Over the last few years, Kenyans have embraced a new trend involving renting holiday homes via various platforms such as Airbnb.
The affordable rates have seen such platforms eat into the market share of contemporary hotels.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, a holiday homeowner based in Nanyuki, Annabelle Njeri, detailed the machinations behind this new and affordable holiday trend.
"I charge Ksh3,500 for a 2 bedroom house in Nanyuki. Compared to local hotels where a room goes for an average of Ksh 5,000 as this is a major tourist destination, clients prefer the live-in home model,
"They then use their day time to visit any of the parks and sites available before retiring to their holiday homes," she explained.
At the Kenyan Coast, the situation is pretty similar. A 2 bedroom house with a swimming pool located next to the beach in Watamu currently goes for Ksh 4,500 a night.
A quick search of hotel rates in the same area shows a huge difference in pricing with the top hotels along the famous Watamu beach charging an average of Ksh 9,000 per night for a single room.
The effects of Airbnb on Kenya's hotel industry have been debated without a clear answer as to whether its effects on the hotel industry are complementary or substitutive.
The live-in holiday homes have allowed Kenyans to afford the economic opportunity of monetizing a spare room or house by renting it out to tourists and giving them a home-away-from-home experience.
In 2018, Airbnb took more than half a billion from the traditional tourism earners and put them in individuals’ pockets.
Airbnb has attracted travelers in need of adventure, an escape without the traditional norms of tourism, which happens to be a huge percentage of tourists and especially millennials.
Privacy has also been highlighted as a key reason why Kenyans are now opting to pay for a holiday home as opposed to a hotel room.
Research shows that the number one reason why respondents are using Airbnb still relates to price (53 percent), followed by location (35 percent), authentic experience (33 percent), and “easy to use site/app” (28 percent).
Users also appear to be using Airbnb for longer stays as opposed to one-night stays.
