How to price a safari itinerary
Pricing a safari is not one number, it is a stack of costs that behave differently: some are per person, some per vehicle, some per night, and several change with the season and the traveller’s residency. This guide walks through the full stack so your quote is both competitive and profitable.
9 min read · Updated 24 July 2026
The cost stack of a safari
Every safari quote is built from the same building blocks. Miss one and you either lose the booking on price or win it and lose the margin. Work through them in order:
| Component | Charged | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Park & conservation fees | Per person, per day (often + per vehicle) | Resident vs non-resident rates; fees that reset at a gate time, not midnight |
| Accommodation | Per person sharing, per night, by season & room type | Net (STO) vs rack rates; single supplements; child policy |
| Concession / community fees | Per person, per night at some camps | Often billed separately from the bed-night rate |
| Transport | Per vehicle, per day (plus fuel & driver-guide) | Long transfers, park entry for the vehicle, cross-border charges |
| Internal flights | Per person, per sector | Luggage limits, seat rates vs charter, airstrip transfer times |
| Activities & permits | Per person, per activity | High-value permits (e.g. gorilla trekking) booked far in advance |
| Margin / markup | Your uplift on net cost | Agent commission if the booking comes through a partner |
Per person vs per vehicle
The single biggest source of mispriced safaris is mixing up per-person and per-vehicle costs. Park entry is usually per person per day, but many parks also charge a separate vehicle fee, and a game-drive vehicle carries a fixed number of guests. So the per-person cost of the vehicle and its park fee falls as the party grows, while bed-nights and per-person park fees stay flat.
Always cost the vehicle and its fees once per vehicle, then divide across the actual party, rather than baking a flat per-person transport figure into every quote.
How Itero Desk handles it
Itero Desk’s pricing engine scales park fees per vehicle automatically and splits shared costs across the real party size, so multi-vehicle and larger groups price correctly without a spreadsheet.
Residency changes the price
Most park authorities publish different entry rates for non-residents, residents and, in East Africa, East African citizens. Quoting a non-resident rate to a resident client loses you the booking on price; quoting a resident rate to a non-resident loses you the difference on every head, every day. Confirm residency before you cost the parks.
Season is part of the price
Accommodation rates and, in some places, park fees move with the season. A camp can cost two or three times more in peak migration months than in the green season, and shoulder dates sit in between. Price the itinerary against the exact travel dates, not a single annual rate, and be explicit with the client about which season the quote reflects.
Board basis and meal plans
A bed-night rate depends on the board basis: room only, bed & breakfast, half board, full board or a full game package (meals, drinks and shared game drives). The same room at the same camp has very different net costs on different plans, and some itineraries mix plans across the trip. Cost each stay on the board basis you are actually selling.
Children are not small adults
Child pricing is a common leak. Camps set child rates per room type, either as an age-banded amount or a percentage of the adult rate, and park authorities often have their own child and infant rates. Applying the adult rate to a child overprices the quote; ignoring child park fees underprices it.
Adding margin the right way
Build the itinerary at net cost first, then apply your markup. Decide up front whether your margin is a percentage uplift or a fixed amount per traveller, and whether an agent commission comes out of your margin or sits on top. Keeping net cost and margin separate means you always know the floor you can discount to.
The five most common pricing mistakes
- Quoting a child at the adult rate (or forgetting child park fees entirely).
- Forgetting that park fees scale per vehicle on multi-vehicle trips.
- Using a rack rate instead of your net / STO rate.
- Pricing dates that fall outside the seasons you actually have rates for.
- Leaving out concession, crater-service or community fees that bill separately.
Price from your real rates
Itero Desk prices every itinerary from your own imported rate sheets and a live, country-aware park-fee library, so the number in the quote is the number you can stand behind. See the safari quote builder for how the workflow fits together.