If your house is on Airbnb, with an agency, and you also take bookings from friends and returning guests, you are running three calendars. Every time one of them changes, the other two need to hear about it. Miss one update and two families arrive on the same Saturday.

The fix is a calendar link, also called an iCal or .ics link. Almost every booking platform has one, and it is free.

What a calendar link is

A calendar link is a web address that lists the nights your house is booked or blocked. Another system can read that address and copy the dates into its own calendar. Most systems re-read the link every few hours. SeaSpace reads yours every 15 minutes.

Step 1: Get your Airbnb calendar link

1. Open Airbnb on a computer and go to Listings, then choose your house.
2. Open Availability and look for Connect calendars (sometimes called Sync calendars).
3. Choose Export calendar and copy the link. It ends in .ics.
4. Keep this page open. You will paste a link back into Airbnb in Step 3.

Airbnb moves its menus around from time to time. If you can’t find the option, search Airbnb’s help centre for “sync calendars”.

Step 2: Ask your agency for its link

Many coast agencies show availability on their website using a booking widget. Most of these tools can produce a calendar link for each house, but only the agency can switch it on. Send your agency a short message:

If your agency can’t provide a link, you can still enter its bookings by hand in SeaSpace. They will show in your calendar and go out on your own link.

Step 3: Connect them in SeaSpace

1. In SeaSpace, open Connections and choose Add connection.
2. Pick Airbnb, paste the link from Step 1, and save. Do the same for your agency’s link.
3. Copy your SeaSpace link from the same screen. Paste it into Airbnb under Import calendar, and send it to your agency.

Now every booking flows both ways. A direct booking you add in SeaSpace blocks those nights on Airbnb and with your agency. An Airbnb booking appears in SeaSpace and is passed on to your agency.

What calendar links can’t do

• They are not instant. Airbnb may take a few hours to read your link. Two guests can book the same night in that gap. SeaSpace flags any clash in To do as soon as it sees it.
• They don’t carry prices. Keep your rates in each platform, and your rate card in SeaSpace.
• They can break quietly. If a platform changes or deletes a link, the dates stop flowing. SeaSpace shows each link as OK, late or failing, and tells you when Airbnb last read your link.

Questions landlords ask

If an agency lets your house, you probably get a statement every month or two. It is usually a spreadsheet or PDF with a row per booking and columns for the gross amount, commission, what’s been transferred and what’s still outstanding. It is also where small mistakes hide.

Reading the statement

Most coast agencies take a deposit when the guest books and the balance before arrival. They then pay you in batches, often covering several bookings at once. So a single transfer to your account may include the deposit for a December booking and the balance for an October one.

That is why the statement is rolling: each booking stays on it until it is fully paid.

The commission sum

Agencies registered for VAT in Kenya charge VAT on their commission, not on your whole booking. With a 20% commission and VAT at 16%, the agency keeps 23.2% of the gross. Here is a seven-night booking at KES 20,000 a night:

Your agreement with your agency sets the actual rate. Some agencies charge a higher rate when they also manage staff and maintenance.

Five checks worth doing every month

1. Dates match your calendar. A booking that moved by a night changes the total.
2. The rate matches your rate card. Watch peak weeks, which are often charged at a higher rate.
3. Extras are on it. Late check-outs, extra guests and date changes should appear as their own lines.
4. Transfers match your bank or M-Pesa. Tick each transfer against what arrived.
5. The outstanding total makes sense. It should equal net amounts due minus what you’ve received.

Bookings in US dollars

International guests often pay in dollars. Note the exchange rate the agency used, and whether the transfer to you is in dollars or shillings. Keep the two currencies separate in your records rather than converting every line yourself.

Questions landlords ask

From Lamu to Diani, the coast follows the same rhythm: busy over Christmas, warm and dry into March, quiet in the long rains, then busy again in the European summer. Kenyan school holidays and the kitesurfing winds add their own peaks.

The year at a glance

A general guide. Your town, your house and your guests will shift it a little.

• December to early January: the peak. Families from Nairobi and abroad book months ahead.
• January to March: dry and hot, with steady European guests and the northeast kaskazi wind for kitesurfers.
• Easter: a short, busy spike, often with Kenyan families.
• April to June: the long rains. Quiet, and a good time for maintenance.
• July to September: European summer holidays, Kenyan school holidays in August, and the southeast kusi wind.
• October and November: mixed, with the short rains in November.

Christmas and New Year

Many owners charge around 1.5 to 2 times their normal rate for the two weeks around Christmas. At Monkey Bay in Watamu, the normal rate is KES 20,000 a night and the Christmas rate is KES 35,000.

• Set a minimum stay, for example 7 nights, so the house isn’t broken up into short gaps.
• Ask for a bigger deposit and an earlier balance date for peak bookings.
• Keep holds short. A 48-hour hold stops a guest from blocking your best week while they decide.

The long rains

Some coast houses close in May and June. If you stay open, a lower rate and a shorter minimum stay attract residents and remote workers. Either way, it’s the best time for roof checks, painting and pool work. Log those costs, so your yearly figures are complete.

Setting your rates

Many coast houses offer a resident rate in shillings and a non-resident rate, sometimes in dollars. Whatever you choose, keep one rate card per house and give the same one to every channel, unless you agree otherwise with your agency.

Questions landlords ask

Most holiday rental software is built in Europe or the US for hosts who take nearly every booking through Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. Many houses on the Kenya coast are let differently: some nights through Airbnb, many through a local agency, and a good share to friends, returning guests and the owner’s own family. Payments arrive by M-Pesa, bank transfer and sometimes in dollars.

That doesn’t make the big tools wrong for the coast. It means you should pick the one that matches how your house is let. This guide looks at five options fairly, including our own.

What you need first

Before comparing features, answer three questions:

1. Where do your bookings come from? If it’s almost all Airbnb and Booking.com, a channel manager with direct connections matters most. If an agency brings half your guests, you need a way to track agency bookings and statements.
2. Who runs the house day to day? If a property manager or house staff handle check-ins, cleaning and spending, you want them in the same system, with sensible limits.
3. How do you get paid? Card payments through Stripe or PayPal suit international direct bookings. M-Pesa and bank transfers need a different kind of record keeping.

At a glance

Smoobu

Smoobu is a popular all-in-one system from Germany. It combines a channel manager with direct connections to Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia, a booking engine and website builder, guest messaging, a digital guest guide and online check-in, with apps for iPhone and Android. Online payments run through Stripe and PayPal.

• Strong at: keeping several online channels in step in real time, and automating guest messages.
• Think about: it’s priced and billed in euros, and its interface languages don’t include Kiswahili. Agency statements and M-Pesa payments aren’t what it was designed around.

We go into more detail in Smoobu alternatives for Kenya.

Hostaway

Hostaway is aimed at professional property managers running many units. It offers a channel manager, unified inbox, task management for cleaning and maintenance, owner statements and a large marketplace of integrations. Pricing is by quote, so expect a sales call.

• Strong at: scale, team workflows and integrations.
• Think about: it’s more system than most owners of one or two houses need.

Lodgify

Lodgify is known for its website builder: you can make a good-looking booking site for your house and take direct bookings with online payment. It also includes a channel manager and guest messaging.

• Strong at: a direct-booking website without hiring a designer.
• Think about: lower plans add a fee on each booking, so check what you’d pay at your booking volume.

Hospitable

Hospitable started as a guest-messaging tool for Airbnb hosts and still does that very well. Its free plan syncs Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and Agoda calendars with a shared inbox and scheduled messages. Paid plans add more automation and, at the higher tiers, owner statements.

• Strong at: automated guest messages and a generous free plan.
• Think about: it’s built around the big online channels, so agency and cash bookings need working around.

SeaSpace

SeaSpace is made on the Kenya coast for the way houses here are actually let. It keeps one calendar for Airbnb, your agencies, direct bookings and owner stays, and reads every connected calendar every 15 minutes.

• Strong at: agency bookings and statements (commission and VAT on commission worked out per house), deposits and holds that expire on their own, expenses with receipt photos, a property manager login with a spending limit, and a monthly owner statement as a PDF. In English, Italian and Kiswahili. SeaSpace never handles your guests’ money: they pay you directly, by M-Pesa or bank.
• Think about: SeaSpace connects to Airbnb and other channels by calendar link today, not by direct connection, so prices and guest messages stay in each platform. Guest messaging and a guest guide are still coming.

How to choose

• Almost all online bookings, several channels: Smoobu or Hospitable.
• Many units and a team: Hostaway.
• You want your own booking website first: Lodgify.
• A mix of agency, Airbnb and direct guests, paid by M-Pesa: SeaSpace.

Whatever you pick, use the free trial on a real month: add your actual bookings, a staff payment and an agency transfer, and see whether the month-end figures come out right.

Questions landlords ask

If you’ve searched for holiday rental software, you’ve probably come across Smoobu. It’s widely used in Europe, well reviewed, and covers a lot. So why look for an alternative? Usually because a coast house is let in a way Smoobu wasn’t designed around: through local agencies, to friends and returning guests, and paid by M-Pesa.

What Smoobu does well

• Real channel connections. Smoobu connects directly to Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia, so bookings and prices update across channels in real time. That is stronger than calendar links.
• Guest communication. Automated messages, a unified inbox, a digital guest guide and online check-in.
• A booking website. A website builder and booking engine with card payments through Stripe and PayPal.
• Clear pricing. From €28 a month for one unit on a yearly plan, about €9.60 for each extra unit, with a 14-day free trial (smoobu.com, checked 24 October 2026).

If nearly all your bookings come through Airbnb and Booking.com and your guests pay by card, Smoobu is a sensible choice.

Where the coast is different

• Agencies bring a big share of bookings. Agencies in Watamu, Malindi and Diani send their own statements, with commission, VAT on commission and transfers that cover several bookings at once. Checking those is a monthly job most channel managers don’t cover.
• Money moves by M-Pesa and bank transfer. Deposits, balances, staff wages and the electricity token all need recording in shillings, not just card payments.
• Someone else runs the house. A property manager buys supplies, pays the fundi and handles check-ins. You want their spending recorded with receipts, and a limit above which you approve.
• Three languages. Owners, agents and staff often work in English, Italian and Kiswahili. Smoobu’s languages don’t include Kiswahili.

Smoobu and SeaSpace side by side

Other alternatives worth a look

• Hospitable, if guest messaging on Airbnb is your main need. It has a free plan.
• Lodgify, if a direct-booking website matters most.
• Hostaway, if you manage many units with a team.

See all five compared in The best holiday rental software for Kenya coast landlords.

Questions landlords ask

Running a holiday let means doing the same small jobs again and again: copying a booking from one calendar to another, chasing a deposit, sending the gate code, adding up the month. None of it is hard, but each job forgotten costs money or a bad review. These five are worth automating first.

1. Calendar sync

The job: copying every new booking to Airbnb, your agency and your own calendar.

Automate it: connect each platform’s calendar link so booked nights flow everywhere. Check the tool tells you when a link stops working, and warns you if two bookings land on the same night.

Our step-by-step guide: How to sync your Airbnb and agency calendars.

2. Holds that expire on their own

The job: a guest asks for Christmas week, you block the dates, they never pay, and the dates sit empty.

Automate it: put a hold on the dates with a deadline, such as 48 hours to pay a 30% deposit. If the deposit doesn’t arrive, the hold lapses and the dates open again everywhere, without you remembering.

3. Payment reminders

The job: working out who owes a balance and sending each guest your M-Pesa details.

Automate it: keep a list of what is due in the next 30 days and what is overdue, and send a ready-written payment request with the amount and your Paybill or Till number. In SeaSpace that request opens in WhatsApp for you to send.

4. Guest messages

The job: sending directions, the Wi-Fi password, check-out time and a review request to every guest.

Automate it: write each message once and schedule it, for example a week before arrival, the morning of arrival, the evening before check-out, and two days after. Airbnb has scheduled messages built in, and tools like Hospitable and Smoobu do this across channels. SeaSpace guest messages are coming soon.

5. Monthly statements

The job: adding up bookings, agency payments, wages, repairs and bills at the end of the month, and checking your agency’s statement.

Automate it: record expenses as they happen (a photo of the receipt is enough), set recurring costs like wages and security once, and let the tool produce the month’s statement. In SeaSpace that’s a PDF per house, and an imported agency statement is matched line by line to your calendar.

More on agency statements: How to check your agency statement.

Questions landlords ask

Green turtles, which are endangered, nest on the beaches of Watamu and Diani, and critically endangered hawksbills live on the coast too. A green turtle lays around 110 eggs at a time, and comes ashore 3 to 7 times in a season. Local Ocean Conservation protects 150 to 250 nests a year between Watamu and the south coast. Many coast holiday homes sit right where this happens. That puts landlords in a good position to help.

Turn down the lights facing the sea

Nesting turtles avoid brightly lit beaches. Hatchlings find the sea by heading for the brightest horizon, so a bright terrace or floodlight can lead them inland instead.

• Use warm, low-wattage bulbs on anything visible from the beach.
• Fit shields so lights point down at the path, not out to sea.
• Put security lights on motion sensors, so you keep the security without a floodlit beach all night.
• Ask guests to close curtains on sea-facing rooms after dark.

Keep the beach clear at night

• Move sun loungers, kayaks and boats off the sand, or well above the high-tide line, after dark.
• Fill in holes and flatten sandcastles before the evening. Turtles and hatchlings can get stuck in them.
• Keep dogs away from the beach at night.
• If you see turtle tracks or a turtle nesting, keep your distance, don’t use torches or camera flash, and call LOC Turtle Rescue on +254 742 968 142.

Cut the plastic at your house

Turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, and plastic is one of the reasons turtles end up in rehabilitation. Holiday homes go through a lot of single-use plastic, so small changes add up.

• Provide a water dispenser or filter and refillable bottles, instead of buying bottled water for every stay.
• Leave reusable shopping bags and a cool box for beach trips.
• Use bins with lids outside, so wind and monkeys don’t scatter rubbish towards the beach.
• Keep your septic system serviced, and use gentle cleaning products where water drains towards the sea.

Help your guests do the right thing

Most guests want to help. They just need to know how. Add a short “Our ocean” section to your welcome message or house guide:

• Book snorkelling and boat trips with licensed operators in the Watamu Marine National Park.
• Don’t touch or stand on coral, and don’t feed the fish.
• Never buy shells, coral or anything made of turtle shell.
• Choose sunscreen that’s kinder to reefs, and use a rash vest for long swims.
• Visit Local Ocean Conservation in Watamu to see their work.

Brief your property manager and staff

Your property manager, gardeners and askaris are on the property at night, when turtles nest. Make sure they know:

• LOC’s Turtle Rescue number, +254 742 968 142, saved in their phones.
• To leave nesting turtles alone and keep guests at a distance.
• To call LOC about any injured or stranded turtle, or one caught in a net.

Supporting Local Ocean Conservation

Local Ocean Conservation has protected turtles on this coast since 1997. It runs nest protection in Watamu and Diani, rescues turtles caught by fishers (more than 24,000 so far), runs Kenya’s only sea turtle rehabilitation centre, and works with schools and 26 community groups. You can help by:

• Visiting the Marine Information Centre in Watamu, and sending your guests. Tours last an hour and need booking.
• Donating (M-Pesa Paybill 858248, account: your name), or adopting a turtle or a nest.
• Organising a beach clean with neighbours, guests or a local school, or a fundraising beach clean for LOC.
• Choosing SeaSpace: 10% of all our fees go to LOC.

Find out more at localocean.co · Why SeaSpace supports LOC

Questions landlords ask