"It's a bloody shame that Booking.com made billions of euros last year and now ask for government support. When this post gets 1.000 likes I will start crowdfunding for a fair alternative hotel booking platform," wrote initiator Niels Meijssen in a LinkedIn post at the beginning of May.

Within days, his post didn't get a thousand likes, but almost 40.000! So Niels kept his promise and last the week the crowdfunding campaign of Beterboeken has started.

But how do you start a new fair hotel booking platform? The solutions lie in the company structure. We wanted to prevent shareholders from getting to much power and taking all profits out of the company. The perfect answer to this problem is called steward-ownership, in which you split voting rights and profit rights.

During this presentation, we will tell you the story of Beterboeken and how to become a ‘steward-owned' company.

About Beterboeken
Beterboeken is an initiative of a group of experienced entrepreneurs. We show that a booking site can also exist in a fairway. No fake scarcity of rooms, but a positive user experience. No high commissions for hotels, but a lower contribution. Next year we will build the first version of a fair booking site. Will you help us?