Ivory Coast-based startup, Trenderz, is building a pan-African recommendation-driven booking platform that converts trusted word-of-mouth referrals from content creators and everyday tastemakers into measurable and rewarded bookings for hotels, restaurants, spas, and leisure businesses.

Founded in January 2024 in Abidjan, the startup is already active in five African countries, has onboarded more than 5,000 creators and over 500 venue partners, with ongoing preparation for expansion into South Africa and Kenya.

According to co-founder and CEO Kim Tran, the company was created after identifying a major gap in how hospitality businesses across Africa acquire customers.

“Meanwhile, the most powerful decision channel in West Africa, personal recommendation between friends, was completely invisible and unmonetised,” she said. “We started building Trenderz to capture that reality.”

The Pain Point in Focus

For years, many small and medium-sized hospitality businesses across Africa have had limited and often expensive options for customer acquisition. Hotels, restaurants, resorts, spas, and event venues typically rely on online travel agencies such as Booking.com or spend heavily on digital advertising and influencer promotions.

However, these channels often come with trade-offs. OTAs charge commissions that can significantly reduce already thin margins, while paid influencer campaigns do not always guarantee real conversions or paying customers.

For many operators, especially independent businesses, marketing spend can feel more like a gamble than an investment.

Tran explained this challenge clearly, saying African hospitality SMEs were “stuck between two bad options, either paying massive commissions to OTAs like Booking.com, or paying influencers upfront for posts that rarely generated bookings.”

That frustration is not unique to Francophone Africa. Across the continent, thousands of small tourism and lifestyle businesses face similar struggles, low visibility, rising customer acquisition costs, and limited tools to track where bookings truly come from.

What is Trenderz?

Trenderz is attempting to solve that challenge by monetising something that already exists naturally in African consumer culture: trust-based recommendations.

Rather than forcing businesses to depend solely on advertisements or global booking platforms, Trenderz turns every recommendation from a trusted person into a bookable sales channel.

Whether the recommendation comes from a content creator with a large audience or a well-connected local tastemaker known for great choices, the platform ensures that referrals can be tracked, converted into bookings, and rewarded financially.

At its core, Trenderz is building what could be described as Africa’s trust-powered booking marketplace.

The company currently operates through three key products, such as Trenderz Pro, a venue-facing business platform; MyTrenderz, a public recommendation page for users; and its creator mobile app, where creators discover collaborations, apply for complimentary experiences, and track earnings in real time.

Tran stressed that the startup goes beyond simple affiliate links or discovery tools.

“Trenderz isn’t just a discovery tool or a code-sharing platform, we handle the booking page, the calendar, the deposit, the payment, the tracking, and the payout,” she said.

How Does It Work?

The model is built to align incentives for all sides of the marketplace. Hospitality businesses such as hotels, restaurants, spas, and activity venues list their services on the platform.

Content creators can then apply for collaborations through the Trenderz mobile app, often receiving complimentary stays, meals, premium access, or exclusive experiences in exchange for creating content.

After visiting the venue, creators share personalised booking links with their followers. Whenever someone books through that link, the creator earns a commission.

“They experience these places, create content for their community, and earn a commission every time someone books through their unique link,” Tran said.

The company’s second app version is expanding beyond influencers to include what it calls “local friends”, individuals who may not have huge audiences but whose personal recommendations carry weight among friends, colleagues, and social circles.

These users can create their own MyTrenderz pages, recommend trusted places, and earn whenever those recommendations lead to confirmed bookings.

This approach recognises an often-overlooked truth in African markets, influence is not always about follower counts. Sometimes, the most trusted recommender is simply the person in the WhatsApp group who always knows the best places to go.

Trenderz’s Market Capacity and Expansion Plans

Despite launching only in January 2024, Trenderz says it has already grown to over 5,000 creators and more than 500 venue partners.

According to the company, some of its most active venues generate dozens of monthly bookings through their creator networks, often at lower acquisition costs than traditional digital advertising.

Its current footprint includes Ivory Coast and Senegal as primary markets, while Cameroon, Benin, and Democratic Republic of the Congo serve as secondary markets. The startup is now preparing a strategically significant move into Anglophone Africa, beginning with South Africa this year, followed by Kenya.

Tran said this transition is important because the model developed in Francophone Africa may actually be better suited to broader African realities than imported Western growth playbooks.

“We believe the recommendation-based model we’ve built in Francophone Africa, where digital payment infrastructure is more fragmented and consumer behavior is WhatsApp-first, is actually well-suited to other African markets.”

Further expansion into Ghana and Nigeria is expected between 2027 and 2028.

Revenue Model and Growth Momentum

Trenderz monetises directly from bookings completed on its platform. For hotels, spas, activities, and events, it charges a 12 per cent commission. Restaurants pay a flat US$5 per booking. A share goes to the recommender who generated the customer, while Trenderz retains a fixed fee.

“This is a pure pay-on-performance model, zero subscription fees, zero setup costs, zero commitment. The venue only pays when we actually deliver a customer,” Tran said.

The company also reports that its gross merchandise value has been growing at roughly 30 per cent month-over-month, with positive unit economics on each booking.

While profitability is not yet the immediate priority, Trenderz says it is investing aggressively in growth, product expansion, and new market entry.

Why This Matters for Africa

Trenderz represents a broader shift in African startup thinking, and that is building products around local behaviour instead of copying foreign models.

Across much of Africa, purchasing decisions are deeply social. Consumers often trust friends, creators, family circles, and peer communities more than paid advertising. Recommendations travel quickly through platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and word-of-mouth networks.

By formalising and rewarding that trust economy, Trenderz could unlock a more efficient growth engine for hospitality businesses while creating income opportunities for creators and everyday users.

It also signals growing innovation in Francophone Africa, a region that has historically received less global startup attention compared with Anglophone hubs such as Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town.

If the startup succeeds in scaling across diverse markets like South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria, it may not only reshape bookings for Africa’s hospitality sector, but also demonstrate that some of the continent’s most valuable tech models are rooted in something simple and timeless: trust.

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