A Home Away From Home in Cape Town
Rent-A-Room has run private rooms in shared houses across Observatory since 2004, built for interns and students who want their own space and a house full of peers to share Cape Town with.
Rent-A-Room is More Than Just a Place to Stay
Established in 2004, Rent-A-Room is a specialist co-living provider in Observatory, Cape Town. We offer furnished accommodation for international students, interns, young professionals, gap-year travellers and others coming to Cape Town to study, work or experience the city. Our accommodation is designed specifically for this community, combining flexible stays, private rooms and a convenient, community-focused living environment.
With 96 furnished private rooms across 10 managed properties, we are one of Cape Town's most established specialist providers of accommodation for international and local students and interns.
Over the years, we have learned that good accommodation is about much more than a furnished bedroom. It is about feeling comfortable when everything around you is new. It is about having people nearby when you need help. And it is about sharing your Cape Town experience with housemates who may have arrived as strangers but often leave as friends.
A private room, in a house that's already full of people worth knowing. This is the model, and it's the one thing most accommodation gets wrong. A studio on its own is quiet in the worst way. A dorm has no privacy at all. We do neither: your own furnished room to close the door on, and a house of other interns and students, most here on similar dates, to open it to.
Privacy and community, built into the same address.
Built for how Cape Town actually works. Load-shedding doesn't get a vote here. Every house runs inverters and backup lighting, so the lights stay on when the grid goes down. And every house is secured with its own hardware: electric fence, monitored alarm, CCTV. That's the layer you'll stop thinking about by day two, which is exactly the point.
A real team who know the houses. You're dealing with people who know every one of our houses in Obs, not an automated support system. From choosing a room to preparing for your arrival, we help with your questions and give you clear, practical information about your stay. Maintenance is same-day wherever we can manage it, and we communicate mainly by email and WhatsApp, so you always have a written record of your booking and what's been sorted.
Sorted from the moment you land. An after-hours airport shuttle and check-in can be arranged, so you're not navigating a new city at midnight with a suitcase. For VACorps interns, we coordinate airport collection and check-in directly with their team. Rooms arrive furnished, with bedding, towels, cleaning and laundry all handled, so your first day is about the house and the people in it, not a trip to buy a kettle.
Booked around your dates. From $713 per month, booked to your exact programme dates, from two weeks up to a year, with a discounted Rand rate for stays of 4 months or more. No paying for a month you're not staying.
Who We Are Here For
Rent-A-Room is not for everyone, and that's deliberate.
We house interns, students, and young nomads, people who've come to Cape Town to work, study, or build something for a stretch of weeks or months. We are not a holiday let, an Airbnb, or a weekend booking. We don't take stays under two weeks. We don't host families, and we don't rent whole houses. Every booking is one private room in a shared house, because the shared house is the entire point.
Saying no to holiday lets and weekend bookings is how we protect the thing our residents actually come for: a house full of people their own age, at the same stage, doing the same thing.
Why We Do What We Do
Every booking starts the same way. Someone is about to move to a city they've never seen, to live with people they've never met. Our job is to make that feel less like a leap and more like an arrival.
That's the whole mission, that every student and intern feels safe, settled, and part of something from day one. Not by week three. Day one. It's why an after-hours airport shuttle can be there when you land, why Dina meets you at the door at 5 Howe Street, and why there's a real person on the other end of a message when something breaks or a tap won't turn off.
Our Team
Sean Walpole
Director
Sean is the founder and MD of Rent-A-Room. He wears every hat, strategic and partnership-focused while also operational and the public face of the brand. He owns every significant decision the business makes.
Lindelwa Nkovu
Property Manager: Operations
Lindi runs the daily heartbeat of every Rent-A-Room property, the part guests actually live in. She owns the standards that make a Rent-A-Room house feel like a Rent-A-Room home.
Keelan Ohlson
Property Manager: Bookings & Accounts
Keelan is the entry point and the financial spine of the business. Every booking, invoice, payment and deposit flows through him. He's the first impression most guests get of Rent-A-Room and the person who keeps the financial detail clean.
Lucky Maphosa
Maintenance Manager
Lead maintenance technician across all Rent-A-Room properties. He does the general handyman work plus specialist responsibility for the inverter and battery backup-power systems that keep the houses running through any outage.
Dadirai Bzvapatsva
Cleaner & Weekend Arrivals Co-ordinator
Dadirai walks through every room before arrival to ensure move-in readiness, and a clean living space for every new guest.
Dayton Kamala
Cleaner & Maintenence
Dayton helps keep our homes clean, comfortable and running smoothly, assisting with both shared spaces and everyday maintenance.
Kelvin Chiumia
Gardener
Kelvin looks after our gardens, outdoor areas and exterior setups, keeping our Observatory properties beautiful inside and out.
Eunice Makhandlana
Cleaner
Eunice ensures our communal spaces are immaculate and linens are fresh. She is hard working and leaves every space spotless.
Mirriam Geqiwe
Cleaner
Mirriam always pays close attention to detail in every space, making sure each room is ready to make a new guest feel at home and welcome.
Thembakazi Gwinta
Cleaner
Thembakazi keeps our rooms and communal spaces fresh, tidy and ready to welcome every guest.