Kenya’s accommodation booking website, SleepOut.co.ke, is planning an expansion into more territories thanks to a $200,000 funding boost it has received in May this year.

SleepOut connects guests looking for a place to stay and hosts renting out accommodation via its website or even SMS technology. The accommodation can range from being the likes of a beach hut, five-star resort or tented camp.

According to SleepOut’s founders, the site is processing over 3,000 bookings every month and lists 1,000 accommodation properties in Kenya alone. This in turn has seen the company’s monthly booking rate jump by 800%, according to SleepOut.

And in light of these developments, SleepOut is now aiming to upgrade its software in preparation to expand across Africa and even the Middle East.

This comes days after the company secured a $200,000 funding round in May lead by the likes of Amsterdam-based Africa Media Ventures Fund. SleepOut has also won the ‘Mobile Enterprise Category’ at the Pivot East competition.

“SleepOut depends largely on its software to facilitate the accommodation search process and provide a pleasant booking experience. The seed funding has allowed SleepOut to proceed with its plans to launch SleepOut.com on a significantly improved platform,” Mikul Shah, the chief operating officer at SleepOut has told ITWeb Africa.

“The new application which will be launched in the coming weeks makes use of the best in intelligent search algorithms, user-generated content, responsive design and intuitive inventory management. SleepOut intends to also use the funds to begin to work with hosts in neighbouring countries and expand our international offering.”

Mikul Shah told ITWeb Africa that they will be targeting over 5,000 property owners in the Middle East, East Africa and the Vanilla Islands before the year ends.

But the expansion is not without challenges. Shah has said that lack of reliable and good value online payment service providers is a hurdle to overcome.

Other difficulties may be face by SleepOut down the line as well, such boosting locals’ trust in using e-commerce to make bookings.

“Kenyans are big online consumers of information but that's only the first step. Kenyans are still somewhat apprehensive of e-commerce but we've noticed already that acceptance levels for transacting online or online via mobile are on the rise,” he emphasised.