Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Diogo Areosa: I was working in massive tourism and Rita went fro a trip in Asia doing volunteer, wen she return we spoke about her experience and we decided to start something in portugal similar with what she experienced there.
Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Impact Beach House ?
Diogo Areosa: IMPACT BEACH HOUSE is a beachfront hostel in Estoril dedicated to Climate Action, with a special focus on Ocean Conservation and Circular Economy.
The concept starts with the creation of the house. All furniture and decoration at IBH are upcycled with their own unique stories. From utilizing surplus products, repairing second-hand items, incorporating pieces with minor defects, to creating imaginative pieces, the hostel is fully equipped with items that have a new life. In our outdoor space, we have a great terrace hosting an Eco Diving School where everyone can learn to dive and clean ocean litter.
The house features 9 rooms, including female and male dormitories, and private rooms with sea views, with a maximum capacity of 56 people. It also offers common areas for socializing and dining, an outdoor terrace and a garden of over 100m2, and a tower with a 180º sea view where we organize our activities and events.
Great Companies: What makes Impact Beach House different from hundreds of other similar service providers?
Diogo Areosa: Through IBH, we aim to demonstrate how tourism can have a Positive Impact on communities. The house is open to all, whether for trying our fair trade coffee or organic ice cream, participating in clothing swaps, purchasing zero-waste kits from the social store, engaging in yoga or meditation, or joining our retreats and events.
Our dream is to inspire all travelers to join us on this sustainability journey and become
Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
Diogo Areosa: Its very important and we put a lot of effort to be aline with the team, we have to have the same goals in life to be able to be an exemple for the guests, so far so good we have an amazing team supper dedicated to impact, sometimes we have clients that does not see the needs on the same way or are not aware of some habits, for exemple recycling or simple habits of our of lights or a quick shower in order not to waste water. we have very fun reactions to our swap spot, they thing its cool but weird change clothes. All of this mini examples are very rewarding for us or our team to solve and change people for better world.
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Impact Beach House ?
Diogo Areosa: we want to offer retreats in the winter for people that want to have a more sustainable life, we are working in out of the box retreats for soon and we hope that help us to have more guests around.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Diogo Areosa: If you have an idea that you think is good and solving a problem go ahed never give up… At the beginning me and Rita had hard time for our friends and family believe on our projects, and now we are on and strong to keep growing with ideas full of Impact.