About
Named for the spirits that protect home.
A zemi[ZEH-mee] is a sacred ancestral figure of the Taíno — the people who named Jamaica long before it was Jamaica. Carved from stone, wood, or shell, zemis sat in every household. They protected the family, welcomed guests, and watched over travelers. To stay in a Taíno home was to come under the protection of its zemi.
That’s the spirit we’re trying to bring back to Caribbean hospitality.
Why we’re building Zemi
The vacation rental market in Jamaica is one of the most host-extracted in the world. A Superhost listing on Airbnb today loses roughly 17% of revenue to platform service fees. Starting April 2027, Jamaica’s 15% GCT will layer on top of those platform fees — effectively a second tax on the host’s income, collected by a foreign tech company on behalf of a jurisdiction the company doesn’t live in.
The hosts we know — many of them friends of family, neighbors in the parishes — have been quietly bracing for this. Most want to take more bookings direct. Most don’t have the time or technical skill to build it themselves.
Zemi is a direct-booking platform built specifically for hand-picked Jamaican Superhosts. Same villas. Lower prices for guests. More revenue for the families who actually clean the sheets and meet you at the gate.
Why “hand-picked” matters
We’re not racing Airbnb on inventory. We never will. The point of Zemi is the opposite — every villa on the platform belongs to a host with a proven reputation, a real history of 5-star stays, and the relationship to back it up.
The first family on Zemi is the Yeates family: Curtis and Andrea Yeates host three Jamaican villas (Glory and Grace in Montego Bay; Seagull in Negril) and have welcomed guests for over a decade. You can still book their properties on Airbnb if you want to. You can also book direct on yeatesretreats.com — their own branded site, powered by Zemi.
That’s the model. Each host keeps their brand. Zemi runs the booking, payment, and back-office layer underneath. Our commission is single-digit. Our marketing budget brings more guests to every host on the network. Nobody loses their voice to the platform.
Who builds this
Zemi is operated by Nyx LLC, a Delaware-formed company. The platform is built and operated by Machel Saunders, a US-based engineer and co-host for the Yeates family’s villas. The Yeates family advises on hospitality, guest experience, and the local realities of running a vacation home in Jamaica.
We’re a small operation by design. We don’t want to be the next Airbnb. We want to be the platform that great Jamaican hosts choose when they realize there’s a way to take more bookings direct.