One mosquito can cost you a five star review

Nairobi sits high enough that mosquitoes are a nuisance rather than a health emergency, and local hosts internalise that so completely they stop noticing them. A guest lying awake at 3am listening to one does not care about altitude or malaria maps. They care that they cannot sleep, and they will say so.

Fit screens and stop thinking about it

Everything else in this article is a workaround. Screens are the actual solution, they are cheap, and they are permanent.

• Bedroom windows first, which is where the complaint comes from. Living room second
• Fitted properly, without gaps at the frame. A screen with a two centimetre gap is decoration
• On windows guests will actually open. A screen that prevents the window opening will be removed by somebody eventually
• Check the balcony door, which in most Nairobi apartments is the real entry point and is almost never screened
• Inspect them at each deep clean, because they tear and nobody reports it

Screens also mean guests can open windows at night, which solves the temperature complaint at the same time. See whether air conditioning is worth it.

Screens let guests sleep with the window open, which fixes the mosquito and the heat with one purchase.

Everything else worth doing

• A plug in repellent in each bedroom, with spare refills in the drawer. Cheap and effective
• Repellent spray left for the guest, which reads as thoughtful rather than as a warning
• A net over the bed only where the property genuinely warrants it. In most of central Nairobi it looks alarming and suggests a problem the guest had not considered
• No standing water on the balcony, in plant saucers or in the drainage. This is the actual breeding source and it is usually on your own property
• A fan, which genuinely discourages them and helps with sleep anyway

The other pests

• Ants, which appear in the kitchen with the rains regardless of how clean it is. Seal food containers, keep bait discreetly in the cupboards, and treat before the rainy season rather than during it
• Cockroaches, which are a building level problem more often than a unit level one and travel through shared drainage and risers. Treat your unit, and raise it with the building, because treating alone accomplishes little
• Drain flies, which appear in bathrooms that stand unused between guests. Running the taps and pouring water down the floor drain at each turnover prevents them entirely
• Rodents, rare in upper floor apartments and a serious matter on the ground floor and near bins. Escalate to the building immediately
• Bedbugs, uncommon and severe. Mattress and pillow protectors are the front line, and a suspected case means stopping bookings and treating properly rather than hoping. See linen and protectors

Handling a report during a stay

How you respond in the first hour determines whether this appears in the review at all.

• Reply immediately and take it seriously. Never explain that Nairobi is too high for malaria. It is true and it is not the point
• Send something the same day: repellent, a plug in, a fan, or a person
• For anything beyond a single mosquito, offer to move the guest or to treat properly. Ants in the kitchen is a treatment, not a conversation
• Follow up the next morning, unprompted. This is the step that turns the incident into a compliment about responsiveness
• Record it, and check the same unit at the next turnover. Pests repeat

How Goldstay handles it

Managed units get screens on bedroom windows and balcony doors as standard, quarterly treatment scheduled into empty nights, and drains run at every turnover. A pest report gets a same day response, because the review is decided by the response rather than by the insect.

This is standard on every unit under our Airbnb management, rather than something an owner has to ask for.

Related reading: how clean is clean enough and light and noise.