The History and the Idea!

This idea occurred to me in the summer of 2006. Coming back home from abroad where I was a student, I did not want to go back home and live my parents- what of them saying I have to be home by 1800h when I was used to having as much freedom as I wanted to before, so a very dear friend of mine helped to finance a house for me, that I was going to rent for 6 months.
The house was 4 bed roomed, in an area called Mikocheni. I was practically the only one living in that big 4 bed room house. The house was too big for just me, and during the night I would get scared of being alone in a new area.
So I went to a forum called thorn tree run by lonely planet and I wrote in there that I was looking for a roommate to share a house with in Dar if there was anyone in need of such service.
Not long after I had written that, a woman from Canada (Susan) responded and wanted more details of the house and the arrangement. I emailed her back, and she was interested. She was already in Dar staying at YWCA. We met; she looked at the house and moved in. That was the first customer I had. She paid half of what I was paying. It was a first timer for me so I wasn’t thinking in terms of profit other than just looking for housemates.
Susan stayed with me for about 6 months. She was working on getting her research permit, and the bureaucracy around that made her stay with me for longer than she had expected.
Then, while I was with Susan, through thorn tree, I got anther pair of visitors. They were short term-en route to Zanzibar and North Tanzania. They stayed with me for 3 nights.
Later on, I had to move houses and rent another one in Mbezi Beach, about 20 kms from down town. This one had three rooms. By this time, I had spoken to few friends and told them to spread the word if they hear of any one wanting accommodation in Dar. Susan was about to leave Dar for Mbeya in a couple of weeks and I was about to be alone again.
Luckily, Amy, whom I had met through Dennis, knew a friend who knew a friend that was coming to Dar to work as a volunteer with Women Dignity Project (WDP). Amy gave my email address to her and we started communicating and agreed to live together. This time, I didn’t split the rent in half but rather added some costs that I incurred in purchasing the furniture of the house, so in addition to rent money I was getting some income from her as well. In February, Rachel arrived in Dar.
Rachel, who was the new girl living with me was really very nice. We quickly became very good friends, we still are.
Rachel had problems commuting from Mbezi to Upanga where her offices where. She would spend an hour and half to two just getting from Mbezi to work, in a crowded daladala. This was a very tough period for her. But fortunately for her, I started working for a bank in city centre, and I had a car with me so we started going to work together in the morning with my car, and in the evening I would pick her from work and we would drive together home.
Through Rachel, I got in contact with Alison who was also coming to Dar in April 2007 to volunteer with WDP and wanted a place to stay.
Rachel, Alison and I became really good friends!
For the first time I had a full house, and I was making a profit of Tshs 100,000/ (which didn’t include water + power charges I had to pay each month and the furniture I had bought! All things considered, I was still not getting anything out of the house; I would say I was just about breaking even.
The distance was still a major problem because despite having our own car. Traffic from Mbezi to the city was ludicrous! We would spend an hour to two hours just on traffic, so this was a drawback if I wanted my business idea to prosper.
On the photo, thats me with Rachel and Alison.