Airbnb’s Country Pub Project Helps Restore Five Pubs in Australia

While Airbnb has helped connect people across the world’s big cities, the home sharing company pays just as much attention to smaller communities that others often pass by. After sponsoring an Italian sabbatical in the tiny village of Grottole for four contestants, Airbnb is now looking to help restore five selected pubs across regional Australia for a $50,000 renovation. More than just providing the necessary funds to restore these pubs, Airbnb is working to revitalise their surrounding community and encourage new travellers to visit these rural Australian towns. 

Airbnb’s research found that pubs are considered by many Australians to be the most important social hub compared to sporting clubs, RSL clubs, and churches, yet only half would consider staying overnight in a country pub. When surveying Australians in city and metropolitan areas, only 21% would consider spending the night in a pub. Airbnb seeks to change this by restoring Australian country pubs so they can attract more Australian and international travellers interested in having a drink and spending the night in Australia’s countryside. 

Australians can nominate their favourite pub from June 16th to July 12th on Airbnb’s Country Pub Project page, with five pubs ultimately selected to receive a grant of $50,000 each. Along with the grant, each selected pub will be assigned a Project Manager to help manage the pub restoration process, along with an experienced Airbnb Host to help guide pub-owners on registering themselves on the platform. Airbnb will also support each pub’s town by creating a unique Airbnb Experience to attract guests to the newly restored locale and area, providing the competition winners with a complete package of restoration, education, and revitalisation. 

Since this initiative aims to help revitalise rural Australia and support smaller pubs, in order to nominate a pub it must be located in regional or rural Australia outside of a capital city and have sleeping accommodation. Anyone can nominate their favourite local Australian pub, whether they’re the owner or a regular customer, and the results will be revealed on August 5th. For more information on the project, you can watch Airbnb’s video about the Country Pub Project and read Airbnb’s press release about the competition.

Similar to Airbnb, Keycafe aims to provide increased public awareness and traveler traffic for pubs, shops, and other partner locations with the installation of our public SmartBoxes. By providing a method to exchange keys in these locations, Keycafe helps connect communities to the sharing economy and enable simple property access management for everyone. Keycafe is partnered with many different pubs across the world, and is happy to see Airbnb supporting these businesses directly.