LalaStays

Airbnb exists, but it does not really work in Rwanda. The ecosystem is not there most property owners receive through MTN Mobile Money, credit cards are not widely adopted, and Airbnb is not common locally.

There was a real gap: travelers coming to Rwanda for conferences and business had no reliable local platform to book quality short-stays that felt trustworthy and spoke their language, both literally and culturally.

A booking platform built from the ground up for the Rwandan market. The core differentiator: guests book instantly, hosts receive payment directly to their MTN Mobile Money account the same way money moves in every other part of their daily life.

The goal was something tailored for Rwanda: MTN mobile payment support, a design attractive to every person coming in, and zero friction from discovery to confirmed booking.

Color was the first and most important design decision. Green and yellow warm, calm, and locally familiar so that the platform feels immediately like something made for Rwandan users, not imported from elsewhere.

After the client confirmed the design direction, I took on the full-stack engineering of the platform. This meant building the frontend with Next.js, implementing the MTN Mobile Money payment integration end to end, and handling the complete technical architecture from database design to production deployment. Design and engineering were done by the same hand — which meant every visual decision was grounded in what was technically achievable and maintainable.

The booking flow was built with a single constraint: zero friction. You browse, you book, you pay, and the owner receives their money immediately.

The platform is live in production at lalastays.com. The feedback was consistent: it felt natural like it belonged. Hosts appreciated the familiar payment method. Guests praised the clarity of the booking flow.

Doing the full stack meant the final product had no translation loss between what was designed and what was built. What you see in the design is exactly what went to production.