ABSTRACT
Kenya is one of the leading tourist destinations in Africa, which creates the need to foster closer linkages between the tourists and the local community members. As such, many homestay facilities have come up in the recent past to cater for the accommodation needs of the tourists. Yet information on the tourists' satisfaction levels regarding the homestay facilities in Kenya currently remains largely unknown. The study therefore determined the influence of facilities and services offered by homestays on tourist satisfaction within the Lake Victoria area of the western tourist circuit. The study was conducted through survey design comprising a randomly selected sample of 20 homestay facilities (with a total of 42 respondents) that were identified through the Kenya Community-Based Tourism Network database (KECOBAT). The findings indicated that 71% were not satisfied with the homestays. This was largely attributed to deficient tangible factors of service quality of which the study also revealed were a better predictor of tourist satisfaction in homestays than intangible factors. Therefore it may be prudent for the homestay owners to ensure that they have adequate facilities (not necessarily high quality but should be functional) to ensure repeat business especially through recommendations.
