No. Tuskari does not take a commission from operators at any point.

Here is exactly how it works: you set your price for a safari. If a traveller accepts your offer, Tuskari adds a separate 10% service fee on top of your price and charges it to the traveller. You receive your full quoted amount. That service fee is split in two: half goes towards keeping the platform running, and half is directed to local conservation and community initiatives through our partner organisations.

Example: you quote $3,000. The traveller pays $3,300. You receive $3,000. $150 covers platform operations, and $150 goes directly to one of our partner charities.

This structure is intentional. We believe operators should keep every penny they earn. The service fee is the traveller's cost of using the platform and is never deducted from your income.

Listing on Tuskari is completely free. There are no monthly fees, no setup costs, and no charges for creating or managing your account.

You only interact with the platform financially when a booking is completed. At that point, you receive your full quoted price. There are no hidden deductions.

You do. Tuskari is not a middleman sitting between you and your guests. From the moment a traveller sends a booking request, the communication is direct. They message you, you respond, and you manage the conversation entirely.

Travellers book with you. They travel with you. Tuskari provides the platform infrastructure and handles payment processing, but the guest relationship belongs to you throughout.

We do not obscure your identity or brand. Your name, your safaris, and your expertise are what the traveller sees and chooses.

You create and manage your own listings entirely. When you set up your operator account, you can upload your safaris with your own descriptions, itineraries, pricing and imagery.

You are in full control of how your safaris appear on the platform. Tuskari does not edit or rewrite your listings. What you upload is what travellers see.

You can also choose how each safari is booked:

• Instant booking for fixed itinerary or group safaris where availability is set and confirmed. Travellers can book directly without waiting for your approval.
• Manual confirmation for bespoke, luxury or complex itineraries where you need to confirm availability and details before a booking is finalised. Travellers submit a request, you have a conversation, and you respond with an offer.

It depends on how you choose to list your safaris.

For instant booking safaris, you set the available dates and spaces when you create the listing. Travellers can only book within those confirmed slots, so it is important to keep this accurate and up to date.

For manual confirmation safaris, you still set available dates on your listing, but these do not need to be as precise as for instant bookings. Availability is confirmed through the messaging process with the traveller before anything is finalised.

Once you and the traveller are aligned on the details, you send a quote. The traveller can then accept and proceed to payment, or decline. A declined offer does not close the enquiry. You can follow up with a revised offer and continue the conversation until both sides are happy. The booking only becomes confirmed when the traveller accepts and completes either a deposit or full payment.

Payment is released to you 7 days before the traveller's trip start date. This gives you the funds you need to finalise logistics, accommodation and ground arrangements ahead of arrival.

For safaris that require permits, such as gorilla trekking in Uganda or chimpanzee tracking, we understand that permit fees often need to be paid well in advance. In these cases, early payment release can be arranged on a case-by-case basis.

If your safaris involve permit costs that require upfront payment, contact us when you list and we will confirm the process for your specific situation.

All payments are processed and paid out in USD. The platform displays converted prices based on the location of the person browsing, but USD is the base currency for all transactions.

Payouts are made via international bank transfer to your nominated account. Mobile money is something we are actively working on and will be available as a payout option in a future update.

If you have specific requirements around your payment setup, get in touch before listing and we will confirm what is supported for your country of operation.

Tuskari operates a platform-wide cancellation policy that applies to all bookings. Cancellations and refunds are handled by Tuskari, not managed individually by each operator.

Travellers are entitled to a full refund if they cancel with more than 45 days notice. For cancellations made within 45 days of the trip, we handle each case individually. Where possible, we will first explore whether the booking can be rescheduled to a date that works for both the traveller and the operator. Where rescheduling is not possible, the outcome will depend on the reason for cancellation and what has already been spent or allocated in preparation for the trip. This may result in a full refund, a partial refund, or no refund, depending on the circumstances.

If a deposit was used to secure the booking, the full balance is due 30 days before the trip start date.

Full details of the cancellation tiers and refund windows are outlined in the operator terms and conditions when you create your account.

We understand that circumstances sometimes require an operator to cancel or modify a booking due to permit issues, weather, force majeure or unforeseen availability conflicts.

If you need to cancel a confirmed booking, notify Tuskari as soon as possible. We will contact the traveller and manage the refund process in line with the platform policy.

Repeated operator-side cancellations can affect your listing visibility and operator rating on the platform. The manual confirmation option exists precisely to help avoid this situation. Only confirm bookings you are certain you can fulfil.

Yes, and this is one of the things that makes Tuskari different from any other safari booking platform.

When a traveller submits a booking request, you respond with your offer and a price. The traveller can then come back with a counteroffer or ask questions before accepting. This negotiation happens directly between you and the traveller within the platform.

You are never obligated to accept a price you are not comfortable with. The booking only proceeds when both sides have agreed and the traveller formally accepts your offer. Payment is only taken at that point.

This protects your margins and ensures you are only taking on bookings that work for your business.

Only travellers who have completed a booking through Tuskari can leave a review. Reviews are verified against completed bookings, which means no review can be left without a real transaction having taken place.

This protects operators from false or malicious reviews, including those left by competitors, and ensures that every review on your listing reflects a genuine guest experience. It also means the reviews you do receive carry real weight with future travellers, because they know they can trust them.

We take disputes seriously and will not leave operators to handle them alone. If a genuine disagreement arises between you and a traveller, contact us directly and we will step in to mediate.

Our approach is to look at the full picture: the booking history, the communication between both parties on the platform, and any relevant documentation. We will work with both sides to reach a fair resolution, and where a clear outcome cannot be agreed, we will make a final decision based on the available evidence.

Keeping all communication and negotiation within the Tuskari platform is important for this reason. It creates a clear record that protects both you and the traveller if anything needs to be reviewed.

Creating your account and uploading your first safari is entirely self-serve and designed to be straightforward. Most operators have their first listing live within 10 minutes.

That said, we are not hands-off. When you create your operator account you will hear from us directly. We review every new operator before listings go live to make sure the platform maintains its quality and that travellers can trust what they are booking. This is not a lengthy process, but it does mean Tuskari is a curated marketplace rather than an open directory.

If you have questions during setup or want help structuring your listings, reach out and we will assist you personally.

A no-show is treated differently to a cancellation. If a traveller fails to arrive without any prior notice or communication, the booking is considered fulfilled on your side and you retain your payment in full.

If there are extenuating circumstances and the traveller contacts us after the fact, we will assess the situation on a case-by-case basis. However, in the absence of any communication before the trip start date, operators are not expected to absorb the cost of a traveller's failure to arrive.

We recommend documenting your preparation and any relevant costs in advance of every trip. This provides a clear record if a no-show situation ever needs to be reviewed.