08 Sep2025
How my Kenya AfricaNomads coliving experience started
It was back in September 2024 and I was going to Kenya for the first time.
Originally, I went to Kenya for one month only. Not long before my trip I agreed on the collaboration with AfricaNomads for the entire month there.
They were supposed to give me my own room in their coliving for a month, first in Watamu in September and then in Diani in October, and also one communal weekly dinner with other digital nomads, one weekly yoga class and potable water for the entire month.
All that in exchange for promoting them on my social media and this travel blog. But they wanted me to pay for weekend tours if I joined them but at the same time they asked me to promote those tours as well. And that was already wrong to ask me to both pay and work giving them online promotion. That was a big red flag I should have listen to.
Let’s be honest… there’s not that much to be said about the room only during a month, right? They should have been happy that I didn’t ask them to pay me on top of free things (= barter collab) as it was a month of my time and work!
Kenya AfricaNomads coliving bad experience – my room was nice
My stay at AfricaNomads coliving
It all seemed fine before I came to Watamu, Kenya.
But then, I was shocked already the first evening after my arrival. It took me like 3 days with very little sleep, if any, to get to Watamu and one more girl arrived to the coworking just before me. We were both exhausted and once we went to sleep after the initial welcome dinner, other people together with the AfricaNomads organizers kept on partying with loud music on until the middle of the night.
I could hear it all in my bed and it was impossible to sleep even when beyond exhausted, with all windows closed and earplugs in. They just did not care they had 2 new girls joining the coworking who wanted to catch up on sleep after a long journey.
Kenya AfricaNomads coliving bad experience – the first evening
That was already a bad sign for me but I gave them another chance. And it didn’t turn out to be a good idea.
Over the next few days they kept drinking, smoking, shouting, playing loud music both during the day and late at night. Yes, at the coliving hotel. I was very disappointed because to me it seemed like a camp for addicted teenagers who didn’t really work online, instead of a coworking place for intelligent adults who needed to get online work done (that’s what I imagined it would be).
It felt completely wrong to me not only because I do not drink alcohol, do not smoke, do not take drugs, and I’m introvert but also because digital nomads have different work time schedule. So how can you play loud music at the coliving when there might be someone who needs to get work done at that exact time?
Sometimes I need to make phone calls/coaching/record videos and I need silence for that, obviously. I cannot get work done with crazy loud music in the background. Noise cancelling headphones would not be enough.
Kenya AfricaNomads coliving bad experience – our rooms
In my humble opinion, wise people use headphones when they want to listen to music while sharing accommodation with others. That’s exactly what I always do. This is respect.
I never play music out loud when there’s other people around me. Never. Headphones/earphones have been invented for a reason, you know?
If they would just get wasted somewhere outside of the hotel coliving, at a party or a bar, and then be silent while at the hotel, I would understand that. It would still be something I do not like to be around, because energy does not lie and when people drink and smoke and shout, it’s not good energy at all. But it would be still kind of ok and respectful towards other people at the coliving (e.g. me).
But respect was not what I got from them…
Then one night they had a party at the swimming pool from midnight up to 3 am right outside of my room. And I think they were even smoking weed there. Just to clarify, it’s not even allowed at that hotel where the coliving took place because they usually organize yoga retreats at that hotel and they have strict silence rules overall. Also because there’s locals living around the hotel, it is NOT allowed to be loud there.
It was just too much. So I decided to speak up.
Kenya AfricaNomads coliving bad experience – swimming pool where they had the party
After I told the AfricaNomads owner Alejandra Wolf that them being so loud is not ok for me as I could not work during the day and I could not sleep at night, she became so rude. I think her ego was hurt when I said it was more like a place for addicts because I don’t think that every digital nomad is a loud party person drinking and smoking non-stop.
Personally, I joined AfricaNomads coliving thinking it’s a coworking place where people can get online work done and go on local tours in between on days off. As they offer yoga classes, I really thought it was going to be fine.
I was there to even promote their company.
But boy, was I wrong! The reality was they were just getting wasted and going on overpriced tours in between.
The next few online conversations we had about it led nowhere (Alejandra didn’t even have the courage to come to talk to me in person to solve the problem). She pretty much said that I was the one ”not normal” and they were not doing anything wrong and abnormal. According to her it was very ok to get wasted and noisy day and night, and it was my fault I hadn’t expected it would be that way. I mean, seriously?!
I went to a coworking/coliving place to work online. If I wanted to drink and smoke all the time with loud music on, I’d stay at a hostel instead. But I’m not 20 any more and I don’t do those things.
Kenya AfricaNomads coliving bad experience – outdoor chilling area at the hotel
Then Alejandra sent me a message that she didn’t want my promotion any more and I had to leave.
At that time I was still doing online promotion as agreed, but they just decided not to keep their part of the agreement about the things they would provide for me (most of all, a-month long accommodation).
So out of the blue I was left without a place to stay, I had to pack and go somewhere else. I’m a very responsible person and have never been in a similar situation in 14 years of online collaborations with brands around the world. Not even once. Not even close.
And I was not even the one who did something wrong in that situation. I mean, asking for silence to be able to work at a coworking place?
I was coming back to the hotel to pack when I met the hotel manager Peter. He saw there was something wrong and didn’t want to let me go without spilling the beans. So I did tell him the truth and showed him some of the messages Alejandra sent to me.
Peter said he understood me completely because AfricaNomads were causing problems to them at the hotel as well.
I was not the only one who complained about their behavior. All the hotel staff had problems with them, and they were rude to the first hotel cook who was forced to leave.
Kenya AfricaNomads coliving – hotel swimming pool
So the hotel manager Peter offered me a different room as the very last minute solution until I’d find a better place far from the coworking people. It was his idea, not mine.
My new room was in the other half of the hotel. There was a gate between us. But unfortunately I could still hear the music from the coliving all the way up to my room. It seemed louder than a disco. No kidding!
Peter told me he talked to the AfricaNomads organizers several times about them making noise. They said they were doing nothing wrong.
Both Peter and me were shocked.
I really did not understand…
How can it seem ok to force others to listen to horrible loud music at the place where people stay to work?
Where did the basic intelligence disappear?
Frankly, the AfricaNomads don’t give a sh*t about hotel rules, other guests, the entire peaceful area, locals living around, nothing!
I complained about their noise many times using different ways and what did they do?
Absolutely nothing.
They saw my IG story where I shared the video of their loud music tagging them and their reaction was just a “clapping” sign. No sorry, no switching the music off, nothing that mature people would do in that situation to make it right.
And they did not care that the hotel manager talked to them about being too noisy either. They just kept behaving as if the entire place belonged to them! No respect towards the hotel manager and hotel rules either.
On my last day at the coworking they had loud music there from 11:30 am till 1 am! And not just one. Two different people were playing two different kinds of music for more than 13 hours straight!!!
my cute traditional Kenyan room where I stayed at the 2nd half of the hotel
Why I do NOT recommend staying at AfricaNomads coliving
I truly don’t know what is wrong with AfricaNomads founders and what kind of traumas they have (we all do), but too much is too much.
Speaking of brands, I’ve never met anyone so IGNORANT, SELFISH and DISRESPECTFUL in all those years of traveling around the world as AfricaNomads. I really do not understand how they can work with people.
And I do not understand either what kind of digital nomads are that silly to think that disrespecting others like that is ok.
And oh my, the weekend tours that the AfricaNomads offer are a complete rip-off (the tours are paid extra). They are many times more expensive than their actual cost. And I know because it’s very easy to find out the real price, especially once I stayed in Watamu for a while after I left the AfricaNomads coliving. I had a few weeks there to see the real prices of transportation, entrance fees, food etc.
For example, they would charge $75 per person for a tour for a few hours that actually did not cost more than $10, or max $15 with everything included.
I was shocked they have guts to rip digital nomads so much.
It does not seem fair to me and I personally don’t like when people are so dishonest to others thinking just about their own profit. If they were using the extra money for something really beneficial, such as supporting charities or poor local families, it would be easier to understand. But overcharging digital nomads to have money for own alcohol and cigarettes every day? Not so cool.
in Arabuko Sokoke forest oserving wild elephants
The end of my Kenya AfricaNomads experience
As AfricaNomads did not keep their part of our deal, I lost loads of money and time looking for new accommodation last minute. It was not easy at all. And in the meantime I also lost some work deals as I had to solve the accommodation problem instead of spending time working online. And that was after I could not work at the AfricaNomads coliving for several days because of them being noisy.
I managed to leave the hotel after 2 nights in the room that the hotel manager provided for me. I really could not listen to the AfricaNomads loud music any longer. Their disrespect crossed all the boundaries.
Seeing the problems AfricaNomads caused to me and their arrogant messages, I decided to show them the very same attitude – having no respect.
So I refused to pay them the invoice once they sent it to me. It was $25 for the taxi from the airport and $75 for a tour to Arabuko forest to see elephants. Just so you know, there’s a free entrance to watch the elephants if you take a different route there. Yes, it’s true that AfricaNomads provided a guide to the Arabuko forest and some snacks but they charged $75 for the tour per person. I repeat, it’s completely free to enter the forest otherwise and local snacks are very cheap there.
elephants in Arabuko Sokoke forest Watamu Kenya
I did promote the Arabuko tour sharing stories tagging the AfricaNomads accounts on both IG and FB before they forced me to leave, so it was not fair to ask me to pay for the tour as well.
I had enough. Their unprofessional and inhuman behavior meant one thing. They deserved to get back the same that they gave to me.
I would have paid the invoice, of course, if they only behaved in the correct way. But they were the ones who did not keep their part of our deal in the first place. They started with horrible attitude.
Seeing how much both money and sleep I lost thanks to them because of their unprofessionalism, I decided to do exactly what they did. Not caring at all.
Other companies would need to pay me for online promotion, but AfricaNomads did not, and they even wanted my money instead. And on top of that, they even made me lose loads of extra money when I was not being able to work and had to look for another long-term accommodation last minute.
The truth is that I think the whole situation was very easy to solve in a normal human way, if they only wanted to.
They could have just apologize for being too loud, stop playing music at the coliving, and drink and smoke at bars and not right where other people had to work. Simple. Coworking place is not a hostel, nor a bar for alcoholics and addicts. But AfricaNomads chose a different ”solution”.
Kenya AfricaNomads coliving bad experience – a taxi ride
Final thoughts about AfricaNomads coliving
After my personal bad experience with the AfricaNomads in Kenya, I do not recommend anyone to stay with them. Not even if you like to drink and party. Disrespect should not be tolerated.
Reasons why not to book a stay at AfricaNomads coliving:
- they do not care if you need to work or not
- they do not care if you lose clients and money
- they do not have any respect
- the owners of the company are addicted to both alcohol and smoking (who knows what else)
- they overcharge for the tours that you could get very cheap otherwise
- they pretty much rip off the digital nomads so they can party themselves
- they have a dog which is barking non-stop when left alone. Yes, the dog was nice otherwise, but can be very disturbing in a coliving place where people stay to work. As a vegan I love dogs, but how was I supposed to do online calls or record videos with a dog barking a few metres from me at the coworking? Impossible!
- the way they treated me was anything but professional. Why would you want to give your money to a company like this??
tuk tuks in Watamu
TIP 1: My experience with AfricaNomads in Kenya was not nice at all, but Kenya is a good country to visit anyway. Yes, it can be very challenging, but at the same time it’s beautiful. Read about 5 reasons to visit Kenya.
TIP 2: Want to go on a safari trip to observe wild animals? Kenya is definitely one of the best countries for an African safari.
I always prefer honesty which is why I decided to share my horrible experience at AfricaNomads coliving in Kenya.
Posted in Africa, bad experience, Kenya, travel Tags: Africa, AfricaNomads, bad experience, coliving, coworking, digital nomads, Kenya
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