The best way to learn to do something is to actually do it.
This is something I appreciate as I look back 3 years into this business. I love traveling and on several occasions staying in hotels with young children can be difficult because of the demands children often have. They want to feed at a time when it is not the conventional meal times and the food must be availed. In one of our escapades, and because of such experiences, we booked a furnished apartment that enabled us to cook for ourselves, when and what we wanted. It turned out to be great. I realized then that this was an opportunity to explore and this would help families that often traveled with children. 
If you travel and need to spend time together as family, furnished apartments are great. Similarly, if you hold parties and/or have extra guests than you can accommodate, you can call on us for that extra space.
Getting space: Starting out doesn’t have to be expensive. Any extra space that you do not need can easily be converted to a home stay. Many people put up houses that are way too big for their needs. Our children do not require massive space and they are also in and out of home as they go through school. By the time a child gets to high school, they will only spend only 3 to 4 months in a year in your house and this becomes less and less. I found myself with so much n utilized space and I needed to convert that space to be something meaningful and economical.
Renting vis a vis home stay (short term rentals) I started by renting out my little extra space of two guest houses. Rental income is great but renting also comes with its own disadvantages. The proceeds are small. Besides, the cost of renting out are too much including taxes, increased water and electricity bills among others. Because the stays are long term, there is misuse of the premises including cooking with charcoal and destroying the paint work and the fixtures. Besides, too much noise or partying by the tenants can be annoying. Even before setting out on doing short term stays (home stays) therefore, I had decided to stop renting out altogether for close to 6 months as it did not make economic sense.
Renovations: I had to renovate my house to make sure that the guests had their own access and that they were comfortable. Money started coming in albert slowly and within a few months the business picked up. It was exciting to say the least.The difference in terms of income generation between renting and short term rentals was huge. There was however, a lot of preparations to be done including equipping the premises with linen, cooking ware and other materials as in a home so that if a person or group of people took up the facility, they would be able to stay there just like home. Our intention was to give our guests satisfaction and comfort just like home. Other preparations included marketing and building trust so that what we could deliver what we promise.
Learning about the business: The best way to learn to do something is to actually do it. The best that I have learnt from this industry has to be from the actual execution of the business. The good thing is that I started this business in a very small scale and therefore this allowed me to know the processes and apply them into the business as it grew. I quickly learnt what worked and what did not work. I also attended several trainings on various aspects of running a business just to learn what makes a business successful. Please check out Gold avenue Africa and centonomy. I highly recommend these institutions for anyone starting out or already established in business. It makes your path exciting and less challenging. Starting a business that is not in your area of specialization, requires a very open mind to learn from scratch.
First customer: Getting customers consistently can be a challenge when starting out. However, I soon discovered that there were booking agents that you could register your facility with for an online presence and pay some little commission for every booking. If you are starting out this is a great way to let people know about your business and what you offer. These agents include booking.com, Airbnb, expedia, travel advisor and many others. Using these agents opened my business to the international community and I would receive guests from far and wide. The power of internet and digital marketing is unsurpassed
. I remember our first customer was a young man from Japan who had come to see his friends in Nairobi. He booked us through airbnb and greatly enjoyed his four day stay with us. Since then we have never looked back. Our facility is booked by guests from all over the world-the US, UK, China, India as well as the locals.
Growing customer numbers
Since then we have seen a tremendous growth in our customer base, most of them have learned about us through the digital space. We have been able to include membership for our loyal customers to reward them and also as a way to create a community people who travel from all over the world.
If you or your friends travel to Nairobi often and need a place to call home, Evergreen home stay is your home away from home. There are various benefits of being a member of Evergreen Home stay including making some money from your referrals. Interested? You can register here.
