Homestays & Guesthouses
Stay with a Lake Kivu family or in a locally run guesthouse. We match you to a host we know, arrange the stay, and make sure the money reaches the household you are staying with.
What this involves
Hotels on this lake are concentrated in a few towns and priced for a market that mostly is not local. A homestay puts you in a house on the shoreline, eating what the family eats, for a fraction of that — and the payment goes to the household rather than through three intermediaries. We visit every home before we list it. That means somewhere clean and private to sleep, a working bathroom, and a host who genuinely wants visitors rather than one who needs the income badly enough to say yes to anything. We also work the other way round: if you own a property here and want it listed on Airbnb, we handle the photography, the listing, the pricing and the guest messaging, and you keep the majority of the nightly rate.
What it includes
- Verified family homestays along the lakeshore
- Locally owned guesthouses and small lodges
- Airbnb listing setup and management for local hosts
- Long-stay rates for researchers, students and volunteers