The one-paragraph version
Safari Portal sells to travel sellers: build itineraries, send proposals, collect signatures and payments, give travellers a branded app. Despite the name, "safari" on their own pages is brand, not specialty — their homepage targets "DMCs, travel advisors, travel agents & tour operators worldwide". TravelBookingWidgets sells to safari tour operators: the booking system starts before the proposal — your website itself plans trips and captures enquiries, packages you publish get their own pages, and every enquiry runs through quotes, variants, deposits, documents and the calendar to arrival.
Side by side
| Safari Portal | TravelBookingWidgets | |
|---|---|---|
| Core focus | Itinerary building + travel operations for DMCs/agents | Full booking system for safari tour operators |
| Trip-planner widget for your website | Not advertised | Yes — live-priced planner: destinations, stays, activities, transport, park fees |
| Published packages | Not advertised | Yes — compose from your catalog, publish to pages on your own domain |
| Proposals | Yes, with e-sign forms | Yes — option variants clients review, hold and pay online |
| Payments | Invoicing/payments with an unpublished platform fee; no gateways named publicly | M-Pesa (STK push), card via Pesapal, bank; automatic matching |
| Documents | Invoicing + insurance docs | 11 generated types: quotes, proforma, receipts, invoices, itineraries, welcome pack, ops sheet |
| CRM + campaigns | CRM + forms | Client 360 with internal cost tracking + drip email campaigns |
| Branded traveller app | Yes | Not offered — proposals are web-based |
| Pricing | $299–$399+/mo, per-user scaling (+$50/user) | Free to $130/mo flat tiers, published |
Where Safari Portal wins
- Traveller-facing polish: a branded mobile app, Lookbooks and flight integrations are genuine differentiators for high-touch travel design businesses.
- Breadth of seller paperwork: e-signature forms, credit-card authorisations and insurance-with-commissions workflows in one place.
- Transparent pricing: their full tier table is public — we publish ours too, and respect that.
Where TravelBookingWidgets wins
- The booking starts on your website: our planner widget turns visitors into structured, live-priced enquiries — Safari Portal’s public pages advertise no website widget.
- Packages: compose day-by-day packages from your catalog and publish them to your own pages — priced per residency and child tier automatically.
- Payment rails: M-Pesa STK push, Pesapal cards and bank recording, matched to bookings automatically; Safari Portal names no gateways and notes only that "a platform fee applies to payments".
- Operator operations: versioned quotes, proposal variants with holds, eleven document types, unified email+WhatsApp inbox, CRM with internal cost tracking and drip campaigns.
- Price of entry: a permanent free plan and $25/mo Operator tier versus $299/month for one user — with no per-user scaling on our tiers.
Choose Safari Portal if…
- You run a DMC or agency where itinerary design, traveller apps and e-sign paperwork are the daily work.
- You need insurance-distribution and credit-card authorisation workflows.
- Your budget comfortably absorbs per-user pricing at $299–$399+/month.
Choose TravelBookingWidgets if…
- You are a tour operator who wants the website to capture structured enquiries and sell published packages — not just send proposals.
- You collect deposits in Kenya: M-Pesa first-class, cards for international clients, matched automatically.
- You want quotes, variants, documents, inbox, CRM, campaigns, calendar and team seats in one system, on flat published pricing.
Is Safari Portal built for safari companies?
It is built for travel sellers and named for safaris, but its own homepage targets "DMCs, travel advisors, travel agents & tour operators worldwide" and does not claim safari or lodge specialisation (checked 2026-09-06). TripMapper is the itinerary platform with an explicit safari-operators page; we are the platform built around safari booking operations.
What does Safari Portal cost in total?
Published: Essentials $299/month (1 user, +$50 per extra user), Pro $399/month (3 users), Enterprise custom, plus an unpublished platform fee on payments taken through the system (checked 2026-09-06). Budget for the per-user scaling if your team grows.