Unfortunately there is not only justice in this world and not everybody is blessed with health. Sadly, some people and families have to deal with severe strokes of fate that they cannot cope with on their own. For this reason, we would like to pay tribute to the great work of Vienna’s mobile children’s hospice MOMO, which provides medical and psychosocial support to severely ill children aged 0-18 and their families. MOMO was founded in March 2013 by Caritas, CS Caritas Socialis and the mobile children’s nursing service MOKI-Wien. Since then, MOMO has cared for more than 314 families and it has been possible to help every family that needs help! Support from MOMO is free of charge, regardless of how often MOMO employees come to the families and how long they stay. The children’s hospice depends in large part on the support of voluntary donors.
We are very proud of our partnership with MOMO since June this year and now support the children’s hospice financially with 1000€ per year. A big thank you goes to Michaela Dimitriewicz, the wife of one of Wombat’s founders Sascha, who has been volunteering for MOMO for many years and has made us aware of this great institution! We would also like to praise all the other MOMO employees for their great work and their commitment and look forward to continuing our cooperation!
Have you ever read a slogan and thought it describes the core of your existence perfectly? ‘United in Diversity’ was the slogan of Life Ball and could not have been a better match. Life Ball is an astounding charity project to help fight HIV and prejudices in society.
Throughout the years it had grown to be one of Vienna’s most renown annual events. Celebrating diversity and tolerance. We have been supporting this amazing event through a collaboration as accommodation sponsor since 2013.
Back then Chris was the manager of wombat’s THE BASE in Vienna and also volunteered at the Life Ball. Furthermore there was always a good crowd of wombat’s staff volunteering or just partying at the Life Ball. No wonder the idea of this collaboration was welcomed with open arms and actually felt like a thing we had to do anyway.
A core connection
A couple of month ago Gerry Kessler announced that this year would be the last Life Ball. It made us recap the last years and we asked ourselves why we actually never really saw this collaboration as a Marketing gig and didn’t brag about this sponsorship.
And there’s the loop back to the slogan. There’s not much of an obvious connection between a charity event with tickets from € 80.- and a hostel. Maybe apart from hostellers hardly ever missing out on a good party.
However, we are indeed united in diversity. Diversity is vital for an open society and it’s in the nature of a hostel. Without tolerance and people who embrace diversity, hostel life would just not be possible.
In a hostel you share pretty much everything with travellers from all around the world. No matter what their cultural background is, whom they love or what their lifestyle is. It’s unfiltered, random and beautiful.
Celebrate diversity
We were lucky enough to share Vienna, our home town with an event like Life Ball. Nevertheless at wombat’s we celebrate diversity and tolerance wherever we can. There’s always a crowd of staff members, ex-staff members and friends of wombat’s who celebrate pride parades, like Regenbogenparade in Vienna, Christopher Street Day in Berlin, the pride in London and other wombat’s destinations.
A good bunch of our staff gets unbelievably excited about these events. It’s more than a LGBT+ thing. It’s about celebrating the freedom to be who you are and love who you love.
For us at wombat’s tolerance and diversity are just natural. That’s why we usually don’t make a lot of fuzz about mentioning it. But maybe we should actually stress our point of view more often?
Interview with CHRIS (Head of Innovations & Project Management)
Beautiful slogan for the very last LIFE BALL, it has been a “Beacon of Hope”, an instrument for help during the last 27 years. It´s been so great to be a part of it. I´ve been working during 10 years, wombat´s has been a partner for 6 years. We gladly cooperated with the LIFE BALL this last years to help a beautiful cause.
The essence of LIFE BALL is THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS, promoting diversity and tolerance, for people from all over the world, with no exceptions, from all beliefs, all sexualities. It´s been a pleasure and a big honour working with them on that cause.
UNITED IN DIVERSITY
That phrase brings everything back to the beginning, when LIFE BALL started bringing together people that were affected directly by the terrible illness of AIDS and brought them together with people who didn´t know, had no information, were not part of the gay community, did not have friends infected by AIDS and just spread the word about this awful disease, by now, AIDS is world ´known, we are on the best on defeating it, but it is very important we keep up this work, spreading information around the world. The disease is still not curable, just treatable.
I´m very proud that wombat´s CITY HOSTELS is a company where I feel very comfortable at, a place that promotes this year´s motto of the LIFE BALL, United in Diversity, on daily basis, because if you look at our staff or our guests, you really see diversity as a mainframe of the company.
Diversity; at wombat´s isn´t something you just talk about. It is something that we live, not something special, it´s what we do!
Everybody who stayed at wombat’s Vienna the Lounge shortly before Christmas will remember the little musical interlude at breakfast. At that time we had a very special guest: the children’s choir Dia.logos from Sibiu, Romania. During their concert tour in Upper Austria and Vienna they spent one night with us and surprised us with a little Romanian Christmas song in the morning. What a nice gesture, that sweetened the morning for the guests and the staff!
The children’s choir Dia.logos is from the Transylvanian city Sibiu, which is one of the most important cultural centres of Romania and was designated the European Capital of Culture for the year 2007. Dia.logos was founded 3 years ago by the priest Alexandru Ionită who supports projects for disadvantaged children living in great poverty on the outskirts of Sibiu. One of the projects he supports is the “Caravana Gypsy Jazz” Ensemble, consisting of seven ambitious musicians. At the same time the Caravana Gypsy Jazz is an education project that offers a perspective to young people from disadvantaged families, offering them music lessons by the members of the ensemble. The initiator of this project is Emanuel Mario Bebe from Bucharest, who also grew up in a children’s home and calls it his “soul project”.
With the help of wombat’s and that of many others, the children’s choir Dia.logos was able to realize this trip. The voluntary donations collected at the three benefit concerts can now be used mainly for the educational project of Alexandru Ionită, for disadvantaged children living in great poverty on the outskirts of Sibiu. The high sum of 1.000.- Euro will go into the music project with the group Caravana Gypsy Jazz.
As Teresa Leonhard, another supporter of the project said, it is beautiful to see how music is is able to build bridges. We are very happy being part of this great project and would love to welcome them again!
The #WombatsTraveller challenge for upcoming influencers
Here’s how it works
Three talented content creators are taking the #wombatsTraveller challenge and join experienced travel influencers from iAmbassador for a 4-day trip to two wombat’s destinations (Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, London and Munich) in June. Together, they will create content and share their travel experiences via their blogs and social media. The experienced bloggers will be there to mentor and provide tips on content creation, building an audience and social media marketing.
Based on their performance, a jury will then decide who will be the #wombatstraveller in 2019. The main factors which the jury will focus on include the style/quality of the content, diversity of media used and level of engagement.
Here are the teams, that are competing in the challenge:
By travellers for travellers is the credo of wombat’s hostels. Everyone at wombat’s shares the passion for travel. The same passion that is required to make traveling your profession and become an influencer. We’re celebrating our 20th birthday with the grand opening of wombat’s VENICE Mestre next year. Therefore we’ll have special events in Berlin, Budapest, London, Munich and Vienna throughout our anniversary. To honor this anniversary we decided to run a special challenge: the #wombatsTraveller 2019!
We give one young travel blogger chance to take your blog and/or social media presence to the next level on the basis of a paid internship as a brand ambassador for wombat’s between April and September 2019.
We love working with influencers and over the years we have learned a lot about the efforts and skills that stand behind a successful influencer. We are extremely happy to partner up with iAmbassador for this project. It’s great to have them on board and rely on the expertise of a huge travel blogger network and many years of experience in the field.
Well, if you’re a fan of the genre, you may answer this question with a simple, “what can you not expect in hostels?”, right? If you’ve visited enough hostels, you’re likely not easily surprised by anything. Still, most people don’t connect hostels to models or fashion. Reason enough for us to be proud of one of our longest lasting, continuous collaborations. For the seventh year now, we are an official model accommodation for the MQ Vienna Fashion Week.
What’s your favourite travel outfit?
The MQ Vienna Fashion Week and wombat’s CITY Hostels will take you to the fashion shows if you can answer this question with a photo or a video.
We gave away two MQVFW17 Special Guest Tickets, with access to the VIP Area including free accommodation at wombat’s CITY HOSTELS The Lounge and travel costs. In addition we rewarded two local contributions with a Day Pass for two and 1st row reservations at the MQVFW17.
Meet Mariana, our winner and a real connoisseur of hostel and travel fashion:
Our local runner-ups, Leandra and Denise also enjoyed their visit to MQVFW17:
We proudly announce the addition of a new wombat’s CITY Hostel to accompany our existing one in Munich.
As a privately owned company, we focus on projects that really suit us, projects that allow us to grow with them and excite us. Lately we’re getting more ambitious when it comes to expansion. Therefore we are very excited about this new hostel being part of a big development project just behind Ostbahnhof.
The whole new district is called Werksviertel. It is going to be a new cultural and lifestyle hub for Munich. It includes projects such as a new concert hall, various clubs and a climbing site.
Werksviertel has a lively history. It was once home to traditional companies such as, Optimol, Konen, Zündapp and Pfanni. On these grounds potato dumplings were produced, motorbikes put together, lubricants refined and clothing tailored.
The area of the Pfanni factory from above.
These days the factories at the Ostbahnhof are no longer in use. Nevertheless, the area has retained its busy, industrial factory vibe. Developers and architects want to keep the special feel by creating a dramatic contrast between the historic structures and the modern buildings. Located just next to the public transport hub Ostbahnhof, the new urban district will also be superbly connected.
The white part of WERK 4 will be home to our new Hostel.
“The project area is being treated not as a blank canvas, but as a process. With the arrival of the new, the old must also be preserved. The upgrading of the area is characterised by quality and pragmatism. At the same time, the east of Munich will experience a new injection of dynamism and modernity,” stresses the brand ‘Werksviertel’ on their website.
Another goal of the project is to fit together some of life’s most important aspects: home, leisure, work and travel. Around 1,200 new homes are planned for 3,000 citizens. Long-term plans see the creation of up to 7,000 new jobs.
The grounds of the former Pfanni factory, now owned by OTEC GmbH & Co.KG form the epicenter of the project. After Pfanni closed the factory in 1996, the area was home to projects such as ‘Kunstpark Ost’ and ‘Kultfabrik’ until the end of 2015. Besides the flagship project, a new concert hall, plans for this area include the new wombat’s CITY Hostel, several restaurants, entertainment venues and event locations.
Werner Eckart, Proprietor and Managing Director of OTEC GmbH & Co.KG says, “with the Werksviertel development, we are drawing on the history of the site. This will create a distinctive district with a strong character.”
Sascha Dimitriewicz, CEO and founder of wombat’s signing the contract with Werner Eckert, Proprietor and Managing Director OTEC
Located directly in the heart of the Werksviertel, we will open our hostel with 500 beds in 2020. It will form part of the tallest building called WERK 4.
The architects of Steidle Architekten plan WERK 4 to be somewhat of a landmark.
Our new hostel will share this space with a serviced appartements provider and a climbing site. If you are a climbing enthusiast, you will find the climbing site with 900 sqm boulder facilities and 1200 sqm of climbing space in- and outdoors just next door.
Steidle Architekten mention on their website, “the current activities and uses are to be gradually cultivated, condensed and updated, while new developments are being launched in parallel.”
The new wombat’s will feature all the amenities common to our standard with the highlights of a womBar, that is open to the public and open air common areas.
The center of Werksviertel, with WERK4 just in the middle.
