This is how The Social Hub works: students, tourists and coworkers together

The key word is social, not in the sense of network, but more in that of networking. The Social Hubvisiting the two offices currently open in Italy, Florence and Bologna, is the essence of connection, of bringing people together and to do so, it is clear from the thousands of activities that can be done, you need great ideas and above all you need to be open to all the proposals that the territory brings.

Seen in numbers, the experience of The Social Hub is made up of 16 structures in Europe which will become 23 by 2025, three of these will be in Italy: a second in Florence, the first has been there for 11 years, Rome and Turin. 96,072 guests in 2022, 800 employees of 84 different nationalities, 11,000 rooms throughout Europe. Approximately 1,500 events hosted each year by The Social Hub facilities.

However, the numbers do not give an idea of ​​this union of students, tourists and coworkers adapted to the reality in which it finds itself. Going from Bologna to Florence there are two different realities despite the common thread of a furniture chosen with standards of sustainability and in the choice of keeping together rooms, all with the same characteristics, for students, who can stay up to a year, and travellers, who can stay even for just one night, common spaces shared with the cities and workstations and offices dedicated to coworking .

How are they different? In the fact that they are inside different realities, a mirror of different cities. TO Florence the swimming pool is on the roof (one of the 10 most beautiful rooftops in the city with a breathtaking view of the Renaissance), a Bologna immediately behind the entrance, opposite but equal. The Bologna office, a former Telecom structure, is a stone’s throw from the station in a district, the Bolognina, which is being reborn, the Florentine one in a building, called del Sonno, historically belonging to the railways near the Fortezza da Basso. Florence has a consolidated relationship with Arcigay and the Lgbtqia+ community, this year too the Ballroom was organized in the month of pride, a dance competition for groups born in the 1970s in the USA as an identifier of the Lgbtqia+ world. In Bologna we met Roberto Morgantini’s Popular Kitchens. Florence has a vegetarian restaurant, Bologna bread, pasta and sweets from Forno Brisa which also has corporate offices in the coworking space.

Community, community, is the word that comes to mind inside The Social Hub in Bologna as in Florence, where it is the largest hotel in the city. «We bring the energy of something different» explains the founder, Charlie MacGregor, who started as a Scot in Holland with the idea that students deserved betterwithout coming from the hospitality sector, «and we have many different communities, different age groups: here society is recreated within a structure that is reliable».

Another key word is flexibility: the student rooms are given to tourists in the summer, although quotas always remain for the different categories. Coworking spaces are individual workstations, fixed places where the personal computer is always present, real offices. The coworking subscription allows you to use the swimming pool, gym and other facilities inside the hubs (from ping pong to table football, the music room and the one for watching films). The secret is the ideas and not being afraid to try to put them into practice.

Space is essential: in Florence, coworking alone is 150 square meters for 103 workstations, the hotel rooms are 390. As mentioned, one stays from one day to a year and if the time is long for everyone with a reserved space in kitchen, a personal fridge drawer and the hole for communications. In the kitchen in Florence as in Bologna there are those who teach and help (cooking and cleaning). Sustainability is among the fundamentals, like inclusiveness. This also passes through art: the mural in Florence by Ben Eine says so, EVERYBODY SHOUD LIKE EVERYBODY. Not the only one who crosses paths visiting the structure. Bologna has 1000 square meters of common areas, 227 square meters of coworking with teaching and congress areas, and occupancy close to 100% despite having opened in the difficult year of the pandemic, 2020. Cafés and restaurants are open to outsiders everywhere.

Prices? Not popular, but certainly achievable. In particular for coworking which, with all the services, costs 109 euros a month, 18 a day. In the rooms you stay with 28 euros per day in double. A month in the student residence costs 900 euros, all inclusive, so no bills or extra internet costs. The market makes hotel room prices, but long stays cost less. Perhaps it is not the solution to the lack of accommodation for students, but it is “the jolt of youth and optimism that the hospitality world needed”.