Your Holiday Home,
Found and Booked.
Cavmir builds the website, the Google and AI search work, the photography, film and social posts for self-catering homes, guesthouses and lodges in South Africa. Prices on this page are in rand, and calls are booked in South African time.
Most guests find a South African holiday home the same way: they open Airbnb, Booking.com or LekkeSlaap, filter by town and dates, and compare a screen of listings that look alike. Cavmir works on what the platforms leave to you. That means a website under your own name and domain, pages written for the searches guests make on Google and in AI assistants, photography and film that show the place properly, and social posts and email that bring past guests back to book direct. Your listings stay where they are. The marketing gives guests more ways to find you, and a reason to choose your home over the next one on the map.
40 to 125 pages in your brand, with a button to your listing, a link to your booking engine, or live direct booking from your property management system. The domain, the content and the photos are yours.
SEO, area guides and GEO: the pages and files that let ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Mode read your site and quote it correctly.
Instagram and Facebook carousels on every plan; Reels, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok as the plans go up, made from your own photos and film.
One email a month on Silver and above, sent only to guests who booked direct or signed up on your site, each with an unsubscribe link.
Photo: “Cape Town coastal suburbs - CapeTowncoastal4203” by lumoplank, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Cavmir’s prices are set in US dollars. Here they are in rand at R16,60 to the dollar, the European Central Bank’s reference rate on 23 October 2026, rounded to the nearest R100. Checkout and invoices are in US dollars, so the rand amount on your card statement moves a little with the exchange rate.
Your website kept up and found, with Instagram and Facebook carousels
R4 800a month · billed as US$290One or two homes, up to about R2,5 million a year in bookings
R9 800a month · billed as US$590Two to five homes, about R2,5 to R5,8 million a year in bookings
R16 300a month · billed as US$985Five to ten homes, about R5,8 to R10 million a year in bookings
R27 300a month · billed as US$1 645Six-month minimumEvery plan runs for at least six months with no early cancellation, because the first two months carry the most set-up work. After that it runs month to month, and you can cancel with 30 days’ written notice.
Prepay and savePay six months up front and save 10%, or twelve months and save 15%. Gold, for example, is US$5 319 for six months (about R88 300) or US$10 047 for a year (about R166 800), in one payment with no automatic renewal.
Ads are separateThe plans cover the work, not ad budgets: you pay Meta or Google directly for the ads. If we run your campaigns, management is 20% of your monthly ad spend, at least US$300 (about R5 000) a month.
Sends guests to your Airbnb or Vrbo listing, or takes inquiries
R24 500one-time build, two to three weeks · billed as US$1 475Direct booking option
R47 300one-time build, four to five weeks · billed as US$2 850Direct booking synced with your PMS
R61 900one-time build, six to eight weeks · billed as US$3 732Website packages are billed half at the start and half at launch. Larger portfolios, lodges and hotels are quoted to the inventory. Every line of every package and plan is on the pricing page and the monthly plans page, in US dollars.
Who books South African holiday homes, then nine regions where they book, with what brings guests and when. Cape Town has its own full Cavmir guide.
Stats SA counted 10 498 506 tourists in 2025, up 17,7% on 2024. Most came from neighbouring SADC countries. Of the overseas visitors, the most came from the United Kingdom (403 714), the United States (391 939) and Germany (290 795), then the Netherlands and France: those first three sent 45,5% of all overseas tourists.
Overseas arrivals were highest in October, November and December and lowest in June, so the festive-season pages and campaigns for overseas guests go up in the southern winter.
South Africans took 26,2 million overnight trips at home in 2024. Gauteng residents took the most, then Western Cape residents. Half of the trips (50,4%) were to visit friends and relatives and 21,6% were for leisure; the Western Cape was the only province where leisure was the main reason to travel.
For a holiday home, the local guest to write for is often a Gauteng household planning around the school holidays in the calendar below.
Sources: Stats SA, Tourism, 2025 (26 March 2026) and Domestic Tourism Survey 2024 (30 October 2025).
Cape Town · full guide
Camps Bay, Clifton, Sea Point and the City Bowl. Cape Town has its own Cavmir guide: the market, the seasons from the festive summer to the winter low, the rules, and what a Cape Town listing has to show.
Photo: “Cape Town coastal suburbs - CapeTowncoastal4211” by lumoplank, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Stellenbosch · Franschhoek · Paarl
Stellenbosch Wine Routes, formed in 1971, was the first wine route in South Africa, and South African Tourism calls the Franschhoek valley the country’s gourmet capital. Paarl is the country’s third-oldest town.
Stellenbosch is about 45 minutes’ drive from Cape Town, so a Winelands home can be sold to Cape Town visitors who want a quieter base as well as to wine travellers.
Photo: “Weinfarm bei Franschhoek (Südafrika)” by Olga Ernst, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Whale season · June to December
Southern right whales are in Walker Bay from June until December, and the Hermanus Whale Festival runs in late September or early October. The Cliff Path gives 12 km of viewpoints along the shore, and in places the whales come within five metres of it.
Hermanus is about 120 km from Cape Town, in the Overberg. A home with a sea view here has a selling point with dates attached: the months the whales are in the bay.
Photo: “Old Harbour, Hermanus” by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Flower season · August and September
Langebaan, Paternoster and West Coast National Park. The park’s Postberg section opens only for the flower season, from 1 August to 30 September, and spring brings whale watching to this coast as well.
The national park is about an hour and 15 minutes’ drive from Cape Town International Airport, and the fishing village of Paternoster about 150 km from Cape Town.
Photo: “2 Postberg Flower snowfall West Coast National Park” by S Molteno, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Summer peak · December to February
Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Wilderness. Summer, December to February, is the peak season. Guests fly in to George, an hour’s drive from Knysna, or drive the N2 from Cape Town, about 500 km.
Plettenberg Bay, 35 km from Knysna, is surrounded by national park and nature reserves, Robberg among them; the Garden Route National Park, formed in 2009, joins Wilderness, the Knysna lake area and Tsitsikamma.
Photo: “Knysna (ZA), Knysna River, East and West Head -- 2024 -- 2456” by Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Umhlanga · Ballito · Salt Rock
South African Tourism calls the North Coast an all-year-round destination because of its warm climate, and hundreds of bottlenose dolphins frequent the coast, seen offshore all year.
Guests fly in to King Shaka International Airport from the country’s major cities, so a North Coast home has more than one season to sell.
Photo: “Umhlanga lighthouse, Umhlanga, KZN, South Africa 2” by Sherwin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
UNESCO World Heritage · since 2000
The park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000 for its plant life and its San rock paintings: some 30 000 paintings in 600 caves and overhangs have been recorded. It runs for 150 km over 243 000 ha.
It is about two hours from Durban and four from Gauteng. South African Tourism calls it a year-round destination, at its best in May and November, with snow on the peaks in winter.
Photo: “Amphitheatre Drakensberg” by Bothar, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Safari · the Big Five
Kruger National Park covers more than 1,9 million hectares, with 2 500 km of tar and dirt roads. In winter the grass is low and the animals depend on waterholes; summer is hot, with young animals to see.
Three airports serve the park: Phalaborwa in the north, Hoedspruit Eastgate in the centre and Kruger Mpumalanga International in the south, and the drive from Johannesburg is about five hours. The Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve is known for the Big Five, and Hazyview is a base for adventure activities.
Photo: “Olifants-River-View” by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen (bjornfree.com), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Business stays · all year
Sandton is Johannesburg’s financial, shopping and conference capital: the JSE is there, and exhibitions and events run at the Sandton ICC through the year.
The Gautrain takes 15 minutes from O.R. Tambo International to Sandton and 35 minutes from Pretoria to Johannesburg’s Park Station, so a furnished apartment near a station sells to business travellers as much as to holidaymakers.
Photo: “Jakarandas in Olivierstraat, Pretoria, 9 Okt 2022” by JMK, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
South Africa’s busy weeks follow the public-school calendar, the public holidays and a short list of events. Here is 2027, from the Department of Basic Education’s gazetted calendar and the government’s list of public holidays.
| Holiday | What falls in it | What guests book it for |
|---|---|---|
| 20 March to 5 April | Human Rights Day (Monday 22 March) and Easter: Good Friday 26 March to Family Day 29 March | Easter family stays; the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town on 3 and 4 April |
| 26 June to 19 July | The winter school holidays | The warm-water KwaZulu-Natal coast and the bush in Kruger’s dry season; the Durban July on 3 July and the Knysna Oyster Festival from 2 to 11 July |
| 23 September to 4 October | Heritage Day (Friday 24 September) | Spring on the coast: whales in Walker Bay and the Hermanus Whale Festival in late September or early October |
| From 9 December | Day of Reconciliation (16 December), Christmas Day, and the Day of Goodwill on Sunday 26 December, so Monday 27 December is a holiday | The festive season: summer peak on the Garden Route (December to February) and in Cape Town |
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 14 March | Cape Town Cycle Tour | 109 km around the Cape Peninsula |
| 3 and 4 April | Two Oceans Marathon (race week from 31 March) | Cape Town |
| 26 April to 2 May | AfrikaBurn | Tankwa Karoo |
| 13 June | Comrades Marathon | KwaZulu-Natal |
| 3 July | Hollywoodbets Durban July | Greyville Racecourse, Durban |
| 2 to 11 July | Knysna Oyster Festival | Knysna |
| July (2027 dates not yet published) | Corona Cero Open J-Bay, World Surf League | Supertubes, Jeffreys Bay |
| Late September or early October (2026: 2 to 4 October) | Hermanus Whale Festival | Hermanus |
| Early December (2026: 3 to 6 December) | Nedbank Golf Challenge | Gary Player Country Club, Sun City |
Public holidays, 2027. New Year’s Day (Friday 1 January); Human Rights Day (Sunday 21 March, so Monday 22 March is a holiday); Good Friday (26 March); Family Day (Monday 29 March); Freedom Day (Tuesday 27 April, the day after a special school holiday on Monday 26 April); Workers’ Day (Saturday 1 May); Youth Day (Wednesday 16 June); National Women’s Day (Monday 9 August); Heritage Day (Friday 24 September); Day of Reconciliation (Thursday 16 December); Christmas Day (Saturday 25 December); Day of Goodwill (Sunday 26 December, so Monday 27 December is a holiday).
Cavmir starts ads and emails eight to ten weeks before the busy dates: early October for the December holidays, late April for the winter school holidays, January for Easter. Guide pages and blog posts take longer to rank than ads take to run, so they go up months ahead: the whale pages before winter, the festive season pages by spring.
Long weekends are worth their own posts in 2027: Easter (26 to 29 March), Freedom Day (24 to 27 April with the school holiday), Women’s Day (7 to 9 August) and Heritage Day (24 to 26 September).
Sources: 2027 Calendar for Public Schools, Government Gazette 52178; gov.za public holidays; event dates from each event’s own site (Cycle Tour, Two Oceans, AfrikaBurn, Comrades, Durban July, Oyster Festival, WSL, Whale Festival, Nedbank Golf Challenge); seasons from South African Tourism, Wesgro and SANParks.
South African guests book holiday homes on Airbnb, Booking.com and LekkeSlaap, and many hosts run a local booking system behind them. Your own website sits next to those listings: it gives the guests who already know your name, or who search for your town, a place that is yours.
Airbnb. Most hosts now pay the single host-only fee, 15,5% for most, taken from the payout; Airbnb says it is mandatory for most hosts, including those on property management software. On a R3 000 night that is R465. The older split fee (3% for the host, 14,1% to 16,5% for the guest) is being phased out. Airbnb says its Cape Town hosts earned nearly R2,5 billion in 2023, from more than 700 000 guest arrivals.
Booking.com charges a set percentage on each booking that depends on the country, the type of property and the agreement you signed. It publishes no single rate, and its Preferred Partner and Visibility Booster programmes can raise it.
LekkeSlaap, founded in 2013 and run by Tripco, calls itself South Africa’s leading online travel agency, with more than 40 000 stays. On 23 October 2026 its home page showed 6 923 places in Cape Town and 4 706 on the Garden Route: that is the screen of look-alike listings a guest scrolls through.
Booking systems. NightsBridge, a property management system with a front-desk booking system and a channel manager, says thousands of accommodation providers across Africa use it. ResRequest, built for boutique safari lodges and hotels, says more than 1 000 properties in 22 countries do.
Payments. Card and bank payments online run through South African gateways: Payfast (part of Network International, used by more than 80 000 South African businesses), Yoco, Ozow’s pay-by-bank, Peach Payments, and Paystack, which Stripe bought in 2020 and which launched here in May 2021. Stripe itself lists South Africa only through Paystack.
Why it matters for direct booking. Hostaway automates charges through Stripe, Authorize.net and Braintree and records Paystack payments only as manual offline charges; Guesty uses GuestyPay, Stripe, Merchant Warrior or Hyp; Hospitable’s direct booking takes payment through the host’s own Stripe account, or off-platform where Stripe isn’t supported. Check how your PMS takes payment in South Africa before choosing live direct booking.
Sources: Airbnb Help Centre, service fees; Airbnb Newsroom, 2 October 2024; Booking.com partner help; LekkeSlaap; NightsBridge; ResRequest; Payfast; Paystack; Stripe global availability; the Hostaway, Guesty and Hospitable help centres. Read on 23 October 2026.
The national rules that shape a South African booking website and its marketing, read from the Acts themselves. They are orientation, not legal advice: your attorney decides how they apply to your letting, and Cavmir handles the marketing side.
Section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act says a business that sells a service by electronic transaction must put this on the website where it is offered:
Before a booking is final, the guest must be able to review it, correct mistakes and withdraw, and the payment system must be sufficiently secure. If a site does not comply, the guest may cancel within 14 days. The seven-day cooling-off right in section 44 does not apply to accommodation booked for specific dates (section 42(2)(j)).
Under section 69 of POPIA, direct marketing by email or SMS needs the person’s consent, or the person must be an existing customer: their details were collected in a sale, the message markets your own similar services, and they were given a free, simple chance to object when the details were collected and in every message since.
Every message must say who sent it and give a way to ask for the messages to stop. POPIA’s main sections took effect on 1 July 2020, and the Information Regulator can impose administrative fines of up to R10 million.
That is why Cavmir’s monthly emails go only to guests who booked direct or signed up on your site, and every one carries an unsubscribe link.
Under section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act, a guest may cancel an advance booking. The host may ask for a reasonable deposit and charge a reasonable cancellation fee, judged by what was booked, how much notice the guest gave, the chance to let the dates to someone else, and the general practice of the industry. No cancellation fee may be charged when the guest cannot come because of the death or hospitalisation of the person the booking was for.
The cancellation policy on your site is written with this in mind. If you collect the voluntary 1% TOMSA tourism levy, it is added to the guest’s bill, so it belongs in the full price the site shows.
The new rules are still drafts, and there is no national licence for short-term rentals. The Minister of Tourism published a non-binding draft Code of Good Practice for Short-Term Rentals on 13 March 2026 and said the Tourism Act does not empower her to regulate them; municipalities lead on land use and zoning.
Cape Town put a draft Short-Term Letting By-law out for comment from August to October 2026. As drafted, every property on a booking platform would need a City registration number on its listings; it had not been adopted on 23 October 2026. The City says its amended Rates Policy treats a home let short-term for more than half of its annual room-nights as commercial accommodation, with rating changes intended from 1 July 2027. When a registration number exists, your site carries it the way your listings must.
In a sectional title scheme, the body corporate’s conduct rules can limit letting; those rules must be reasonable and apply equally to all owners (Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act, section 10).
Sources: Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002; POPIA section 69 and the Information Regulator’s commencement statement; Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008; TOMSA levy FAQ; draft Code of Good Practice for Short-Term Rentals, Government Gazette 54320 and the Minister’s statement of 15 March 2026; City of Cape Town notice CTA171/2026; Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act, section 10. All read on 23 October 2026.
More guests now type a whole question into ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Mode, such as a self-catering house in Plettenberg Bay with a pool and a sea view, and get back a short list of names. The homes on that list are the ones the AI can read about clearly, on their own websites and on the other sites that mention them.
In Cavmir’s July 2026 study of 550 Google AI answers across 15 U.S. markets, independent and regional operators received 82% of the citations, and Airbnb or Vrbo appeared in 17% of answers. We have not run the study on South African searches yet.
The same principle runs through all of it: outsmart, don’t outspend.
The quickest way to judge a web designer is to open the sites and try to book a stay. Each one below is live, and each case study sets out what the build included.
One domain · four languages · site + CRM + guest app
One brand · live prices · booked direct
Own domain · a 44-guide St. Croix engine
A guide engine for four bungalows
Yes. Cavmir markets holiday homes, guesthouses and lodges for owners and managers in every market, in the United States and abroad. This page is the South African version: prices in rand, the regions, the booking calendar and the local rules a website follows. Calls run in the South African afternoon and evening.
Checkout and invoices are in US dollars, charged to your card; your bank converts the amount to rand on the day and may add an international transaction fee. The rand prices on this page use the European Central Bank’s rate of 23 October 2026 (R16,60 to the dollar), rounded to the nearest R100.
No. Your listings keep working. The website gives the guests who search for your home by name, or for your town, a page that is yours, and it sends them to book where you choose: your listing, your booking engine, or direct.
Section 69 of POPIA says direct marketing by email or SMS needs the person’s consent, unless they are an existing customer whose details came from a sale, who is offered your own similar services, and who could object when the details were collected and in every message. Every message must name the sender and give a way to stop the messages. Cavmir’s monthly emails go only to guests who booked direct or signed up on your site, each with an unsubscribe link. Your own duties as the owner of the guest list stay with you; ask your attorney about them.
Not under the ECT Act for a stay on fixed dates: section 42(2)(j) excludes accommodation booked for a specific date or period from the seven-day cooling-off in section 44. Under section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act a guest may still cancel an advance booking, and the host may charge a reasonable cancellation fee, but none when the guest cannot come because of the death or hospitalisation of the person the booking was for.
Not yet. The City’s draft Short-Term Letting By-law, out for comment from August to October 2026, would require a City registration number on every listing on a booking platform; it had not been adopted on 23 October 2026. If it is, your website shows the number the same way your listings must.
Cavmir starts ads and emails eight to ten weeks before the busy dates, so early October for the festive season, which begins when public schools close on 8 December 2027. Guide pages and blog posts take longer to rank than ads take to run, so they go up months earlier.
Any. The site can send guests to your Airbnb, Booking.com or LekkeSlaap listing, or open the online booking page of the system you run. Live availability and prices come from Hostaway, Guesty or Hospitable; those take payment mainly through Stripe and a few others, and Stripe serves South Africa only through Paystack, so check how your PMS takes payment here before choosing that setup.
Airbnb’s single host-only fee, which most hosts now pay, is 15,5% for most hosts, taken from the payout; some pay 14% to 16%. The older split fee, 3% for the host and 14,1% to 16,5% for the guest, is being phased out. Booking.com charges a commission that depends on the country, the type of property and the agreement you signed, and publishes no single rate.
Starter sites take two to three weeks, Mid Tier four to five and Full with Direct Booking six to eight, depending on the booking connection. The date is agreed in writing before work starts.
Yes. Gold suits two to five homes and Diamond five to ten. Larger portfolios, lodges and hotels get a quote written to the inventory; see the pricing page.
You do: the domain is registered in your name, and the code, content, photos and analytics accounts are yours at launch.
Which home, which town, and where it lists today. A written proposal follows within 48 hours.
