experience, such as “bathing water that can only heated by sun”, “two tissue per day”, “reheated meals”, “non-working TV”. There’s no phone, no visitors, no going out, no contact allowed to make sure you can be isolated like a neglected senior for all day.

The hotel officially opened with videos, posters, DM, outdoor, website, banner ads…. etc ,and even participated in the Taiwan international travel fair and became the highlight. The famous celebrity, Ella Chen, Even volunteered to be hotel’s butler.

“Lonesome Hotel”also listed on the famous hotel booking platform, where you can see the hotel introduction and " the loneliness services". When a customer makes a reservation, the payments became donations.

- Attracted hundreds of people to experience“Lonesome hotel”.

- Earned 200+ news stories in 3 months, and got a 16 min in depth report on PTS news. Even the vice president participated in the project.

- The number of page views of fundraising websites increased by 3 times compared with the previous year, and the number of donation clicks increased by 5.7 times.

- Made the donations increase up to 124%. The total amount over NT$ 39million.

- Provide 12,937 vulnerable elderlies with special companionship, food, living quality and basic health care.