Denis Opudo
RentHostels is a Uganda based startup that was launched in 2017. The startup helps to connect students with campus hostels. It currently boasts thousands of beds in hundreds of hostels at above 20 universities in 10 cities. This is a move that will help to relieve students who are joining campus with a burden of looking for accommodation.
According to co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Timothy Nkenu, students are required to fill out a short form from the site siting their preferences then the system will automatically connect them to the hostels that adhere to their request. Later on, hostels that match their preference are marked.
The startup plans to expand the offering to other sectors, but for now, the focus is on students. Nkenu plans to increase the number of hostels available on the platform by the middle of 2018, has already had over 200 booking requests. The fact that the platform has not received thousands of bookings is because there are only hundreds of hostels at the moment. Immediately there will be an increase in the number of hostels the number of bookings will also shoot up.
In Uganda and Kenya, currently, no service is specifically designed for students, which means that they have to search for hostels physically and it is not a guarantee that they will get hostels. In most cases, students end up not getting the hostels. RentHostels hopes to fix this problem by providing a fast, convenient and personalized service for students. The bootstrapped startup has seen organic growth so far but is working on placing online adverts and obtaining strategic marketing partners such as top student blogs. It is also developing a referral program that is in closed alpha stage at the moment.
Initially, the platform used to charge an optional fee of $5 meaning that the students can either pay for fail to. This was only meant to develop trust with the customers. Since the platform is now popular in Uganda, they are now working on the charges.
