Notices
Water shut-off on Thursday, fumigation, the AGM date. Send to everyone, one block or one unit, and residents get a notification.
Visitor management for Nairobi apartments and compounds
Know who's at your gate. Decide who gets in.
BomaSafe puts a phone at your gate. The guard logs each visitor, the resident gets a notification and taps Approve or Deny, and every entry is saved. It replaces the paper gate book.
The 48-second version
Deliveries. Guests. Strangers. Were you expecting them?
GuardResidentManagerNight Buzzer
The problem
The gate book can't tell you who let him in.
- A man tells the askari he's visiting B4. The askari writes a name in the book and opens the gate, and nobody in B4 was asked.
- A rider turns up with a parcel nobody ordered, or a fundi says the caretaker sent him.
- Something goes missing from the parking. The book has a name nobody can read, no phone number, and nothing about who said yes.
BomaSafe asks the resident before the gate opens, and keeps the answer.
Visitors' book · Main gate
Who let him in?How it works
How a visit works
Three steps, all in the time it takes to walk up to the gate.
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01 · At the gate
The guard logs the visitor
Someone arrives. The guard taps Log Visitor and adds their name, phone number and unit. Deliveries and fundis also get a photo of their ID.
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02 · On the resident's phone
The resident says yes or no
The resident's phone buzzes with who's at the gate. They tap Approve or Deny. If nobody answers within 2 minutes, the answer is no.
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03 · On record
The gate opens, and it's logged
The guard sees the decision on screen, and the visit goes into the log with the time and who approved it.
Expecting someone? Send them a QR pass on WhatsApp. The guard scans it at the gate and they go straight in.
One app, three people
How it works for each person
Each person sees their own screens: the guard at the gate, the residents, and the society's managers.
For the guard
Two big buttons on one gate phone.
The gate keeps one shared phone. Guards log in with the property PIN, and End Shift hands it to the next guard.
- Log Visitor takes the purpose, name, phone and unit. Deliveries and fundis need an ID photo; a face photo is optional.
- Send it to the resident. The guard waits on a 2-minute countdown and can tap to call the resident.
- Scan QR Code checks a resident's pass. If it won't scan, type the 6-digit backup code.
- Expected visitors shows the deliveries and guests residents have flagged in advance.
For residents
Every visitor needs your OK.
Nobody gets in on "he said he's visiting B4" any more. The resident decides, from wherever they are.
- Get a notification when someone is at the gate for your unit. Approve or Deny with one tap, within 2 minutes.
- Make a pass for a guest you're expecting, valid for 1 hour, 4 hours, 24 hours or 7 days. Share the QR on WhatsApp, with a 6-digit code as backup.
- Waiting for a delivery? Make a pass and keep it to yourself. The guard sees it as an expected visitor.
- Revoke any pass if plans change.
For managers, caretakers and committees
The whole compound on one screen.
What happened at the gate today, what's waiting for you, and what happened overnight.
- Dashboard: today's visitors, guards on duty, residents, pending bookings, payment proofs to review and missed night checks.
- Notices to everyone, one block or one unit, and an emergency alert to every resident.
- Approve party-hall bookings and mark payment proofs as reviewed.
- Turn features on or off for your property.
The gate log
Every entry, on record.
Each visit is saved with the time, the visitor's details, whether the resident approved, denied or never answered, and which gate phone logged it. When something goes missing, you look up that day instead of asking around.
- Nobody can edit or delete an entry from the app, guards included.
- Deliveries and fundis: ID photo saved with the visit.
- Last Saturday's visitors? Open the log, not a pile of pages.
Gate log · ExampleMain gate
At night, it checks your guard is awake.
The gate phone rings at a random time, roughly once an hour, so there's no pattern to wait out.
- A loud alarm of about 28 seconds. It rings again every minute until the guard taps I'M AWAKE.
- After 5 minutes with no tap, the check is logged as missed.
- In the morning, open the report. Each of the last 14 nights gets one card.
Every check answered
Didn't reach the phone: check the phone first
Rang, nobody answered
Also in the app
The rest of running the compound.
Switch on the ones your property needs.
Emergency alerts
One tap from the manager reaches every resident at once.
Party-hall bookings
Residents see which slots are taken and request one. Once you approve it, nobody else can book that slot.
Payment proofs
Residents upload the M-Pesa message or bank slip for rent or service charge, and you mark it reviewed. BomaSafe doesn't take payments. It keeps the proofs in one place, so you're not scrolling a WhatsApp group for them.
Maintenance requests
A leaking tap in C2 gets reported in the app, where the manager can see it, instead of in a hallway conversation.
Do residents need a smartphone?
To approve visitors and make passes, yes: any Android phone or iPhone with data. If a resident doesn't have one, the guard can call them from the visitor screen, as they would today. The visit is still logged, and the app shows it as no response.
What if a resident doesn't answer?
After 2 minutes the request closes and the visitor isn't approved. While it's waiting, the guard can tap to call the resident. What happens after that is your society's rule, and the log shows that nobody approved it in the app.
What happens to visitors' ID photos?
They're stored with the visit record in private storage, never on a public link. In the app, residents see visitors to their own unit only, and the manager sees the property's log.
Does BomaSafe follow Kenya's Data Protection Act?
Yes. BomaSafe is built to comply with the Data Protection Act, 2019. Visitor details and photos are collected for gate security only, kept in private storage, and shown only inside the app to people at your property. Your society stays in charge of its records and we handle them on its behalf. Read our privacy notice.
Do guards need training?
Very little. Their screen is two buttons and a camera. When the pilot starts, we set up the gate phone and show your guards how it works.
What phone does the gate need?
One Android smartphone that stays at the gate, charged and on mobile data. Guards share it using one property PIN. Your society can provide the phone, or we can supply one at a good price; we agree this when you sign up. We recommend Android because the Night Buzzer alarm can't ring through silent mode on an iPhone yet.
What if the internet goes down?
BomaSafe needs data. If the gate phone is offline, visitor requests can't reach residents, and the guard goes back to calling them until it's back. Night checks that can't reach the phone show yellow in the report, so you can tell a dead phone from a sleeping guard. Keep a data bundle and a charger at the gate.
Does it work on iPhone and Android?
Yes, both, for residents and managers. BomaSafe is in beta, so it isn't in the Play Store or App Store yet: during the pilot, residents install it from an invite link (the Android beta, or TestFlight on iPhone). For the gate phone we recommend Android (see above).
How does a pilot work, and what does it cost?
We set BomaSafe up with your blocks, units and residents, get the gate phone running, and your residents install the app. Pricing depends on your property, so talk to us and we'll go through it.
Book a pilot
Bring BomaSafe to your society.
A pilot is running now. Tell us about your property and we'll message you on WhatsApp to set one up.
- We set up your blocks, units and residents.
- We get the gate phone running and show your guards how it works. Use your own phone, or we can supply one.
- Your residents install the beta from an invite link, on Android or iPhone.
Or reach us directly
Thanks. We've got it.
We'll message you on WhatsApp to set up the pilot.