At the Africa Travel Summit held in September this year, Airbnb announced that the company has hosted over 2 million guests in South Africa since launching in 2008. There are currently over 38 000 Airbnb hosts in South Africa and almost 40% of those are in Cape Town, ranked Airbnb’s most popular destination on the continent.

It’s no wonder, then, that the business of Airbnb management has seen year-on-year growth, particularly in Cape Town, with hundreds of companies cashing in on the booming market. Agencies provide hassle-free solutions to homeowners, relieving them of the stress related to managing bookings, screening guests, cleaning homes, collecting and delivering keys, checking inventory and monitoring home security. Typically, such management agencies charge anything between 12% to 25% commission.

“Cape Town has proven to be one of Airsorted’s fastest-growing markets with the number of listings even surpassing our flagship cities like Paris and Melbourne”, says Tamara Latimer, Country Manager for Airsorted South Africa.

Airsorted, the world’s largest Airbnb management company founded in 2015 by 28-year old British entrepreneur, James Jenkins-Yates, has now expanded its reach and opened its first regional office in Cape Town.

Latimer says that most of the properties under their management are secondary homes for owner, used mainly as passive income generators or to service existing bonds. She also describes the local market as nuanced in some ways. “A top priority for South African homeowners is security, obviously, and this is why we run rigorous guest vetting before accepting bookings. Good cleaning is also very important to them and for this reason we source the majority of our housekeepers from the hotel industry”.

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