In the UK’s National Year of Reading, Airbnb will partner with arts charity Hay Festival to launch Room to Write – a new writing award.
Rooted in Hay Festival’s commitment to nurturing contemporary writing and Airbnb’s mission to enable meaningful travel and connection, Room to Write champions creativity and the importance of place and space in storytelling.
Developed with Hay Festival to support writers at a critical stage in their career, the Room to Write award recognises that time, space, and a change of environment are essential to fuel creativity and often inaccessible due to financial or personal constraints.
Open to UK-based writers, the award offers eight recipients an Airbnb coupon worth £1,500, enabling them to stay in a UK location of their choosing to support focused writing.
Applications for the award are open now here, closing Sunday 31 May. See the website for detailed full terms and conditions.
An accompanying digital content series, recorded at the Festival’s flagship UK edition, 21–31 May, will feature established writers sharing their top writing tips and reflections on the role of place in storytelling, to engage a wider audience in creative inspiration.
Hay Festival Global CEO Julie Finch said:
“As a charity, Hay Festival works to create opportunities of cultural exchange and offer artists the chance to develop their career and engage with new audiences. Enabled through this exciting new partnership with Airbnb, Room to Write will widen access to creative inspiration with an exciting new award and corresponding digital campaign.”
Lisa Marçais, General Manager Airbnb Northern Europe and Middle East said:
“We’re proud to be supporting writers with the space and freedom to bring their ideas to life on Airbnb. Unlocking creativity isn’t an exact science but we know that time, space, and a change of environment are critical elements in helping creatives produce their best work. Where you stay matters, and the choice of beautiful and bespoke homes on Airbnb could just be the creative retreat that's needed for people to find the room to write.”
Hay Festival 2026 takes place 21–31 May in the world’s first booktown, Hay-on-Wye in Wales. Launching the best new fiction and non-fiction, it offers insights and conversation around big global issues along with a diverse programme of entertainment.
Discover the full programme online now at hayfestival.org/hay-on-wye.