Airbnb Rentals Boom In Zimbabwe

In the last year, homeowners in Zimbabwe have been listing parts of their house or the whole house on the app-based hospitality booking service Airbnb. Airbnb is an online marketplace and hospitality service, enabling people to lease or rent short-term lodging including vacation rentals, apartment rentals, homestays, hostel beds, or hotel rooms. The company does not own any lodging; it is merely a broker and receives percentage service fees (commissions) from both guests and hosts in conjunction with every booking.

In Zimbabwe, the company has been seeing an increase rental business, with rentals starting from as low as $15 per night to $120. Airbnb now has over 3,000,000 lodging listings in 65,000 cities and 191 countries, and the cost of lodging is set by the host.

A report on the global economic impact of Airbnb was released by the global tech company this week. It shows Africa now has over 100 000 listings across the continent, concentrated mainly in South Africa, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria. The app-based hospitality booking service Airbnb has made nearly $140 million in profit in the last year in Africa alone.

The company, founded in San Francisco in 2008, is a community marketplace for people to list, discover and book unique accommodation around the world using the Web or a mobile phone. The accommodation ranges from a shared arrangement to a room within a house (while hosts are present), to renting a whole house (with no hosts present).

Airbnb on Tuesday announced that it will invest $1-million through 2020 to promote and support community-led tourism projects in Africa.

Areas which the highest number of Listing in Zimbabwe are Victoria Falls, Bulawayo, Kariba, and Harare.

The typical host in Africa earns $1 500 (R20 000) by sharing their home for 18 nights a year.

The average age of hosts in Africa is 43 and the host community is evenly split at 51% women and 49% men.