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Published: Dec. 10, 2019, 12:42 a.m.

Welcome to this week’s LOVE YOUR CITY where we chat all things PROPERTY, TECH & PEOPLE.

 Is it not crazy for people who have are used to great amenities from their experiences with hotels and short-term rentals, to want those same options available in their own homes? Adopting technologies that modernize functions and improve resident experience to differentiate themselves in a competitive environment is key. Property owners and operators are starting to create Airbnb-like experiences for residents. These tend to be a once-off experience that allows these owners to deliver best-in-class resident experiences while creating new revenue streams for themselves. Rental property owners need to create value for their residents if they want to hold onto them. Cleaning, dog walking, dry cleaning and fitness services are some of the hotel-level amenities that apartment firms are offering residents. The evolution is pretty cool to see considering that having a beautiful building in a prime location was everything! 

Building owners and operators need to evaluate the value for their customers with technology that disrupts the organization and its daily operations. This approach extends beyond the short- term/vacation rental industry. Having applications that allow you to have the ability to determine how far mobile devices are from a specific location or how much time a mobile device spends in one place from another, are valuable insight when you look at shopping centres for instance. After all you want to know the number of customers you have versus how many potential customers you have in a target area. For instance to develop the ideal tenant mix requires analysis of the mobile data generated around a property and fusing this information with household behavioral considerations, to allow owners to make better decisions. 

A great example of this is the recent strategic partnership between Hotelbeds & easyJet Holidays . The bedbank has signed a five-year accommodation supplier agreement with the airline, with easyJet set to feature handpicked hotels from the platform on its website. The Hotelbeds platform provides access to more than 180,000 unique hotel properties around the world. Hotelbeds has the experience, technology and hotelier relationships available to help airlines implement and grow their tour operating volumes. This deal adds to the over 40 airlines that currently partner with Hotelbeds, including the recently announced partnerships with Singapore Airlines and Luxair. 

We’ll talk about the 14 best African tech products that were announced at the recent AppsAfrica Awards, which drew interest from over 400 applications from innovators in 52 countries across the continent. Those that are relevant for our chat include Lori Systems (Kenya, Best Mobility Solution), a logistics platform that is revolutionizing the cargo-transport value chain, One Kiosk Africa (Nigeria, Best mCommerce Solution), first online retail platform for convenience stores, RippleNami (Kenya, Best Blockchain Solution), the first visualization platform that consolidates big data and provides information that really matters to users, Carbon (Nigeria, Best Fintech Solution), which allows users to transfer funds, pay bills at lower fees, buy airtime, get instant loans without collateral, and invest money. Liquid Telecom (Kenya, Best IoT Solution),a leading independent data, voice and IP provider in eastern, central and southern Africa, MOJA (Kenya, Disruptive Innovation Award), which is the largest web portal in the country & Flutterwave (Nigeria, Changing Africa Award), an online payment technology. 

All the winners at the 2019 AppsAfrica Award are expected to participate in the Africa Tech Summit, slated for 2020 in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. At next year’s event, the winners will have access to sponsorships and partnerships from Africa and beyond.

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