How Dobi Mtaani works
Honest discovery. Direct contact.
Find a nearby laundry, check what has been verified, and contact the business on WhatsApp or by phone.
No guesswork.
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with the laundry.
What each label means
| Listed | We hold a record of this business — from OpenStreetMap, the owner, or our team. It may be unclaimed. |
|---|---|
| Contact verified | Our team called or messaged the number and reached this business. Only verified numbers get a Call button. |
| WhatsApp confirmed | The business told us this number takes WhatsApp. Only then do we show a WhatsApp button. |
| Owner verified | The owner’s claim was checked using the contact we already held for the business, plus a manual review. |
| Accepting requests | The owner confirmed they are taking requests within the last 48 hours. |
| Check availability | The owner’s last confirmation is older than 48 hours. It may be out of date. |
| Open according to listed hours | Based only on published opening hours. It does not mean they are accepting new orders. |
| Confirmed slot | Capacity the laundry reserved when accepting your specific request. |
Booking states
Requested → Accepted → Confirmed by you → Received → Processing → Ready → Completed. Requests can also be declined, expire if the laundry doesn’t answer within 24 hours, or be cancelled. A request is not a confirmed booking.
Weight-based estimates may change after weighing. If the new total is materially higher (more than 10% or KSh 100), the laundry must get your approval before work starts.
How results are ordered
First we remove anything that doesn’t fit your search: the wrong services, outside the area, closed or removed, or not accepting bookings when you asked for that. Personalisation never overrides these filters.
“Recommended” then adds up simple, documented factors: service match (weight 3), accepts booking requests (0.5), recently confirmed availability (0.5), closeness (3) and your own explicit choices — saved, booked before or “I know this laundry” (1.5). It does not predict quality. “Nearest” sorts by straight-line distance only; “All nearby” lists everything that matches.
Sponsored placements are always labelled “Sponsored” and shown separately.
What we can and can’t know
- We know what you did on Dobi Mtaani: laundries you opened, saved, marked as familiar or booked — stored on your device, or your account if you turn on sync.
- We don’t know your physical movements, browser history, Google Maps history, contacts or experiences outside the platform, and we never guess familiarity from proximity.
- Your device location is used once per search, rounded to about 100 m, and never sent to AI models or analytics.