Airbnb furnishing in Nairobi, at a published price.
Empty floor to let-ready: furniture, appliances, kitchen, linen, blinds and styling, specified, delivered, installed and photographed. From KES 700,000 for a studio, for a short let or a furnished long lease. The furniture is yours outright the day it goes in.
What does it cost to furnish an Airbnb in Nairobi?
Goldstay furnishes Nairobi apartments at published fixed prices across two tiers. Short-let ready is KES 700,000 for a studio, 950,000 for a one bedroom, 1.4m for a two bedroom and 1.95m for a three bedroom. Premium is 1m, 1.45m, 2m and 2.75m for the same sizes, buying a better sofa, a hardwood dining set, a higher grade mattress and imported soft furnishings. Every price covers specification, sourcing, delivery, installation, snagging and professional photography, and the furniture belongs to the owner outright on installation with nothing recovered out of booking revenue. Delivery runs two to three weeks from Nairobi stock or eight to twelve weeks imported to order, the imported route being meaningfully cheaper for the same quality. Whether the spend is worth making depends on the rent differential in the specific building: at Riverside One a two bedroom lets at KES 140,000 to 150,000 unfurnished against 270,000 to 290,000 furnished, so a furnish is recovered inside a year.
- Studio
- KES 700,000, or 1m premium
- One bedroom
- KES 950,000, or 1.45m premium
- Two bedroom
- KES 1.4m, or 2m premium
- Three bedroom
- KES 1.95m, or 2.75m premium
- From Nairobi stock
- 2 to 3 weeks
- Imported to order
- 8 to 12 weeks
- Ownership
- Yours outright on install
- Photography
- Included
These are the prices you would be quoted on a call, for a unit with working power, water and existing curtain rails. Fitted joinery, air conditioning installation and electrical work are quoted separately.
Five steps, and none of them is shopping.
The furniture is the easy part. The work is the specification, the chasing, and the panel that arrives cracked.
We specify it
A written specification against your actual unit, allowing for what the developer has already fitted. Built for revenue and durability rather than for taste, because we are the ones who answer for the reviews afterwards.
We source it
From Nairobi trade stock where the date is tight, or imported to order where it is not. Imported is materially cheaper for the same quality, and we price both so the choice is yours.
We take delivery
Receiving, checking and chasing. Furniture arrives damaged more often than anyone expects, and the replacement conversation is ours to have rather than yours.
We install and snag
Assembly, wall mounting, curtain fitting and the walk-through that finds the drawer that does not close. Delivery hours in most compounds are restricted, and we work around them.
We photograph it
Professional photography of the finished unit, included in the price. The photo set decides how often the listing is seen at all, so it is not an optional extra.
Published, not quoted on a call.
Two tiers. The difference between them is about six items: the mattress, the sofa, the dining set, the appliances, the window treatments and the soft furnishings. The kettle is the same kettle.
Kenya shillings, fixed, including delivery, installation and photography. For where these sit against the wider market, and the line by line arithmetic behind them, see the cost to furnish a Nairobi apartment and what each package includes.
Why we quote one number instead of showing you the invoices.
There are two ways to sell this work. Invoice the furniture at what it cost and charge a separate fee for the labour, or quote one fixed price. Several good firms in Nairobi do the first and describe it as transparency. It is worth saying plainly why we do not.
A pass-through invoice shows you every line, and it also hands you every overrun. The consignment that clears at a higher duty than the quote assumed, the wardrobe that arrives cracked and is replaced at this month’s price, the sofa discontinued between order and delivery: on a cost-plus arrangement all three appear on your invoice, and the budget you agreed was never really a budget. On ours they appear on ours. The number you are quoted is the number you pay, and if the freight bill comes in high that is our problem to have.
What you give up is sight of our margin on the goods, and we would rather name that than pretend a fixed price is the more open of the two. It is not more open. It is a different allocation of risk, and for most owners furnishing remotely, certainty on the total is worth more than visibility on the mark-up. If you take the other view, say so before we start and we will talk about it.
The furniture is yours, and nothing is recouped from your bookings.
You pay for it, you own it, from the day it is installed. There is no monthly charge for the furniture, no rental, and nothing deducted from booking revenue to pay it off.
This is worth spelling out because the other arrangement exists and is rarely explained. An operator who furnishes a unit at their own cost and recovers it out of your bookings has lent you money against your own apartment, and the repayment period is what quietly sets how long you are tied in. A million shillings recovered at a few percent of revenue is a three-year relationship whether or not anyone called it that.
Our management notice is thirty days with no exit fee. A furnishing debt on the other side of that promise would make it untrue, so we do not offer one.
Judge it on the rent differential, not the price list.
Furnishing is the only line in a letting budget that changes the rent, so the question is never what it costs but what it adds. At Riverside One Residency on Riverside Drive, a two bedroom lets at roughly KES 140,000 to 150,000 a month unfurnished and at KES 270,000 to 290,000 furnished. On a differential of about 130,000 a month, a short-let ready furnish is recovered in about eleven months and a premium one in fifteen.
It does not hold everywhere. In suburbs where furnished demand is thinner the gap narrows sharply and the payback stretches past two years, which is a different decision and sometimes the wrong one. We run the sum on your building before quoting, and we will tell you when the answer is to leave it unfurnished.
- A written specification against your actual unit, not a template
- Both sourcing routes priced, so you can trade cost against time
- Three sets of linen per bed, so a turnover never waits on a wash
- Standardised across the portfolio, so one spare covers every unit
- Professional photography of the finished unit, included
Check the building allows short lets.
A growing number of Nairobi blocks restrict or ban short lets in their house rules, and the committee usually wins that argument in practice whatever the legal position says. The most expensive way to discover it is after the furniture is installed, and we have been called in to unwind exactly that. Getting the answer in writing takes an afternoon, and getting your building to allow short lets sets out how. If the answer is no, a furnished long lease is usually still the better use of the same money.
What owners ask before commissioning a furnish.
What does an Airbnb furnishing package cost in Nairobi?
Two tiers, published rather than quoted. Short-let ready is KES 700,000 for a studio, 950,000 for a one bedroom, 1.4m for a two bedroom and 1.95m for a three bedroom. Premium is 1m, 1.45m, 2m and 2.75m for the same sizes. Each price includes specification, sourcing, delivery, installation, snagging and professional photography.
Why a fixed price rather than billing me at cost?
Because a fixed price puts the variance on us rather than on you. The two ways to sell this work are to invoice the furniture at what it cost and add a separate fee for the labour, or to quote one number. Pass-through looks more open, and in one respect it is, but it hands the owner every overrun: the consignment that clears at a higher duty than the quote assumed, the wardrobe that arrives cracked and is replaced at this month's price, the item discontinued between order and delivery. On a pass-through all three land on your invoice. On ours they land on ours, and the number you were quoted is the number you pay. What you give up is sight of our margin on the goods, which is a real trade and worth naming rather than hiding. If you would rather see every line item, say so before we start and we will talk about it.
Who owns the furniture afterwards?
You do, outright, from the day it is installed. It is a purchase rather than a lease or a rental. There is no monthly charge for it, nothing is recovered out of booking revenue, and it is not conditional on keeping a management agreement in place. If you leave us a month later you keep every item you paid for.
How long does it take?
Two to three weeks where we fill the package from stock already in Nairobi, and eight to twelve weeks where it is imported to order, because sea freight runs thirty to forty five days before clearing and inland haulage are added. Owners taking handover in a building that is still finishing usually have the time, and take the cheaper imported route.
What is not included?
Anything structural or fitted, because it belongs to the building rather than to the furnishing: built-in wardrobes, joinery, kitchen cabinetry, air conditioning installation, electrical and plumbing work, tiling, painting and window fitting. Also excluded are white goods the developer has already installed, the Tourism Regulatory Authority licence and county permits, and the working capital a short let needs for its first months. Where a unit needs any of the fitted work we quote it separately rather than thinning the furniture budget to pay for it.
Do I have to use Goldstay to manage the unit afterwards?
No, and the two are separate agreements. You can have a unit furnished and run it yourself, hand it to us for Airbnb management at 20% of revenue collected, or put it on a long lease under long-term management at 10% of rent collected. Furnishing does not commit you to any of them, and none of them is cheaper or dearer because you furnished with us.
Is furnishing actually worth it?
It depends on the building, and we will tell you when the answer is no. At Riverside One Residency a two bedroom lets at roughly KES 140,000 to 150,000 a month unfurnished against 270,000 to 290,000 furnished, a differential of about 130,000 a month, so a short-let ready furnish is recovered in around eleven months. In suburbs where furnished demand is thinner the differential narrows and the payback stretches past two years, which is a different decision.
Can you furnish a unit you are not managing?
Yes. Roughly half the reason owners ask is that they are abroad and cannot do it themselves, and that is true whether or not they want a manager afterwards. We will furnish it, photograph it and hand it over, and you can list it yourself or give it to another firm.
What if I only need part of it?
We will quote it, but be aware that partial jobs lose most of the advantage. The package price works because the specification is standardised across a portfolio, which is also what makes a spare of everything cheap to hold. A one-off list of six items priced individually will not beat what you can buy yourself on Mombasa Road.
Send us the unit and we will price it.
Give us the address, the size and what the developer has already fitted. You will get a fixed price for both tiers, a delivery date for each route, and the rent differential your building actually supports.
Prefer to call? +254 702 471 993