A big idea to unleash community spaces across the Whau

There are thousands of local spaces, including commercial kitchens, available for hire

An innovative new platform is launching a call to arms to all Whau community space providers to join them in their quest to make it easy for people to find and book spaces in their neighbourhood.

Elle Bell, New Zealand founder of SpacetoCo.com had the brainwave when she was looking to start up a crochet group and got tired of having to do heaps of research and phone each space separately to compare costs and availability.

Struck by the thought of how easy companies like AirBNB make it to book local spaces, she had the idea of an online marketplace where any community space could list for free and help people in their neighbourhoods find and book them.

“I knew from my own experience that community initiatives that could be building connections locally are not getting off the ground because people can’t find or can’t face the process of booking the space they need”, says Elle. “I also know that there are thousands of amazing local spaces that could be used more, but don’t have the budget or resources to market themselves or create fancy booking websites.”

SpacetoCo.com hopes to solve two problems. They provide an easy way for people to find and book what they need to get their group or idea started. But it’s also really powerful software that can provide bookings and payments automation to small community spaces at a really affordable price.

Elle hopes this will give back hours of staff and volunteer time that’s currently spent on bookings admin that could go towards growing community activation and programming.
​
SpacetoCo have proven their idea by increasing bookings at pilot community spaces and now are looking to speak to any business, trust, community centre, church, marae or charity with space they would like to increase bookings for – or decrease time spent managing it. Register your interest with elle@spacetoco.com.