Is booking direct cheaper for a safari? Rarely – and here’s why

A safari is not a simple hotel booking

A safari involves more than choosing a lodge with beautiful photographs.

You need to consider the right region, the right season, the right game reserve, the right lodge, the right room type, the right number of nights, the right routing, and the right balance between comfort, wildlife, pace and budget. It’s a lot to work through.

A good safari is not assembled from nice lodges. It is built from good judgement.

That is where a specialist safari operator can make a real difference.

Why safari lodges rarely discount online

Safari lodges are not like large city hotels with hundreds of rooms to fill.

Many are small, remote and highly seasonal. They may have only a handful of rooms. Their business depends on maintaining their rates, protecting their brand, and working closely with the travel trade.

Specialist safari operators send lodges a steady flow of well-matched guests. We understand who the lodge suits, when it works best, how long clients should stay, and how it fits into a wider itinerary. That relationship matters to the lodge.

In return, we receive a wholesale rate, which allows us to make a profit whilst still offering the safari lodge at the same price as their published rates. (More on that later.)

So good safari lodges do not discount below their published rates. They may release special offers, stay-pay deals or seasonal value-adds, but these are always made available to specialist safari operators, like us, as well.

So whether you book with a safari lodge directly, book via a safari specialist operator, or via the OTAs, you will see very similar pricing.

So lets look at the following:

1. How Safari Specialist pricing works (How we make our money)
2. Comparing Like with Like (Why the cheapest safari is not always the best value)
3. Hidden Costs of Doing it All Yourself
4. What a Safari Specialist Adds
5. What happens if something goes wrong?
6. A direct comparison with booking direct

How Safari Specialist pricing works

How we make our money, and why its not out of your pocket

As a specialist African tour operator, Cedarberg Africa negotiates wholesale rates with safari lodges, hotels, tour companies, car rental companies, and other suppliers. ((Think in terms of a wholesale rate given to a retail shop.)

The public rate – sometimes called the rack rate  – is the rate offered directly to travellers on their website.

Our preferential wholesale rate is lower. As it reflects the fact that specialists like us understand their ”product”, manage complex itineraries, and bring them consistent business year in year out.

Once our profit is added on, the final price to you may be a little lower than the public rate, similar to it, or occasionally slightly higher for a particular element in an itinerary.

But across a full itinerary, our prices often compare extremely well with booking everything independently.

And that price includes something no OTA can give you: experienced safari advice, first-hand product knowledge, careful routing, practical and informative documentation and support behind the scenes.

You are not just paying for the booking of the trip.

What a safari specialist adds:

A specialist safari operator does far more than simple book hotels and safari lodges.

At Cedarberg Africa, we look at the whole trip: the route, the pace, the season, the quality of guiding, the lodge style, the room choices, the time spent travelling, the possible pressure points and the small details that can transform the experience.

Sometimes the best advice is knowing what to leave out.

We may suggest slowing the itinerary down, choosing fewer places, changing the order of the trip, spending more on guiding rather than a higher room category, or choosing a lesser-known lodge that suits you better than the more famous one.

This is where a safari specialist adds value.

Better Peace of Mind

Our hotel and lodge suggestions have usually been personally vetted, approved, and compared with many lodges in the same region.

Better routing and sounding board

A trip can look good on paper but feel too rushed on the ground. We help you create a route that flows properly, with enough time in each place. You can ask our opinion of different plans.

Better seasonal choices

Africa changes dramatically by season. The right month for one region may be the wrong month for another. We help you avoid beautiful ideas that are poorly timed.

Better lodge matching

The “best” lodge is not always the best lodge for you. Some are better for honeymooners, others for families, walking safaris, first-time safari-goers, horse-riding, food and wine, or simply a quieter feeling of wilderness.

Better use of budget

A safari is a significant investment. We help you decide where to splurge, where to simplify and where a more expensive option is genuinely worth it.

Better support

If flights change, weather intervenes, or your plans need to be adjusted, you have someone who understands the whole itinerary and can help pull the moving parts together.

Better information

You have full documentation with ideas of what to do in each area, hotel directions (if applicable), restaurant guides etc.

What happens if something goes wrong?

This is one of the most underestimated differences between booking independently and booking through a specialist.

If you book each element yourself, you are also responsible for dealing with any unforeseen changes yourself. This is manageable when everything goes smoothly. But harder when a flight change has a knock-on effect on later plans.

A delayed flight can affect a transfer. A missed connecting flight can throw out your whole safari. Weather can affect light aircraft flights. A changed lodge booking can affect the whole route. A family illness, natural event or unexpected disruption can require several suppliers to be contacted quickly.

When you book through a specialist, there is someone behind the scenes who understands the whole trip.

That does not mean nothing will ever go wrong. Africa is real, flights get delayed and unexpected things can happen anywhere. But it does mean you are not trying to solve each piece in isolation.

For many client, that reassurance is worth as much as any saving of $100 apiece.

More Advantages – Why Book with a Tour Operator in Africa

Is Booking Direct really cheaper? A Real Life Comparison

We compare our price for two typical itineraries – the results may surprise you…

However every year or so, we do a reality price check – to ensure we are competitive. We compare two itineraries with booking with the hotels or game lodges directly or booking with an OTA.

In the interests of simplicity we have stacked the deck against us. We assume that you have NOT spent hours researching and comparing where you want to stay. So we don’t include the cost of your research time. Perhaps you have an imaginary cousin who raved about their trip, and you are trying to replicate it entirely?

Here’s a small price comparison to illustrate our point.

We use the same two test cases that we used before. Both are self-drive itineraries. Mainly because private guides and transfers are not so easily bookable online.  But the car rental doesn’t really impact the results – as you’ll see later. So this comparison is meaningful for anyone booking a safari using any mode of transport.

We use two comparisons:

Example 1 is an upmarket holiday using smart 5 star accommodation and a top safari at the end. It is booked for a few months away. (A typical scenario for Cedarberg Africa)

Example 2 is more stacked against us. As we were looking at a mid-range itinerary, booked last minute within a month of travel.

Example I – A romantic 5 star safari holiday

• 1st Nov – 3 nights Cape Town – Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa BB
• 4th Nov – 2 nights Winelands – Lanzerac Hotel BB
• 6th Nov – fly to Durban and drive to Phinda Forest Lodge, 3 nights on safari Fully Inclusive
• 9th Nov – 4 nights Thonga Beach Lodge, Full Board & selected activities
• Plus 6 days Group D automatic car in the Cape and 7 nights Group R SUV. Both from Europcar with full insurance and unlimited mileage. It excludes the international flights.

Then we went online to note the best prices that we could get from both the hotel’s own website and Booking.com (as an example of an OTA). Then we looked at what our price would be using whole rates loaded into our reservation system.atic car from Europcar. (The prices below exclude all international flights to South Africa…)

Cedarberg Africa price:
The accommodation price was R244 800 per couple  

Hotel’s own websites:
Price was R254 250 – 3.8% more than Cedarberg’s price

Via Booking.com:
Price was R245 950 –  0.5% more than Cedarberg

In this example, booking through Cedarberg Africa was lower or very similar than booking the same arrangements independently.

But the more critical point is that the specialist price also included itinerary design, first-hand advice, supplier coordination, practical travel documentation, and support behind the scenes.

Example 2 – Mid-range 4 star holiday booked last minute, less than a month away

We did a similar test using 4-star hotels and game lodges. But we decided to skew the results even MORE against us. So we  booked last minute (within a month of travel). It assumes a common routing including Cape Town, the Garden Route and the Eastern Cape for a safari.

Plus 13 days Group D automatic car from Europcar with full insurance and unlimited mileage. It excludes the international flights.

• 1^st Nov – 3 nights Cape Town – Four Rosmead Hotel BB (Bed & Breakfast)
• 4^th Nov – 2 nights Winelands – La Fontaine Guesthouse BB
• 6^th Nov – 2 nights Knysna, Garden Route – Fynbos on Sea
• 8^thNov – 2 nights nr Plettenberg, Garden Route – Hog Hollow BB
• 10^th Nov  – 3 nights Eastern Cape Safari – Kariega River Lodge, Fully Inclusive

Plus 13 days Group C automatic car from Europcar or Bidvest.

In this example, booking through Cedarberg Africa was 3.9% lower than booking directly and still 2.4% less than booking via an OTA.

There were two options where Booking.com had discounted below rack rate. But this was offset by two occasions when they were higher than our price.

(& Remember this was not allowing for ANY cost for the research time.)

So is booking direct really cheaper for an African safari? …Very rarely

For safari and country lodges, very rarely. Most reputable safari lodges protect their public rates as they work closely with the travel trade. Online booking sites usually show the same public rate available to any traveller, not a mythical safari deal.

Sometimes an OTA may offer a slightly lower rate, but it is non-refundable. And sometimes the fully refundable rate is higher than the rack rate!

For simple city hotels, booking direct or via an OTA may sometimes be a little cheaper. But usually only if you are booking last minute (and then you may not get the best choice of hotels) or prepared to book on a non-refundable basis.

 Even then, our lower prices elsewhere usually offset the one discounted option.

So for a full African safari, the better question is not:

“Can I book this myself?”

But:

“Will I make the best decisions, compare the right inclusions, and have support if something changes?”

That is where a good safari specialist earns their place.

A good safari is not about finding the cheapest route to the same rooms. It is about making the right decisions. And often, booking with a safari specialist costs no more than trying to do it yourself.

Conclusion

Booking wisely, not just saving the odd $100

PAt Cedarberg Africa, we are not here to sell you every possibility. We are here to help you recognise the right ones.

We design personal, high-end safaris and African holidays for discerning travellers who want the trip to feel considered from start to finish. For over 30 years, our experienced safari designers have combined first-hand Africa knowledge, candid advice and careful listening to shape safaris around each client’s interests, pace, family dynamics and sense of adventure.

Sometimes we are less. Sometimes we are similar. Occasionally a direct rate may be lower for one element. But across the full safari itinerary, the difference is non-existent or minor — and the specialist support, advice and protection can be worth far more than any small saving.

A specialist can help you avoid costly mistakes, use your budget more wisely and travel with far greater confidence.

Ready to plan your safari properly?

People now have ready access to bucket loads of information. But it still takes hours and hours to find that information and to accurately assess which information is credible.

Our suggestion? You do the enjoyable bits; we do the nitty gritty…

Working with a safari specialist  gives you the best of both worlds. You can discuss your initial – enjoyable – research with us. Then hand it over to us to do the more time-consuming part.

Together you can plan the perfect trip. At much less cost in terms of research hours and anxiety. AND at similar price as if you had booked it directly. 

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“Comparison of Booking Direct vs a Safari Specialist” – was written by Kate of Cedarberg Africa

Cedarberg Africa is a specialist tour operator for Southern and East Africa. We focus on upmarket tailormade safaris for discerning and inquiring people. Chat to you about a possible trip from personal experience, weighing up the different options, to plan a trip that is just right for you.