A host on Rentor is someone who leases a place and re-rents it — as nightly short stays, as a long-term sublet to a tenant, or both. If you run rental arbitrage, this role was built for you.

What hosting gets you

• Run stays and sublets on places you lease. Source units from landlords on Rentor, or bring in a place you already lease elsewhere.
• Keep 100% of what you earn. Guest payments and subtenant rent settle straight to your own M-Pesa — Rentor takes no commission on your earnings.
• Settle your own rent through Rentor too, with proper bills and receipts, where you and your landlord choose to.
• Build a real reputation from both guests and subtenants.

Hosting runs on a subscription instead of commissions — you pay a flat plan, and your earnings are yours.

Becoming a host — one tap

Any Rentor account can opt in:

1. On the web, open the account menu at the top of your dashboard, choose Add a role, and on the Become a host card tap Host a place. On the phone, open More and tap Become a host.
2. That is it. Your Host profile is created and you land on your Host overview.

If you already hold another role — landlord, provider, tenant — you keep it; Host is simply added as another hat you can switch to. See Your account & roles.

The free trial and your subscription

Every new host gets a 3-month free trial with everything switched on — it starts by itself the day you become a host. After that, hosting needs an active subscription, monthly or yearly. Prices are on the Pricing page.

If your subscription lapses: your stays come off the marketplace and you cannot publish or take new bookings until you subscribe again. What is already running is never touched: bookings you already hold continue, money owed to you still reaches you, and nothing you have set up is deleted. How you pay, auto-renew, the grace period and iPhone billing are all in Your host subscription.

Your first place live — the order that works

Your overview carries a checklist called Get your first place live. Follow it top to bottom, because each step unlocks the next:

1. Confirm your email — use the link Rentor sent when you signed up.
2. Add your National ID. Hosting a place you sublet needs ID verification. If it is missing, the add-a-place form asks for the number right there — you do not have to go hunting for it.
3. Add a place you operate — declare one you lease, or link up with a landlord on Rentor. See Adding your places.
4. Create your stay listing once the place is approved — see Stay listings, pricing & calendar.
5. Add at least 4 photos and a video tour. Publishing needs the four photos; the video ranks you higher in Discover.
6. Set up how guests pay you on the Getting paid page (below).
7. Publish your stay.

Getting paid — do this before your first guest

Guests pay you, not Rentor, so Rentor needs to know where the money lands. Open Getting paid (under Money) and connect your own M-Pesa paybill or till; optionally add a card and bank merchant account so guests from abroad or on a company card can pay too. Rentor's team checks new payout details before they go live, so allow a little time after you submit.

Until your M-Pesa is active, a guest who tries to pay by M-Pesa is turned away at the last step — the only thing left to offer them is cash on arrival. Your overview keeps this at the top of Needs your attention for exactly that reason. For the full picture of how payments settle, see How money moves on Rentor.

Your Host overview

Your overview is the cockpit:

• Needs your attention — a short list of the things only you can do: payout details missing, a lease bill due, a booking request waiting on your answer, a landlord invite, sublet arrears, a place under review or not approved. It disappears when there is nothing to do.
• Your plan — trial countdown, active confirmation, or a clear warning if you have lapsed, with a path to Billing & Plans.
• Your numbers — Places, Stay earnings kept, and your Host rating, pooled from guest reviews and subtenant ratings.
• Coming up — your next arrivals — and Your places, each with its status.

Repairs raised by your guests and subtenants come to you, not to the building's owner: you hold the unit, so they land in your own Maintenance queue. It works the way a landlord's does — see Managing maintenance.

On the phone app: hosts get their own bottom bar — Home, Places, Stays, Discover and More. Stays is your work hub: a List a stay button on top, then My stays, Reservations, Sublets, Find a place and Maintenance, with Getting paid and Lease bills under Money. Home has one-tap shortcuts to the same places. Everything in this guide can be done from the phone, including adding a place you lease off-platform and creating a sublet.

Adding a place you host

Your places → Add a place asks three short questions rather than one long form:

1. The place — its name, where it is, the unit type, and what you pay to lease it. If your National ID is not on your account yet, this step asks for it.
2. Photos & video — add them now or later. A stay needs four photos before it can go on the marketplace, and a walkthrough video ranks it higher in Discover.
3. Proof — your lease or a signed authority to sublet, and the declaration that you are entitled to let it.

Only the last step submits anything, and it goes to Rentor staff for review. If something is missing, the button tells you which thing. On the phone the same questions sit on one scrolling sheet.

You can add photos and video at any time afterwards. Open the place in Your places and tap Photos & video — it shows how many more photos you need before publishing, and the video tour sits in the same panel. You do not have to create a listing first. (On the phone, the place's card has a Video tours button, and photos are added from My stays → Manage.)

Where to next

1. Add your places — the units you will operate.
2. List stays or create a sublet.
3. Keep your cost side tidy with Lease bills.
4. Know what your plan costs and what happens when it ends — Your host subscription.