The five must-haves
- A catalog: your stays, room types, seasons, vehicles, parks and activities stored once, reused on every quote.
- Day-by-day routing: nights, distances and order — not a Word table.
- Automatic costing: rates + margins computed live, multi-currency (KES/USD at minimum).
- Interactive proposals: the client opens a link, sees the trip day by day, and can accept — not a PDF attachment.
- The road to booking: the proposal converts to a booking with a deposit link. This is the one most builders miss.
The 2026 field, honestly
Public pricing verified 2026-09-06 — see sources
| Builder | Strength | From | The gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safari Portal | Agent-grade polish, traveller app, e-sign forms | $299/mo (1 user) | Per-user scaling; payments gateway unnamed, platform fee unpublished |
| Wetu | Supplier-maintained content network (250k+ images) | $75/mo (1 user) | No payment collection advertised |
| TripMapper | Safari-flavoured, Stripe invoicing, margin tracking | $99.99/mo (20 itineraries) | Stripe only; itinerary caps |
| TourWriter | Luxury DMC workflows + Xero/MYOB/QuickBooks | from $99/user/mo + setup | Annual commitment; no safari/Africa claim |
| TravelBookingWidgets | Itinerary → proposal variants → M-Pesa/card deposit → documents, CRM, campaigns — one system | Free; $25/mo paid | No branded traveller app; English only |
How to choose
If you assemble trips from dozens of third-party suppliers, Wetu’s content network is the differentiator. If you sell high-touch trips and live in documents, Safari Portal or TourWriter. If you are a safari operator selling your own product and you want the itinerary to become a paid booking — deposit collected, calendar updated, balance chased — that whole arc is the TravelBookingWidgets tour-operator flow. And if pricing matters, note which vendors publish it.