Last month we published nine questions to ask before you join a host agency. A few people wrote back with a fair challenge: fine, but how would Waybird answer them?
This is that post. It goes through Hosted in the same order, question by question, with nothing held back for the demo except the things that depend on your numbers. If you’re a guide, camp manager or consultant thinking about selling trips under your own name, this should tell you whether it’s worth a conversation.
Waybird Hosted is a host-agency membership for independent sellers of safari and bespoke travel across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Guests contract with Waybird under our booking terms, we handle supplier payments and insurance, and you keep 80% of the margin on every trip you sell. There is no software fee, just a small monthly commitment fee that is credited back against your first commission payout. If you’re already set up to run your own travel business and just want the software, Waybird Lite (USD 199/month) and Core (USD 349/month) are the same platform without the host-agency layer.
1. How does Waybird make money, and how do you?
You price the trip. You take the net rates from the DMC, lodge or camp, decide what the guest pays, and the difference is the margin. Waybird’s fee is a share of that margin, taken off before your commission is paid, so there’s nothing to invoice and nothing to reconcile. You keep 80%.
That’s the whole model. There’s no software subscription on Hosted, no per-booking fee, and no charge for quoting. The only fixed cost is a small monthly commitment fee, and it’s only charged until your first booking is confirmed. At that point it stops, and everything you’ve paid is added to your first commission payout. If you sign up and never book, you’ve paid a modest fee for a few months of a working platform. If you sign up and book, it’s cost you nothing.
Two things worth knowing. The margin is calculated after card and transfer fees, not before, so the percentage you see in your commission report is on money that actually arrived. And whatever split applies to a booking on the day it’s confirmed stays with that booking until it’s settled, even if it travels a year later.
2. Can the software build the trips you sell?
Waybird is the itinerary and booking platform that Timbuktu has run its own trips on for over a decade. It exists because building a twelve-night, three-country safari proposal from a blank page takes most of a day, and the person who does it fastest usually wins the booking.
You get a library of a few thousand lodges, camps and experiences across Africa, Asia and Latin America, written by people who have stayed in them, with live availability where the property runs ResRequest or NightsBridge. You can add your own properties, upload your own images and write your own descriptions. Proposals go out branded to you, priced in the guest’s currency, with a payment link in them. When the guest pays, the booking, the invoice, the travel documents and the payment reminders follow without you touching them.
If you’re a guide, the honest test is this: could you build a proposal for a returning guest between game drives on a phone? Yes. That’s what it’s for.
3. Do the supplier relationships cover your destinations?
Hosted includes access to Waybird’s DMC network: the ground handlers, lodges and camps that Timbuktu and Waybird members book with across Africa, Asia and Latin America. When you have an enquiry for a region, we put you in touch with the DMC partner there. You work with them directly to shape the trip, they send you the net costing once it’s ready, and you build your proposal from that. Quoting is free. There’s no minimum number of bookings to keep access, and Waybird earns nothing on a quote that doesn’t convert.
You’re also free to use your own contacts. If you’ve spent ten years in the Delta and have a rate with a camp that nobody else gets, use it. Load them as a supplier and book them through the platform the same way. The network is there to fill gaps, not to replace the relationships that make you worth booking with.
4. Who decides the price the guest sees?
You do. Waybird doesn’t set a markup, doesn’t set a floor and doesn’t set a ceiling. The guest sees one price for the whole trip, with a per-guest breakdown and nothing more, which is how bespoke travel should be sold. What sits behind that price is your business.
5. When does the money actually reach you?
Here’s the flow. The guest pays a deposit on the platform to confirm, then the balance three months before travel. That money comes into Waybird, and Waybird pays the DMC, the lodges and the other suppliers on the schedule they’ve agreed. You never hold guest money and you never chase a supplier for a commission cheque.
Your share is paid out once the trip has travelled. At the start of each month we run a commission report covering every trip that returned in the previous month, and your share is paid within the first two weeks of that month. It’s the same trigger as a traditional host agency, the trip has to have happened, but with nothing to chase, because the guest has already paid Waybird.
Members with a few bookings behind them qualify for early payout, ahead of travel. It’s earned by showing you can sell, not handed out on day one, and for a new operator it’s the thing that closes the gap between a booking made in March and a trip that travels the following June.
6. What support exists after the guest says yes?
The part most software demos skip is what happens after the payment lands. On Hosted, this is where Waybird does most of its work.
The guest’s contract is with Waybird Inc., under the Waybird booking terms. That means the deposit, balance, amendment and cancellation terms are written, tested and already accepted before you have to explain them to anyone. Supplier payments go out from Waybird in the supplier’s currency. The confirmation invoice and travel documents are generated from the booking. Payment reminders are automatic.
You also sit under Waybird’s US liability insurance, which covers professional errors and omissions as well as general liability, provided you present yourself as an independent affiliate of Waybird in your email signature, website and proposals. That’s the one condition, and it’s a small one: your brand stays yours, with a line that says who the contracting entity is. A few activities are excluded as standard, hot-air ballooning and helicopter flights among them, and we’ll tell you how to handle those when they come up. Like any policy, it has limits and territories, so we’ll share the policy on request and you should take your own advice on whether you need cover beyond it.
What’s still yours: the guest relationship, the accuracy of what you promise them, any registrations your own sales require, and your own taxes. Hosted takes the infrastructure off your desk. It doesn’t take the responsibility of being good at this.
7. Who owns your clients?
You do, and it’s written down. Your client relationships, your client lists, your enquiry and quote records, the itineraries you build and your guests’ booking history are your data. Waybird won’t sell it, won’t market to your guests and won’t solicit them. You can export all of it at any time while you’re a member, and for ninety days after you leave.
This is the question people are most nervous about asking a host, and it’s the one with the shortest answer.
8. What happens if you want to leave?
You cancel, and your membership ends at the close of the billing period. Any booking already confirmed with a deposit paid is seen through exactly as it would have been: the guest pays the balance on the platform, Waybird pays the suppliers, you’re paid your share at the split that applied when the booking was made. That has to be the case, because Waybird is the contracting entity and the guest’s trip can’t be left in limbo.
New bookings after that are yours to handle however you choose, whether that’s on your own or on Waybird Lite or Core if you’ve reached the point of running your own setup. Nobody is locked in, and there’s no non-compete.
9. What do current members say?
Rather than a quote, three stories. Southern Drift Travel is a Hosted member who started from zero, with no industry background, and had four journeys confirmed in her first year. The other two run their own operations on the same platform: Ololo Safaris cut proposal time from days to same-day and lifted conversion from 25% to 45%, and Lewis & Luyt grew booked value 80% without adding admin. The software is the same on every plan; Hosted is what sits around it. We’ll put you in touch with a Hosted member directly if you’d rather hear it unedited.
Who Waybird Hosted is for (and who it isn’t)
It’s built for one kind of seller: someone with a client book or a following they can convert, who sells trips in the tens of thousands of dollars and wants to do it under their own name without building the back office first. In practice that’s a consultant leaving a tour operator with clients who’ll follow, or a guide, camp manager or wildlife photographer whose guests keep asking “can you organise our next one?”
It’s not for someone with no clients and no audience yet, and it won’t supply leads. Starting small is fine. Plenty of members began with one guest who asked them to organise the next trip, and the model is built so that a single booking costs you nothing to set up. What matters is that there’s a second and a third behind it, even if they’re a year away. If you’re not there yet, the guide to starting a safari business is a good place to begin, and the discovery call is a good place to ask whether it’s the right time.
How to join Waybird Hosted
Click apply and fill in a short form about you, who you sell to and what you’ve sold. If it looks like a fit, you book a discovery call, and that’s where we go through your numbers and the parts of the model that depend on them. After the call, you get a 14-day free trial of the platform to build a real proposal for a real guest before you commit to anything.
Apply for Waybird Hosted or see how it works.
Frequently asked questions
Is Waybird a host agency?
Yes. Waybird Hosted is a host-agency membership for independent sellers of safari and bespoke travel across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Guests contract with Waybird Inc. under Waybird’s booking terms, Waybird handles supplier payments and insurance, and members keep 80% of the margin on every trip.
Do I need my own company to join Waybird Hosted?
You can join as an individual and operate under your own trade name as an independent affiliate of Waybird. Waybird’s liability cover applies to you as an individual when you present yourself that way.
When are Waybird Hosted members paid?
Once the trip has travelled. Commission reports run at the start of each month for trips that returned in the previous month, and your share is paid within the first two weeks of that month. Members with a few bookings behind them qualify for early payout, ahead of travel.
Can I use my own suppliers on Waybird Hosted?
Yes. The DMC network is included, quotes from it are free, and you can load and book your own supplier contacts alongside it.
Who owns my clients on Waybird Hosted?
You do. Your client data, itineraries and booking history are yours, Waybird won’t solicit your guests, and you can export everything while you’re a member and for ninety days after.
What happens if I leave Waybird Hosted?
Confirmed bookings are seen through at the same split. New bookings after that are yours to handle however you choose. There’s no non-compete.
What’s the difference between Waybird Hosted and Lite or Core?
Same platform. Lite (USD 199/month) and Core (USD 349/month) are the software on its own, for operators already set up to run their own business. Hosted adds the host-agency layer: Waybird is the contracting entity, handles payments and insurance, and is paid a share of margin rather than a subscription.
