Hosts & charter operators
Kwetu means “home.” Share yours.
Kwetu is the home-grown marketplace for villas, cottages, fishing boats, and sunset cruises on the Kenyan coast — a place for hosts and travellers to call theirs. Lower fees than Airbnb and Booking.com, direct relationships with your guests, and real support from people who live here too.
7.5%
Free
24 hrs
M-Pesa
Why host with us
Built for the Kenyan coast, run by people who live here. Lower fees and tools that actually work for Kenyan hosts.
Migrate in under two minutes
Paste any URL — Airbnb, Booking.com, FishingBooker, or your own website — and our AI imports the whole listing.
Half the commission of Airbnb
Flat 7.5% host commission — no listing fee, no guest service fee. On the same booking you keep roughly 8–10% more than on Airbnb or Booking.com.
Your own relationship manager
A real person at Kwetu who knows your listings, picks up the phone, and helps you grow — not a ticket queue.
Built for the Kenyan coast
Tide-aware charters, seasonal marlin runs, dhow sunset sails — the platform knows the rhythms of the Kenyan coast.
Simple pricing
One flat commission. No monthly fees.
We charge a flat 7.5% commission on each confirmed booking — roughly half what Airbnb or Booking.com take. No listing fee, no monthly cost, no guest-side service fee, no 30-day payout wait.
Commission only
7.5% per booking
Paid only when a guest books. No monthly fee, no setup cost, no minimum.
How it compares
- Kwetu
- 7.5% total
- Airbnb (host + guest)
- ≈ 14–16%
- Booking.com (host only)
- ≈ 15–18%
- FishingBooker
- ≈ 20%
On a KES 100,000 stay you keep KES 92,500 with us vs roughly KES 84,000–86,000 on Airbnb or Booking.com — worth ~KES 8,000 more per stay, every stay.
- Flat 7.5% commission — no listing or monthly fees
- No guest-side service fee — helps conversion
- Payouts the day after check-in via M-Pesa or bank
- Cancel or unlist any time — no minimum commitment
Run your numbers
See what you’d earn on Kwetu
Punch in a rough price and how often you book. We’ll show the annual take on Kwetu vs. the platforms that take more.
Annual net to you
KES 1,332,000
after Kwetu’s 7.5% commission
Extra vs Airbnb / yr
KES 108,000
Extra vs Booking.com / yr
KES 136,800
Rival commissions use blended host-side averages (Airbnb ~15%); your exact rate on other platforms may vary. Gross assumes the same booking on either side — Airbnb and Booking.com’s guest-side fees typically depress what the guest will pay, so real-world savings on Kwetu tend to be larger than the chart suggests.
Flexi pricing: rescue last-minute nights without lifting a finger
Empty nights earn nothing. Turn on flexi pricing and Kwetu will automatically discount an unbooked night as check-in approaches — gently at first, more the closer it gets — until a guest grabs it. Set the rules once; we handle the rest.
You pick the window
Choose how many days out the discount starts — e.g. 10 days before check-in. Outside that window, guests pay your full rate.
You pick the floor
Set the lowest you’ll ever go — e.g. 80% of your normal price. The discount ramps smoothly from full price down to that floor.
You pick the notice
Some hosts accept same-day bookings; others need a day or two to prepare. Set your minimum booking notice per property — we won’t accept bookings inside that window.
Guests see a Last-minute badge on your card and can filter search results to your discounted dates — so the right traveller finds you at the right moment.
Set your flexi defaultsHow a KES 10,000 night ramps down
Example: 10-day window, 80% floor, 1 day minimum notice.
- 10+ days outKES 10,000Full price
- 7 days outKES 9,333-7%
- 4 days outKES 8,667-13%
- 2 days outKES 8,000-20% floor
- Day of check-inNot bookablePast your notice
Paste a URL — we do the rest
Already listed on Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, FishingBooker, or your own website? Drop in the link and our AI reads the page, pulls every detail and photo, and lets you approve each field before it’s saved.
The AI saves a draft — nothing publishes without your say-so.
Import an existing listingHow it works
Most hosts go from URL to live listing in a single afternoon.
01
Paste a URL — we do the rest
Drop in any listing link. Our AI reads the page, pulls every detail and photo, and lets you approve each field before it's saved.
02
We verify ownership
A quick human check confirms you own or manage the listing. Most hosts are approved within 24 hours.
03
Set your price and calendar
Choose nightly or trip pricing, add seasonal rates, and sync your existing Airbnb or Booking.com calendar so dates stay in step.
04
Welcome your first guest
Bookings come in, guests pay securely, and your payout lands in M-Pesa or your bank the day after check-in.
What you get
Calendar sync & availability
Two-way iCal sync keeps Airbnb, Booking.com and Kwetu in step. Block dates once, applied everywhere.
Direct guest messaging
Chat with guests before and after booking. Full name, email and phone from the start.
Multi-listing dashboard
Manage villas, cottages, boats and charters from one place. Per-listing pricing, per-listing calendar, one unified dashboard.
Next-day payouts
Payouts the day after check-in via M-Pesa, KES bank transfer or international wire. Not 30 days later.
Secure guest payments
Guests pay by card, M-Pesa or bank transfer. We handle disputes, refunds and chargebacks so you don't have to.
Real coast support
WhatsApp a human on the coast — not a chatbot in another continent. We answer evenings and weekends.
Never double-book
Two-way calendar sync, on every listing
Every listing gets its own iCal feed. Paste ours into Airbnb, Booking.com or Google Calendar and bookings on Kwetu instantly block those dates everywhere else. Paste their feed into us and reservations you already have elsewhere block the same dates here — refreshed automatically every morning, and on demand whenever you want.
Airbnb
iCal export link
Booking.com
iCal export link
Google Calendar
Secret iCal address
Works with anything that speaks iCal — Vrbo, FishingBooker, Hostaway, your own website, even a shared team calendar.
How the sync actually works
- 1Outbound is instant. A booking lands on Kwetu and your export feed updates on the next request. Airbnb and Booking.com poll every few hours and block the dates on their side automatically.
- 2Inbound is scheduled. We re-fetch every connected external feed once a day and block any new reservations in your Kwetu calendar automatically. For same-day peace of mind, hit “Sync Now” on a listing and the refresh happens in seconds.
- 3You stay in control. Manually block a maintenance week, owner stay or seasonal closure from the dashboard — those blocks propagate out through the same feed, so every platform sees the same availability.
- 4Errors surface, not silence. If a remote feed stops responding (expired link, revoked access) we flag the listing on your dashboard so you can fix it before it matters.
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost to list?+
Listing is completely free. There is no sign-up charge, no monthly fee, and no cost to import. You only pay when a guest confirms a booking — a flat 7.5% commission on the booking total.
How does the 7.5% commission work?+
When a guest books and pays, we deduct 7.5% from the booking total and pay out the remaining 92.5% to you. There's no separate guest-side service fee, which is part of why guests book more readily on us than on commission-heavy platforms.
How does the AI import actually work?+
Paste the URL of your existing listing — Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, FishingBooker, Google Sites, Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, anything. Our AI fetches the page, reads the content, and generates a draft listing with description, amenities, pricing hints, location, and all the photos.
What if the AI gets something wrong?+
The AI saves as a draft — it doesn't publish anything automatically. After the import, you land on the edit page for each listing where you can fix the name, description, tick the right amenities, pin your exact location on the map, upload extra photos, set pricing, and add trip packages or house rules.
How does this compare to Airbnb or Booking.com?+
Airbnb's blended take is typically 14–16% split between host and guest; Booking.com commonly charges 15–18% to the host. We charge a flat 7.5% — roughly half — with no guest-side service fee. On a KES 100,000 stay that's about KES 8,000 more in your pocket than on Airbnb or Booking.com.
Do I have to be exclusive?+
No. Keep your Airbnb, Booking.com or FishingBooker listing as long as you want — calendar sync keeps everything in one place.
What is flexi pricing and how much control do I have?+
Flexi pricing automatically discounts nights that are still empty as check-in approaches. You stay in full control — set how many days out the discount starts (your "window"), the lowest you'll ever go (your "floor", as a percentage of your normal price), and how much notice you need before a booking (0 for same-day, 1+ days if you need prep time). Rules can be set account-wide as defaults and overridden per property. Guests see a "Last-minute" badge on qualifying listings and can filter search results by them. Turn it off any time from Dashboard → Flexi pricing.
Once I link my Airbnb or Booking.com calendar, does it stay in sync on its own?+
Yes. After you connect an iCal feed on a listing, we re-fetch it automatically once a day and block any new dates without you doing anything. Bookings made on Kwetu push out through your export feed the moment they're confirmed, and Airbnb / Booking.com poll that feed on their own cadence (typically every couple of hours). If a feed breaks, the listing shows a sync error on your dashboard so you can fix it. For same-day certainty before a busy weekend, hit "Sync Now" on a listing to force an immediate refresh in seconds.
Who are the guests?+
A mix of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kilifi weekenders, East African expats, European beach-and-safari travellers, and sport-fishing tourists.
What properties or boats can I list?+
Villas, apartments, cottages, bandas, bungalows, penthouses, guest houses, sport-fishing boats, dhows, catamarans, sunset cruise boats, diving boats — if it's on or near the Kenyan coast and you own or legally manage it, you can list it.
How do I get paid?+
M-Pesa, Kenyan bank transfer (KES), or international wire (USD/EUR). Payouts are released the day after check-in — not 30 days later like some platforms.
Is there a minimum commitment?+
None. Pause, unlist or delete your listing any time from your dashboard. You're in control.
Your coast. Your guests. Your listing, your way.
Set up takes ten minutes. Your first booking could be by the weekend. Join the hosts already earning more and working less.