The growth of AirBnB in Kenya has created opportunities to make money online in Kenya for both those who have extra room to rent out as well as those who do not.
In today’s article, I share with you 10 AirBnB-related businesses that you can start in Kenya even if you don’t own property.
You can then market yourself through various channels including directly contacting AirBnB hosts of properties you know of, through Facebook ads, Instagram, AirBnB Whatsapp forums in Kenya, word of mouth,
So without much further ado:
What's Covered in This Article
Rent out a property at and convert it to an AirBnB
This is probably the most obvious one. In areas such as Imara Daima, Embakasi, and Syokimau in Nairobi you can find a 2 bedroom apartment for as little as 25K and a stand-alone townhouse in a gated community for like 50K.
With a 50% occupancy rate, If you charged just 7K per night, you net 80K after paying off the rent.
And your target market here will mostly be international travelers with either early morning or late night flights.
Use the AirBnB platform to host AirBnB experiences in Kenya
Essentially, this entails leveraging your local knowledge to offer cultutours and/or activities that you enjoy and are passionate about, and which an AirBnB guest would least likely be able to access or find on their own.
By hosting an AirBnB experience, you not only get to earn some extra cash, but also meet people from all over the world.
To offer an AirBnB experience, you will need to submit your approval request via the platform and expect feedback in about 2 weeks.
Rent out a property and rent it out as a video shooting location
In addition to renting out property and listing them as AirBnB, you could consider rent it out as an entertainment shooting or video shooting location.
This would particularly apply to larger properties and/or properties in their own compounds.
Your target customers would be bloggers, music/choir groups, TV stations, etc.
AirBnB guest single – use bath supplies, amenities & toiletries supplier
The advantage of single use items is that they give guest the impression that the place has been specially prepared for them; as opposed to using the same large jar of shampoo or body wash that was used by the last 13 guests.
As a vacation short – term rental property bathroom amenities and toiletries supplier in Kenya, your main focus therefore would be on such ‘travel size’ or ‘single use’ items.
An array of short term rental AirBnB bathroom amenities and grooming kits you could provide include bar soaps, shampoos, conditioners, body lotions, shower gels, body washes, sewing kits, makeup remover wipes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, disposable razors, shaving cream, shoe shine mitts, shoe wipes, etc.
These could either be branded supplies that promote the theme and style of a given AirBnB’s logo or just stick to generic. The options are endless, really.
You can market yourself by providing AirBnB hosts who wish to try out your products with a sample kit.
Start a professional pest control company targeting AirBnBs
The last thing an AirBnB property owner wants to be dealing with is non-paying guests such as bedbugs, cockroaches, fruit flies, ants, and everything in between. And that’s where you come in.
Offer marketing, branding & copywriting for Vacation Rental Businesses AirBnB copywriter in Kenya
If you a writer with an eye for creating engaging content that appeals to guests’ emotions, then you could make money as a copywriter for AirBnBs in Kenya.
Basically what you’ll be doing is either crafting new listing descriptions for short term rental properties /AirBnBs or re-working existing Airbnb listing descriptions.
You can also write AirBnB experience descriptions, as well as create different templates for hosts such as: Airbnb guest review template, message response templates, e-mail templates, etc.
To be able to produce copy that is that’s convincing and true to of a property’s identity and surrounding area, you could go the extra mile (at an extra fee)by physically visiting and experiencing the properties to get a real feel of things and angles that the AirBnb host may have not even thought about.
A great place to start is listing your services on Fiverr – a small gig listing site with a section specifically dedicated to AirBnB-related gigs.
Make sure to have a portfolio of your past work – specifically for property – to show to potential guests. You can also offer to write free copy for a few hosts in exchange for a review.
Provide internet services to vacation rentals in your area
Who said that only Zuku, Faiba, Safaricom and Airtel should provide you with WiFi.
Website development services targeting AirBnBs
Help AirBnB / short term rental property owners in Kenya set up websites for their properties. You could also expand your services to include social media management of vacation rentals.
AirBnB set up consultancy service
This works best especially if you have experience running your own AirBnB business in Kenya hence have gathered a wealth of experience that you can share with your clients.
As a vacation rental property consultant or AirBnB business consultant in Kenya, there are numerous services you can provide such as: interior design, helping potential hosts in deciding what AirBnB market niche to focus on, etc.
You can go a step further by registering and setting up an AirBnB property on Booking.com
Marketing Company specializing in print materials
Your main focus here would be the the development, design and production of print marketing and branding materials for AirBnBs in Kenya
In our super digital world, it’s very easy for hosts to forget the value of print.
A range of materials you can offer your hosts include things as simple as referral cards for rewarding referrers, custom printed maps, vacation rental souvenir stickers/decals/labels with illustrations of local monuments such as KICC, Nairobi National Park, Nairobi skyline at night, etc. that guests can stick on their water bottles, laptops, brochures, business cards with contact information and social media handles, printed newsletters
Start an AirBnB property management company in Kenya.
Here, you’d basically be sweating the details of keeping your clients’ properties booked.
Services you can offer include cleaning, responding to guest inquiries and questions, guest check in, property calendar management, shopping for supplies, making beds, pressing linen, topping up prepaid electricity, guests meet and greet, and many other day to day operations.
In the past, the AirBnB platform for instance used to have co-hosting as an add-on for listing your property on the platform. But not any more.
This has created an opportunity gap for both especially among those hosts without the luxury of time, and/or experience.
You could take a bundled approach where you offer full-on services or an a-la-cart approach where you just provide bits and pieces of services.
Offer AirBnB photography services
In the early days, AirBnB used to offer free professional photography services for AirBnBs in Nairobi. I am not sure if they still offer this service.
But assuming that they still do, hosts listing their properties on other sites such as Booking.com will still need to have high quality photos for their listing.
So you can choose to photograph properties or focus on editing and retouching hosts’ existing property photos.
Well, those are the few businesses I could put together. Have you tried any of them? What was your experience like?
Share with us your thoughts in the comments below.
