Founder's Note: WildPlanner After Hours Hoedspruit

Written by Victoria Bakos

Last week we did something we've wanted to do for a while: got 20 people from across the safari and tour operator world into one room, in person, at the Stoned Olive in Hoedspruit. There was no agenda or lengthy presentations. The focus was just good food and honest conversation about the thing that's been driving all of us mad: rates.

WildPlanner After Hours was a chance to sit down with the operators and reservations teams who deal with rate sheets every single day, and hear it straight from them. We kept the format simple for everyone who attended: small, intimate demos with each group, a few short words from us, and then we got out of the way and let people talk to each other. Because some of the best conversations of the night weren't with us at all, they were operators comparing notes on the exact same headaches. Luckily we get to listen in.

Olivia bedford and Victoria Bakos, co-founders, talking at an outdoor event in Hoedspruit with a small group of travel operators listening

What stood out most was how universal the frustration is. Different businesses, different corners of the industry, same story: rate sheets scattered across PDFs and spreadsheets, updates that don't reach everyone in time, hours lost to manual admin that should take minutes. It's exactly why we built WildPlanner, and it was genuinely energising to hear it validated in person rather than in an email or support query.

Huge thanks to everyone who came through, to the Stoned Olive for hosting us so well (the food was unreal), and to this industry for being as generous with its time and its problems as it is with its landscapes.