A night next to a giraffe is drawing visitors to rural Oklahoma.
At Safari Stayz in Wanette, guests can stay steps away from a giraffe named Yoshi in an Airbnb-style experience created by 23-year-old Kamryn Grant.
“Giraffes have always been my favorite animal,” Grant tells PEOPLE. “If I was a kid I would have loved staying the night with my dream animal.”
Grant said the business started with animal-themed stays featuring lemurs before it grew to include Yoshi.
“I first started with my lemur bnbs, and people just loved it so much that I ended up getting Yoshi, my giraffe,” she says.
Grant said she then turned the barn into a place where guests can stay overnight and spend time with the animals.
“There aren’t many places where you can stay the night with a real giraffe,” she says.
Grant and her organization hold Game, Fish & Wildlife licensing, CWD, or Chronic Wasting Disease, certification, and USDA certification and licensing.
She said interest surged after she posted videos of the stay on TikTok.
“Each giraffe bnb post I made hit over a million views,” she says. “People love the idea and want to stay with our boy Yoshi!”
Grant said that attention led to bookings from people travelling long distances.
“I had a family from New York drive 23 hours here to my bnb just to meet me and my animals,” Grant recalls. “I couldn’t believe it.”
The property has more than 100 animals, including zebras, camels, kangaroos, foxes, lemurs, otters and sloths. Guests can interact with many of them during guided tours.
“This is a very hands-on experience,” she explains. “You interact with pretty much every animal here, going into their pens, feeding and holding them.”
Grant said tours usually run for 90 minutes to two hours and are meant to be fun and educational.
“I want people to leave here with knowledge and understanding of the importance of zoos and why we are here,” she says. “Interacting with the animals helps us connect and understand them to a whole new level.”
She said one challenge is working out how to expand the experience.
“I always want it to be fun and very hands-on,” she says. “The hardest part is figuring out how we can make this bigger and better than before.”
Grant said she wants to grow Safari Stayz with more themed Airbnbs and a larger park for visitors.
“I want to be one of the biggest destinations in Oklahoma,” she says. “I would love to have a whole park where people can walk, see, and learn about the animals.”
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