Facts about Magdas hotel

The Magdas Hotel is the first social business hotel based on cooperation, existing resources and a social vision. Refugees, volunteers and professionals of the hotel business transform a former rest home, situated at the Wiener Prater, to a grand budget hotel. By using existing resources and donations a agile and contemporary meeting spot for refugees, students and tourists from all over the world is created.

history

The site used to be a villa of the musicians' family Harnoncourt. In 1956, the Caritas bought the property to accommodate Hungarian students after the uprising against the communist regime. From 1975 to January 2014 it was a residential care home for the elderly, named Josef Macho-Haus, who was a secretary of the Caritas and founder of the SOS help organisation. As the building stock was in a bad condition, a new home rest home was build and the retirees were relocated. Until April it was temporarily used as a day center for homeless people.
The idea for the Magdas Hotel evolved after the relocation of the retirees. Their was a study for a project like the Magdas Hotel for another building in the 2nd district, which turned out to be too old and the renovation costs would have been too immense. As the subsidiary company Caritas Social Business called attention to the abandoned building, they asked the Caritas if they can use the building for the hotel project and which was approved for five years.

idea

With 80 rooms, a garden, café, lounge, artists-in-residence and a library a cultural meeting place is offered. Refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Iraq and other crisis regions live and work in the hotel and get together with traveling salespeople, families, city and culture enthusiasts from all over the world. A social business that connects people and creates chances and therefore a lively space which is ideal for encounters.

The integration of refugees from different nations into the hotels operations („services?“) results, on the one hand, from their lacking chances on the austrian labour market and on the other hand, because there is a huge amount of refugees with disregarded talents and qualifications, which strengthen the hotel with their cultural background and allow the hotel to have a independent position on the hotel market. The project was finalist in the European Social Innovation Competition in 2013 and should be established in other european cities if it is implemented successfully.

The project is planned and implemented by the Caritas Wien, which is an austrian aid organisation (NGO). It is partly financed by donations and the budget from the Caritas itself and through crowdfunding on the website www.crowdfunding.at. The goal is to bring in € 50.000,- through financial contributions where you receive accomodation vouchers as a return.