The 4 Pillars of the Conserve Safari Standard

We care. We care deeply about what we are building and the service we provide to our customers. As a founding team, we are incredibly hands-on; we are in the trenches with our team members to live up to the standards we set for ourselves.

We split our approach to building spaces—places where people can reconnect with nature and themselves—into four distinct pillars: remote destinations, refined and aesthetic design, enhanced experiences, and operational excellence.

Here is the 4-pillar blueprint of how we operate:

1. Remote Destinations: Deep in the Wild

Firstly, we build exclusively inside African National Parks.

Secondly, we focus on high-end tented camps. It is a deliberate choice, as we want guests to feel, hear, and smell the wild. If you can’t hear a lion or a hyena at night or feel the morning breeze through the canvas, it isn’t a Conserve Safari experience. When you are on a safari, we believe in a full-immersion experience.

Sometimes it isn't "comfortable." Sometimes you get a bit scared by the animals passing by your suite, or it gets loud with the sounds of animals, insects, and birds, but that is the whole point. We believe the intensity and rawness of it all are what make a safari so special. That is why I always joke that after the safari, people can go relax on a Zanzibar beach by the Indian Ocean.

At the same time, building in remote locations adds significant challenges. It requires a "boots-on-the-ground" mentality. During our Serengeti and Tarangire builds, I moved to the site for months to oversee the construction while Simon was making sure we get the much needed deliveries on time. We’ve built systems to close the gap between the field and our headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania’s safari hub. This shortens our feedback loops and keeps us moving fast.

2. Focus on Refined and Aesthetic Design

We have strong opinions on design because the smallest details dictate the guest's experience. We obsess over things most people ignore: the specific pattern of a throw pillow, the exact placement of a power socket, and the way a view is framed.

I am sure we have annoyed our suppliers because we constantly challenge ourselves—and them—on what needs to be done. We look at everything, from the entrance through to the washroom partition, down to exactly where the shower heads need to be placed and the pattern of the outside deck. We see a lot of "90% completed" projects on the market; we are pushing for 100%.

In the Serengeti, we built in a lively African style; Tarangire has a "Boho" theme, and we hope to introduce a vintage design for our third property in Ngorongoro.

Thankfully, there are great suppliers in Tanzania we can collaborate with. Design does not need to be "Dubai luxury"—quite the opposite. It has to be bush-native, yet refined.

3. Enhanced Experiences: Partnerships at a World-Class Level

Just being in the bush in a tented camp is already an incredible experience; nature magnificently does its job. However, we continue to look for ways to enhance that experience with something unique and refined.

We believe that when you come to Africa, you should have access to a selection of the very best African wines, curated by the world’s best sommelier. Or, when you return from a hot and dusty game drive, you should be able to enjoy a chilled mocktail perfected by a world-champion bartender.

That is why we partnered with Andris Reizenbergs, a World Champion Bartender, to create a cocktail/mocktail menu specifically for that iconic sundowner moment. We didn't just buy wine; we brought in Raimonds Tomsons, the World’s Best Sommelier, to curate our African wine selection and, most importantly, to train our teams on-site in Serengeti and Tarangire. We are doing the same in the kitchen, which is already at a fine-dining level.

Operational Excellence: The “Every Guest is a VIP” Mentality

We invest relentlessly in our operations because we believe that in the heat of the moment, we don't rise to our goals—we fall back to our habits. To ensure those habits meet our standards, we focus on the principle that how you do anything is how you do everything.

This means paying obsessive attention to detail and codifying our knowledge into rigorous Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). But a document is only as good as the people executing it. We prioritize regular training and constant retraining, backed by strict audit procedures to ensure no detail is overlooked.

Our objective is simple: to be a reliable partner that people can trust. We respect and appreciate every guest who chooses to stay with us, and we work toward getting it right every single time.

Scaling the Standard

These four pillars are a commitment to the future of African hospitality. We aren't interested in being another distant management company. We are builders, operators, and partners who believe that the best way to protect these wild spaces is to create a standard of excellence that honors them.

By mastering this blueprint, we are now "breeding" a new generation of team members who can carry this level of active oversight to every new site we develop. We are building a team that can replicate this delivery and high-touch service anywhere in East Africa, without losing the "boots-on-the-ground" soul of the company.

We are just getting started. Whether we are hammers-in-hand at a new site in Ngorongoro or training our team on the nuances of a South African Chenin Blanc, we will be there, in the trenches, getting it right.