Be the tourism brand that stands out from the crowd.
Charnette Labs builds the websites, apps and trade tools that make tourism brands distinctive — for the travel trade, from representation companies and tour operators to DMCs, agencies and tourism boards, and the properties they champion.
Founded inside the travel trade.
We speak your language.
Charnette Labs was founded by someone who spent years inside luxury safari and travel sales, and went on to build RepBud, the sales companion made for travel industry representatives. The travel trade isn't a brief we have to learn — it's where we come from.
That means a conversation that starts with your goals, not a glossary. Rate seasons, FAM trips, net rates, why a lodge in Laikipia needs a site that loads on a satellite connection — it's all familiar ground. We get to spend our time building you something genuinely good, because we already understand the world it lives in.
Industry Expertise
Travel trade professional. Built RepBud for the industry. We've worked in B2B and B2C travel — you won't spend time explaining your business to us.
Designed Beautifully
Your clients and partners judge you online first. A fast, mobile-first website that loads in under 2 seconds anywhere in the world makes the right first impression.
Long-Term Partner
We don't build and disappear. We host, maintain and grow with you. One monthly fee, direct access to the team who built it. No call centres.
Five ways we approach
your tourism business.
Everything designed with tourism in mind — not adapted from something else.
Websites That Actually Work
Beautiful, fast, mobile-first websites built for the travel trade. On a fast global edge network — designed to load in under 2 seconds anywhere in the world.
Custom Apps for the Travel Trade
From trade booking platforms to sales and partner tools — custom mobile applications built around how travel trade businesses actually work.
Push Notifications Not Newsletters
Email newsletters have a 20% open rate on a good day. Push notifications hit 90%+. We build systems that reach your trade network directly — on their lock screen, right now.
Hosting & Care Every Month
Everything we build, we look after. Monthly hosting, security, updates and a direct line to us. No tickets, no bots, no waiting. Your site stays live so you stay focused.
Event Platforms End to End
Industry dinners, FAM events, awards, conferences. Full platforms — invitation pages, attendee bookings, badge and lanyard generation, organiser dashboards and companion mobile apps. Everything the night runs on.
Built for your
kind of business.
Rep companies, PR agencies, tour operators, travel agencies, DMCs, tourist boards, event organisers — and the lodges, camps and hotels they sell. Nothing outside travel and tourism.
Most travel emails
go unread.
Push notifications get seen.
The average marketing email open rate in travel is 18–22%. That means 8 out of 10 people never read your message.
Push notifications appear on the lock screen — personal, immediate, impossible to ignore. Average open rate? Over 90%. Cost per send? Zero.
Everything you need to know about us.
Can't find your answer here? We have a full FAQ page — or just email us directly.
See all FAQs →
Built by someone who lived the problem.
Charnette Labs wasn't built by a technology company that discovered tourism. It was built by a tourism professional who discovered technology — and that distinction matters.
The name Charnette is a combination of two names — my daughter Charlotte and my mother Antoinette. It felt right that a business built to last should carry the names of the two people who matter most.
Nearly two decades in tourism, across three continents. Graeme has sold African travel to the UK trade from London, costed itineraries for the US market from California, and managed key UK, US and Irish accounts from South Africa.
As a former SATSA Board Director and KZN Chapter Chair, he has deep relationships across Africa's DMC and lodge landscape — and knows a fair number of the operators buying from them too.
The chronological version is on LinkedIn. The point of having it on this page at all is simpler: when you brief Charnette Labs on a website or app, you're briefing someone who's lived the workflow it's meant to support — who knows why a slow site costs you bookings, why a clunky tool wastes a rep's time, and why an app that ignores how lodges actually operate ends up unused. That's what shapes what we build.
"I built RepBud because I needed it myself. I built Charnette Labs because every tourism business I knew needed the same thing — technology that actually understands their world."
— Graeme WatsonIn 2021 he founded Kusa Connect — a UK-based tourism representation company — and began building the digital tools he wished had existed throughout his career. RepBud, the sales companion for travel industry sales professionals, was first. Charnette Labs followed: a technology studio dedicated exclusively to building websites, apps and push notification systems for the tourism businesses he knows and loves.
A holder of a BA Degree in Media and Communications, a wildlife photographer with a Canon EOS R7, a podcast host, and a traveller of over 65 countries — Graeme brings something no generic tech agency can offer: he has sat across the table from your clients, sold your destinations, and understood your margins.
Ready to dive in?
Let's talk.
Tell us about your tourism business and what you need. We'll tell you exactly how we'd approach it — no jargon, no sales pitch.