For immediate release
RepBud opens to the South African trade with rand pricing, and keeps the buying side free
A sales companion built for representatives, sales and marketing managers and business development managers — now on iPhone, Android and the web, priced in rand
London, 16 August 2026 — RepBud, a sales companion built for the people who sell travel to the trade, is now available to South African members priced in rand, on the App Store, on Google Play and on the web.
It is made for a job that happens on your feet. A business development manager at an international hotel group, a sales manager for an airline or a DMC, and an independent representative carrying three lodges are all doing a version of the same week: sixty buyers across four days at a trade show, each conversation carrying a rate query, a training request, a fam-trip promise, an agent who has changed agencies. RepBud is built so that the record keeps up with that week rather than waiting for the weekend.
Capture takes seconds. A member types a note, speaks it, or photographs a handwritten notebook page. They forward an email or a WhatsApp thread. RepBud reads it, suggests who and what it was about, and waits for approval before anything reaches their records — the member decides what is kept.
What that record then answers is the question that decides a meeting: what did we agree last time, and what did I promise? Meeting preparation, a daily brief and a running task list are assembled from the history the member has already built. The monthly or quarterly account of the work — the one that goes to a represented property, a head office or a regional director — is drawn from the same history, over whatever date range is asked for.
Free for the buying side, and free for the trade
The buying side pays nothing. Travel agents, tour operators, product managers and travel designers join as RepBuddies for free, and travel media join as RepBud Reporters for free. Reaching them takes their agreement first: a representative can find a professional profile, but a direct approach needs the RepBuddy to accept the connection.
A set of tools sits outside the subscription altogether, with no account and no card: a trade events directory covering 93 shows and industry events, 66 of them still to come; visa and entry guidance for 50 destinations with a link to the official source in each case; an email signature generator; and a trade-show prize wheel with live QR entry for a stand.
Properties seeking representation — lodges, hotels, camps, inbound operators and experience businesses — can list free on RepBud Ready, where a representative and a property both have to agree before either side is introduced.
Pricing
Economy is free, with no card and no expiry, and it is open to representatives and DMCs as well as the buying side. Paid plans raise the monthly allowances and add the assisted work — reports, meeting preparation, briefings and campaigns — starting at R639 a month. Team plans begin at R11,295 a month for five seats. A 14-day complimentary stay lets somebody try a paid plan first, without a card. Prices are also shown in US dollars, pounds and euros.
Comment from the founder
“I spent close to twenty years on the rep side of the table, and the thing nobody warns you about is how much of the job you end up carrying in your head,” said Graeme Watson, founder of RepBud. “You finish a show having had sixty good conversations, and by the time you sit down to write it up, half of it has gone.
“What I wanted was something that made the evidence easy — so when the renewal conversation comes round, or a head office asks what the trade budget bought, the answer is already written. That is the part that decides whether a retainer continues, and it is usually the part that gets left until last.
“The other thing I felt strongly about is that the buying side shouldn’t be paying for the privilege of being sold to. Agents, operators and media are free, their data isn’t sold on, and a rep can’t get to them without their say-so. That felt like the right way round.”
Availability
RepBud is available on the App Store and Google Play, and on the web at repbud.app. The current release is version 1.3.0.
RepBud is designed to assist, not replace, your professional judgement.
About RepBud
RepBud is a sales companion and CRM for travel trade sales — representatives, sales and marketing managers and business development managers, whether in-house at a hotel group, airline, DMC or tourism board, at a representation or PR company, or running their own book. Accounting, email campaigns, forms, large-file transfer, video meetings and webinars sit in the same account under one login. Member data is not sold to third parties and is not used for advertising, and contact between members is consent-led.
About Charnette Labs
Charnette Labs is the trading name of Charnette Ltd, a technology studio working specifically with the tourism industry, building websites and apps for tour operators, safari and travel businesses, representation companies and industry events. RepBud grew out of that work. Charnette Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 17167712, with ICO registration ZC206607.
The company is led by Graeme Watson, who spent close to two decades in luxury safari sales, representation and client-facing roles across the African travel market, and is a former SATSA board director.
Press contact
Ends.
