The first skill you learn as a start-up entrepreneur is how to work backwards from the impossible. Imagine a world in which the problem you see doesn't exist and either design a way to fix it or design a solution that works around it well enough for it to not really matter anymore.

We never believed that getting unpaid carers a break was a problem that couldn't be solved. Our 'fix' of matching carers to the excess capacity that's a fact of life for the hospitality industry has always worked on paper. We had to build a few extra arms to our service to navigate against some of the challenges carers face in proving their status and getting access to support but nothing in the service design of those products is anything more than common sense put to good use. It didn't take innovation to crack the nut, just a plug-and-play approach carried into action by lots of automated processes.

Opening up the potential hospitality supply has been a different story though, and one no small charity could take on alone. Digital transformation in the industry has long been stifled by Online Travel Agency distribution wars, heritage property management systems, and poor opportunities to openly connect inventory information with other platforms outside of working with expensive channel managers. For even just one hotel to be able to click a few buttons to release their excess capacity to be booked by carers in real-time, someone was going to have to design a digital solution that could work around the problems.

Thankfully for us, that's the baton that the tech maestros behind Impala (https://impala.travel/) have taken up, with some awesome results.

Following this test run, our booking platform will soon be powered by Impala's global distribution API so that hotel partners can receive a quick and easy request to release vacant rooms to us for live booking by carers on the Carefree Platform. No hassle for either side, just generosity made easy.

As frontline organisations, it's important to recognise that the harrowing stats on what carers have faced through the pandemic aren't immutable and that together we're well on our way to designing a new, better future for carers. One where taking a break isn't just a distant prospect but a genuine option made possible by an industry that chooses to care for the carers among us.

If you'd like to sign-up your CSO to become a Carefree Community Partner, email us on: hello@carefreespace.org.💙