This is the first public production release of Rentor — the version that opened the platform to landlords, agencies, tenants, hosts and service providers in Kenya.
Rentor is out of beta. Version 1.0 is the first public production release — the same platform on the web, on Android and on iPhone, with one account carrying every role you hold.
Find a home
Search verified rentals across Kenya by county, estate, budget, bedrooms and amenities, from bedsitters to maisonettes. Property pages show the real photos, the real rent, and what the landlord actually covers. Units in the same block are grouped together, so you compare a building once rather than the same address eight times.
- Discover is a video feed of listings — swipe through walkthroughs instead of scrolling thumbnails.
- Save a search and hear about new homes that match it; favourite anything you want to come back to.
- Book a viewing online and pick a slot from the hours the landlord actually keeps. No phone tag, and your number stays private.
Renting, and rent
Once you move in you get a dashboard that answers the only question that matters: am I paid up?
- A rent ledger month by month, showing what was due, what you paid, and what is outstanding. Overpayments carry forward instead of disappearing.
- Automatic receipts. Every confirmed payment is numbered and receipted the moment it lands, and downloadable as a PDF.
- Reminders before rent is due, so a due date does not arrive as a surprise.
- Leases you sign on the platform, and a move-in checklist you and your landlord agree on together.
- Notice periods that end a tenancy properly, with the final ledger settled rather than abandoned.
Ways to pay
Money goes straight to the person you are paying. Rentor records it and receipts it. Rentor never holds it, and never takes a cut of your rent.
- M-Pesa — confirm your number, approve the prompt on your handset, done in seconds. The app waits with you and ends on a verdict instead of leaving you guessing.
- Card and bank transfer, through a secure hosted checkout, wherever the recipient has set them up.
- Cash and deposits you made offline can be recorded too. You claim it, the recipient confirms it, and only then does it post — a claim is never a payment on its own.
If a payment comes back looking wrong, it is held for review rather than posted to the wrong place, and you are told once it is resolved.
Deposits and refunds
Your security deposit is tracked as a deposit, not as rent. When a tenancy ends it becomes a refund obligation for the full amount, and every deduction has to be itemised against it inside a 14-day window. You can see each deduction and what it was for. A landlord's public profile shows how they have handled refunds before — how many, and how long they took.
Maintenance and utilities
Report a problem with photos and follow it through to fixed. Landlords and agencies see every open job across the portfolio, including common-area work that belongs to no single unit. Where water and electricity are metered, readings are taken each month and the bill is worked out from the reading — you can see the previous reading, the current one, and the rate you were charged.
Student housing
Bed spaces in hostels are listed properly for the first time. Search by campus, book a bed rather than a whole unit, and be billed by term or semester instead of being asked to pretend a four-month semester is four separate months.
Rentor Stays
Furnished homes by the night, with their own calendar, instant or request-to-book, and double-blind reviews — you and your host each only see the other's review once both are in. Hosts keep 100% of what guests pay.
Services
Book vetted plumbers, electricians, cleaners, movers and other fundis from inside the platform. Providers publish their prices and the areas they cover, take bookings against their real availability, invoice through the platform, and build a public reputation out of rated work. Photographers and videographers can be booked for property shoots.
For landlords, agencies, caretakers and hosts
- Landlords get occupancy, rent collected against rent expected, arrears and maintenance in one place, and collect into their own M-Pesa or bank account.
- Agencies manage properties for client landlords, with staff accounts whose permissions each landlord controls. Money and credentials stay with the owner.
- Caretakers are invited to specific buildings to record meter readings and report maintenance. They never see or handle money.
- Hosts can be handed units to let out nightly or sublet long-term, and pay their own lease bills through the same rails.
Bringing an existing portfolio over? The import wizard takes your spreadsheet, shows you exactly what it will create, and only commits when you say so.
Verification and trust
Accounts and properties are verified document by document, by a person. Verified landlords and verified listings are badged, service providers must pass KYC before they can be published, and tenants build a trust score out of a payment record that is genuinely theirs. Ratings run both ways — tenants rate landlords too.
Your documents, your data
Leases, IDs and certificates are encrypted at rest, kept only as long as they are needed, and never shown to the other side of a deal. Your phone number and email are never exposed to another user: viewings, messages and notices all travel through the platform, in line with Kenya's Data Protection Act. You can export your data, or ask for your account to be deleted, from your own settings.
Reports and tax
Export income, expenses, arrears and occupancy as CSV or PDF for any period you choose. On eligible plans, file rental income with KRA under your own PIN, using the records already on the platform.
In your pocket
The Android and iPhone apps are live. Explore the marketplace, browse Stays, pay rent with an M-Pesa prompt, report maintenance, and get told when something needs you. Sign in with a code sent to your phone, and the app locks rather than logging you out when you put it down.
Karibu. This is version one — tell us what to build next.
