24 October 2026 · Amsterdam
Happy
birthday,
Charlie.
For the Edinburgh lad who started on building sites at sixteen and went on to build 21 places across Europe where strangers become neighbours.
ROOM
24·10
GUEST: C. MACGREGOR
STAY: ANOTHER YEAR
The short version
Charlie MacGregor is a Scottish entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of The Social Hub (formerly The Student Hotel) and a co-founder of the refugee NGO Movement on the Ground.
He grew up in Edinburgh, skipped university, and learned property from the ground up. Then he moved to the Netherlands, looked at how badly students were housed, and decided they deserved better. Along the way he accidentally reinvented the hotel.
“Charlie MacGregor, Scottish, and a father of four.”
The story so far
From Edinburgh to 19 cities
Early 1980s
It runs in the family
His father builds some of the UK's first purpose-built student housing, for the University of Edinburgh, and grows it into a nationwide business. Young Charlie gets a front-row seat.
Age 16
Boots on site
No university. Charlie starts out on building sites and learns the trade by doing it.
Age 25
First company of his own
After his father retires, he buys what remains of the family development company. He sells it ten years later.
2003
Hello, Amsterdam
After a spell in London, he moves to the Netherlands, and sees how little care goes into housing students.
2006
The Student Hotel is born
Dutch planning rules make student housing a maze. His team's workaround: run it as a hotel. Students, travellers and locals under one roof turns out to be the idea, not the loophole. He builds it right through the financial crisis.
2012
First hotel opens
The brand opens in Rotterdam. Two years later it wins the Worldwide Hospitality Awards' prize for innovation.
2015
Lesvos
Watching boats of refugees land on the Greek island changes him. With four co-founders he starts Movement on the Ground, turning camps into "campuses" and visiting several times a year.
2017
The Movement Hotel
His idea: a pop-up hotel run by asylum seekers in Amsterdam's former Bijlmerbajes prison, with profits training more newcomers.
2022
The Social Hub
The Student Hotel becomes The Social Hub, because its community had long outgrown the name. GIC and APG invest at a valuation of €2.1 billion.
April 2024
Coming home
The first UK hub opens in Glasgow's Merchant City: about 500 rooms and 200 coworking spaces. He calls it his proudest career moment. In 2025 it wins Scottish Property of the Year for commercial buildings.
2024
Doing it properly
B Corp certification, and the TSH Talent Foundation, funded with 1% of global revenue for scholarships and the Better Society Academy.
2025
Rome, Florence, Porto
A 1920s railway customs house in Rome's San Lorenzo, a second Florence hub in San Jacopino, and a Portuguese debut in Porto, plus two public parks given back to their neighbourhoods.
What he's built
The Social Hub, 2026
0
Hubs open
0
Cities
0
Countries
0k+
Rooms
- Amsterdam ×2
- Delft
- Eindhoven
- Groningen
- Maastricht
- Rotterdam
- The Hague
- Bologna
- Florence ×2
- Rome
- Barcelona
- Madrid
- San Sebastián
- Paris
- Toulouse
- Berlin
- Vienna
- Porto
- Glasgow
Next on the map: Lisbon and Turin.
One roof,
everyone under it
The idea
Learn
Students from everywhere, sharing kitchens and teaching each other their national dishes.
Stay
A night, a semester or a season. Travellers, families, digital nomads.
Work
Coworking and meeting space for founders, freelancers and local businesses.
Play
Rooftops, pools, parks and hundreds of community events every month.
What comes first
Asked for his priorities, Charlie puts his family first, then the team, then Movement on the Ground. He also lists his own wellbeing, and says more professionals should do the same. Last comes bettering society, through the NGO and through buildings like Glasgow.
A few favourites
Italy is a second home, and one of his favourite places in the world. His book pick is Rutger Bregman's Humankind, because it argues for trusting people, which is how he runs the company. For a podcast, Eckhart Tolle.
He loves opening a building and spotting a bit of a city's DNA in it. And Scotland, where he says his heart is.
Many happy
returns, Charlie.
You've spent twenty years building places where people from every walk of life end up at the same table. Today the table is yours. Here's to the next hub, the next city, and many more years of bringing people together.
With love, Kim & Fie