Quinn Cox is the co-founder and CEO of Giving Bag, a social-enterprise conceived in 2013 during his time at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Giving Bag was honored with the 2025 Travel + Leisure Global Vision Award for Sustainability. In addition to Giving Bag, Quinn also founded Impact Hotels, a global community dedicated to sharing best practices in sustainability and social responsibility.
Q. The concept for a Giving Bag started in 2013, when you were still a college student and noticed that many unwanted items were being left behind in hotels. Can you take us back to that moment when the idea first hit you?
The idea came to Lilia Karimi, my cofounder and wife, after attending a conference in Las Vegas while we were still students at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. She received a lot of giveaways, shirts, and items she could not take home with her but had a useful life for someone else. She could have just left them in the hotel room, but we knew the reality: anything left behind would likely end up in the hotel’s lost and found, logged and stored for months, even when there was clearly no intention to reclaim it. After that, it goes to the landfill.
It just didn’t sit right. It was a waste of perfectly usable items, a burden on hotel staff, and a missed opportunity to do something good. That was the moment the concept for Giving Bag was born.
We imagined a simple solution, something elegant, easy, and embedded into the guest experience, that would allow travelers to give back effortlessly. What started as a side idea quickly turned into a broader vision for how travel, sustainability, and social impact could come together in a single gesture.
Q. Was there someone in your life who influenced your passion for sustainability or making a difference?
Lilia and I both worked at eco-lodges in Costa Rica and Nicaragua through Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality when we were in school, and it was a crash course in how sustainability and community impact can be a seamless, enriching part of a guest’s stay.
It wasn’t just about energy-saving bulbs or compost bins, it was about creating meaningful connections between travelers, local people, and place. Everything was intentional, from sourcing ingredients locally to making sure staff had opportunities for growth, bring ideas, and contribute meaningfully.
That experience shaped our perspective deeply. We saw firsthand how sustainability isn’t just a behind-the-scenes effort, it can be a defining part of the hospitality experience when done thoughtfully.
It showed us that doing good doesn’t have to be transactional or performative; it can actually elevate the guest journey. That mindset carried into Giving Bag: our goal has always been to make giving back feel natural, easy, and integrated. Not something extra but something essential.
Q. Giving Bag could potentially source donations from many places, why did you decide to focus specifically on hotels?
Hotels are uniquely positioned at the intersection of travel, sustainability, and community. People often leave things behind, sometimes intentionally, sometimes accidentally, but the process for handling those items hasn’t evolved in decades.
We saw a huge opportunity to make hotels part of a new kind of circular economy. They are places of transition, but also connection. By giving guests a simple way to donate gently used items right from their room, hotels can create moments of purpose and reduce waste all at once.
Our background was in the hotel industry so that was a natural place to start. We are working on pilots with residential buildings, and would also like to expand into cruises, airlines, and more.
Q. Giving Bag partners with prominent hotels like the Four Seasons in Atlanta and Houston. When you first introduced the concept, what was their initial reaction, and how do you make sure the program reflects and supports their luxury brand image?
Brands like the Four Seasons, Alila, and Oetker Hotels are incredibly intentional about every guest touchpoint. What encouraged us was how open many of these teams were to innovation, especially if it was rooted in hospitality and service.
We have designed Giving Bag to feel like a natural part of the guest experience, elegant, easy, and aligned with a brand’s values. We also handle the backend logistics and reporting, so hotels can offer the program without straining their operations.
Throughout the last decade, every brand and independent hotel we have talked to has been excited about the opportunity. Each property is very different, so we are constantly adjusting the logistics. But we are always willing to be creative to make it worthwhile for both the hotels and the communities.
Q. Charity needs can vary a lot between the US and overseas, are there specific items you would encourage guests to donate in different countries?
Absolutely. We try our best to understand what is most needed. In some places, warm clothing or shoes are a priority; in others, it might be books or business attire.
We always encourage guests to donate gently used clothing and accessories, but we also tailor our collection and communication based on location.
At some properties, we also work with multiple charity partners. Our aim is to make sure that what is donated is truly helpful, not just “offloaded.”
We have also begun doing employee donation pickups. Some guests even bring items intentionally to leave in a Giving Bag when the hotel lets them know it will be in their room before they arrive.
Q. How have the donations from those hotels made a difference in their local communities, could you share some stories as examples?
We partner with orphanages, community relief organizations, women’s shelters, and many more.
We have been incredibly grateful to the hotels and guests we work with who donate items and have given Giving Bag the legs to spread around the world. With the Four Seasons Atlanta, one of our recent donation runs included 198 items that were used by a local homeless shelter.
In Kyoto, a hotel partner of ours, Shinsho-an, donates proceeds from the donated items to local community organizations.
Q. Besides Giving Bag, what other ways of making tourism more sustainable would you like to explore down the road?
Definitely. We launched Impact Hotels last year to help connect travelers with impact and community driven brands around the world.
Currently, we have a curated list of over 350 impact driven, sustainable hotels. We will be expanding this to other brands in the next 6-12 months.
I am also especially interested in how we can support local economies more thoughtfully, through better sourcing of amenities, smarter supply chains, and partnerships that prioritize local artisans and makers.
Giving Bag is just one piece of the puzzle. There is so much opportunity to reimagine what sustainability in travel really looks like, from how we furnish hotel rooms to how we measure the value of a guest’s stay beyond the dollar amount.
Q. Are there any other interesting facts about Giving Bag that people might not know, and what message would you like to share with our readers?
People are often surprised to learn how global our reach has become. We have worked with hotels in over 15 countries, and yet, the core idea has never changed. It is about creating simple moments of giving that leave a lasting positive imprint on the guest, the hotel, and the local community.
Winning the Travel + Leisure Global Vision Award in 2025 was a powerful affirmation of that mission. If there is one thing I’d want readers to take away, it is that meaningful change doesn’t always have to be complicated.
Sometimes, it starts with a bag in a room, and the willingness to leave something behind, for someone else to pick up.
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