Questions and answers

Booking on Zanzibar Rentals is free for guests: you pay the host's price and nothing is added by us.

You pay the host directly, by the M-Pesa, bank or cash details on your booking. We never ask for card details and never hold your money.

You get an email with your booking link straight away. The booking is confirmed when the host records your payment, and the link always shows where it stands.

Each listing shows the host's own cancellation terms. Message the host from your booking link; any refund is agreed with them, as you paid them directly.

Every host on Zanzibar Rentals has a page name, which is also their code. Type it when you book: on listings whose owner offers it you get 5% off. It never costs you anything extra.

Signing up and listing are free: no sign-up fee, no subscription and no card to add. You only pay a commission when a guest books through the site.

5% of each booking made through Zanzibar Rentals, on stays and activities alike. Your rate is shown on your host page, and we tell you before it ever changes.

Only bookings made through Zanzibar Rentals. Bookings through your own link (zanzibarrentals.com/yourname, or your code on your own listings), bookings you add yourself and bookings from other sites (Airbnb, Booking.com and the like) carry none: you keep 100%.

On a cancellation or a no-show you pay commission only on what you kept, such as a deposit. If you kept nothing, there is nothing to pay.

Bookings count by their check-in month (activities by their date). Early each month we email a statement for the month before, only when something is owed, with how to pay by M-Pesa or bank. Pay within 14 days, then mark it paid with your payment reference on your host page.

Guests pay you directly and we never hold your money, so there are no payout delays or payment-processing fees from us.

Add other hosts' stays and tours to your page from Selling & sales (only listings their owners let others sell are offered). You earn 10% on a booking through your page, or 5% when the guest types your code and gets 5% off. A guest who opens your page counts as yours for 30 days.

Only the listings you tick "Let other hosts sell this" under. On those you pay the selling host 10% of each booking they sell; if the guest used their code, the guest's 5% off comes out of that 10%. It is on top of the site's 5%, only on bookings another host sold. Untick it any time.

The owner does, as the guest pays them. Each month we write a statement for every owner and seller and email it to both. The owner marks it paid and you confirm you received it.

The guest's 5% off comes from you, as there is no other host to share it with. The site's 5% is still charged on what the guest pays.

Anything visitors to Zanzibar book: rooms, villas and apartments, tours and boat trips, jet skis, car and scooter hire, classes, experiences and other services.

We check every new listing and approve it, ask for changes or turn it down, and email you either way. Changes to an approved listing go live straight away and we may look at them again.