Artist Fena Gitu booked Mati's Find, a Westlands apartment, for content tied to her music and her fashion line — here's how the booking worked, and what it means for hosts and creators in Nairobi.
When artist Fena Gitu needed a location for content tied to her music and her fashion line, Fenamenal Style, she was not working with a long lead time or a big production budget. She needed a space in the city, ready fast, that could carry more than one look in a single day. She found it on Book Mahali: Mati's Find, a one bedroom apartment in Westlands hosted by Frieda Mati.
"I needed to shoot something in the city, accessibly and affordably on a serious time crunch. So I got this cute apartment in the heart of Westlands courtesy of Book Mahali," Fena Gitu said.
That sentence is really a small case study in how creators in Nairobi are starting to source locations. Not through a friend of a friend. Not through a long location scouting process. Through a search on a platform built for exactly this.
Why Mati's Find worked for the brief: it is listed as a modern, stylish one bedroom space in the heart of Westlands, built for intimate creative sessions — photo shoots, video shoots, and podcast recordings. For a multi-look day combining music visuals and fashion content for Fenamenal Style, that mattered. The apartment offers more than one usable setting under one roof, so a team can move from a clean, bright corner for one look into a moodier setup for another, without changing location or losing time to travel between venues.
It also sits where the brief needed it to sit. Westlands is central, easy to reach for a small crew, and easy to fold into a day that already has other stops on it. At KES 15,000 for a full day, with WiFi, parking, restrooms, a kitchen, and wheelchair access included, it is priced for exactly this kind of independent shoot: real production value, without studio rental overhead.
That is the gap Book Mahali was built to close. A working artist with a tight turnaround should not need a fixer, an agency, or a week of phone calls to find a space that looks right on camera. She should be able to search, see the price and the amenities upfront, and book it.
What this means for space owners: Frieda Mati listed an apartment. What she actually built was inventory for Nairobi's creative economy, generating income from a space that would otherwise sit unused between guests. Every host on Book Mahali is sitting on the same kind of latent asset — a rooftop, a studio, a backyard, a uniquely designed home. Content creators, brands, and production teams are actively searching for exactly these spaces, every week, for shoots, sessions, and small events.
Listing on Book Mahali means reaching creators and brands directly without negotiating every booking by message or referral, setting your own price and availability with bookings that route through the platform, and earning from a space during hours it would otherwise be empty. If Frieda Mati's apartment can become the backdrop for a working artist's next release, almost any well kept space in Nairobi can do the same.
What this means for creators: for Fena Gitu, the apartment solved a real production problem — budget and timeline. That is the more common story than people admit. Most independent shoots are not constrained by creative vision. They are constrained by where to shoot, how much it costs, and how fast it can be booked.
Book Mahali is built to answer that for musicians, photographers, brands, podcasters, and small production teams. Listings show pricing, amenities, and location upfront, so a creator can compare options and book without a back and forth. For a fashion line or a music visual that needs more than one mood in a day, that kind of flexibility is the difference between a shoot that happens and one that gets delayed.
If you are planning a shoot in Nairobi, browse venues on Book Mahali to find a space that fits your budget, your timeline, and your look. If you own a space that could work for content, photo, or video, you can list it and start earning from it. Book Mahali is the booking platform connecting creators and hosts across Kenya, built so the next shoot, the next session, and the next launch can find the right space, fast.
Browse venues or back to the Magazine
