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 symbolicaly ‘booking’ one of the homeless places visitors automatically donate to 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.

Notfairbnb is an exact copy of the real Airbnb website. People can search for accomodation types as public building, portal or sidewalk. Each accommodation included cynical descriptions of the harsh conditions the dispossessed endure. By symbolicaly ‘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:

- Zero media budget!

- 18 952 unique visitors in just 10 days

- Worldwide media coverage: Picked up by national press, radio and tv

- Website visitors from 12 different countries all over the world

- Donations from as far as away as New Zealand

- Requests from international homeless organisations to launch Notfairbnb in their own countries

- 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…

- And for Belgium, we raised 500 % more money than previous years

Notfairbnb. Or how an unknown local homeless organisation became talk of the town and the world. An idea that wasn’t only discussed, but also lead to action. By parodying the popular Airbnb website, we created a platform where people can discover the harsh reality of the homeless and immediately donate. This resulted in 500% more donations than the year before.

Although the main focus and starting point of the campaign is the homeless issue in Brussels, homelesness 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.

In Belgium, the number of people offering a spare room or house on Airbnb has doubled in the last year. Ironically, in that exact same period another remarkable number doubled as well: the number of people living on the streets. In Brussels, the amount of homeless people had risen dramatically, from 2600 to 5400. Solidarité Grand Froids – an organization dedicated to helping the homeless get through the winter – wanted to raise both awareness and funds for this growing problem.