The Brilliant Entrepreneur
After studying hotel management at Penn State, and then beginning a hotel referral service, Neil Goldman initiated a brilliant concept into his business. From owning a broker management hotel service taking overflow business from local Austin hotels in 2008, Goldman began asking his hotel partners to donate $1 per every overnight hotel reservation to aid different children’s charities. In 2010 this change was made, and matching the $1, “Hotels for Hope” donates $2 to a different children’s charity each time an overnight reservation occurs at any of the 1,000+ hotels Goldman is partnered with.
A Simple Act can Change the World
This simple concept is ingenious because it encourages people that there is a way to change the world through the simple, very common, act of booking a hotel room. The business model is unique because the people booking rooms are charged nothing. Hotels for Hope handles all aspects of booking the hotels, and out of those profits, donates to charities of choice including “Rock for Kids”, “A Glimmer of Hope Foundation”, “Live Strong Foundation”, “Special Olympics Texas”, and many others.
Hotels for Hope is a for-profit business making a significant social change in the lives of kids through a simple act. Everyday people are so drawn to this business idea because it is proving that having a social impact in the world is tangible. Over 90,000+ nights have been booked through Hotels for Hope, and more than $185,000 has been donated to children’s charities. The company foresees total donations to exceed $1 million dollars by the end of 2015.
An Inspiration to All
Personally, I see Goldman as a truly inspiring entrepreneur because of his unique social change twist in his business. I appreciate Goldman’s innovate thought-process in his ability to apply a world influence in a competitive industry. The nature of his business exemplifies the fact that he recognized and evaluated his position in the hotel industry with a new perspective, and then took action. Not only is his thought process and ingenuity commendable, but inspiring through his desire to use his hotel management skills to change children’s lives through these foundations. Neil Goldman is the type of business leader I desire to become and aspire to, and I truly admire and respect his passion to serve others while owning a for-profit company.
For more information…visit www.hotelsforhope.org
I really admire Goldman’s creativity in adding a social angle to a business that most people would probably never consider as a potential platform for social entrepreneurship. For a lot of people, their first reaction would probably be: “Why would a hotel give money away just to get on a certain booking site?”. But as Hotels for Hope shows, if it’s done with products (Toms, Warby Parker), it can work with services. It would be interesting to see how many other service type businesses this could be applied to.