With a commitment to charitable giving, CharitableBookings.com has launched their online platform with a premium offering, after raising €5.8 million from angel investors including Lord Stanley Fink, former CEO of Man Group, along with a series of angels who also invested in LoveHolidays.com, a platform on track to reach £1 billion valuation in 2024.
Featuring The Global Pledge, an initiative to raise £1 billion for charities worldwide, Charitablebookings.com Founder and Executive Chairman David Johnstone commented: “We are excited to bring wholesale travel and premium unique lifestyle benefits to our users, while with every booking we give back to a charity of their choice.”
Across a web, iPhone and Android app, users are given the opportunity to make a charitable pledge and in return receive a Premium lifetime CharitableBookings.com membership, which gives them access to wholesale travel across hotels, and exclusive lifestyle benefits. As part of The Global Pledge, when users donate £75 directly to one of several charities listed on the site, as a thank you gift from the charity they receive one CharitableBookings.com Premium lifetime membership, worth £360. When corporates donate £5,000 they receive 150 branded premium memberships as a thank you. Featured charities include The Colonel’s Fund Grenadier Guards, Project Harar, Surf, and Suicide&Co.
Premium members have exclusive access to over 500,000 hotels at wholesale/trade prices across 200+ countries, with over 8 out 10 hotel prices at an average of over 10% cheaper compared to booking through major travel booking platforms. As a second benefit, they receive luxury lifestyle benefits with a range of restaurants, clubs, bars, boutiques and wellness spots, as well as entering into a luxury prize draw giving users monthly chances to win travel and lifestyle experiences and gifts worth between £100 – £25K.
To further support charitable giving, 1% of every honored hotel booking is donated to the member’s favorite charity from a growing list of over 500,000 US and UK causes, at no extra cost to the member.
Notably, Johnstone’s initiatives include co-organizing The Childrens Party At The Palace to celebrate the Queen’s 80th Birthday Party, after having launched his first company in his early twenties – an online private members platform which included events, ticketing and a deals business. This was followed by Key-2 Luxury, named by the Financial Times as “one corporate gift to rule them all” with 100,000 worldwide VIP key holders. Johnstone then founded The Global Party, which ran across 263 cities with over 500,000 guests and raised £4M directly for charity.
Now with CharitableBookings.com, Johnstone has found a way to channel his years of expertise in luxury, hospitality and client databases, and combine this with his conviction for charitable giving through enterprise. The company’s vision is to be the destination for charitable giving, while also ensuring users have access to wholesale travel prices and lifestyle benefits – with every transaction giving back to charities worldwide.
