In South Africa's townships, millions of people have homes with empty rooms. At the same time, tourists keep paying large sums for an "authentic" experience in more affluent areas. This obvious mismatch was noticed by entrepreneur Nick Chali.
The idea came to Chali when he himself stayed in a spare room at his aunt's place in Mamelodi.
He thought: if such rooms already exist, why not help their owners earn from them?
That was when he hit upon the idea of a platform Backroom Bookings. This is not simply an Airbnb for poor neighborhoods. The service is purpose-built for the realities of townships: hosts list spare rooms, cottages or guest accommodations with no prepayments whatsoever. The platform earns only from a commission on completed bookings.
Homeowners can add a spare room, a small cottage or a guest space to the site for free. The platform takes a commission only when an actual booking occurs.
The project is currently being tested in Gauteng province. At the first stage, Chali wants to bring on board around 150 properties in Soweto, Tembisa and Mamelodi.
By his calculations, one spare room can bring its owner roughly 4 000–5 000 rand per month.
For many families this is a noticeable sum. It can be spent on the children's education, home repairs or growing a small business.
At the same time, people do not need to take out a loan or build anything from scratch.
What they already have starts generating income.
Chali wants such rooms to be seen not as cheap lodging for tourists, but as an opportunity to get a genuine local experience.
Guests will be able to stay in an ordinary neighborhood and get to know the local culture, food and people.
To make the service look respectable, listings will be vetted, and room owners are helped to improve their interiors. What's more, designers from the local communities themselves are brought in for this.
In the future, Chali wants to extend the platform to more than 500 townships and to bring on board around 12 500 properties.
A stay at his aunt’s backroom in Mamelodi gave entrepreneur Nick Chali an idea that could help township homeowners earn money from unused rooms. ebx.sh/8Be1I6
For now the project is only just launching, and there are no mass bookings yet. First, the team is gathering a sufficient number of good accommodation options.
But the idea itself is very simple and practical:
sometimes a new source of income does not need to be built from scratch — it is enough to look at an empty room in one's own home.
What was once simply unused can turn into a small family business.
I can also make a shorter, more magazine-style version — with a striking opening.
