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For safari lodges, camps, resorts and tour operators selling East and Southern Africa, wherever you are based

The Direct Booking System for safari lodges and tour operators

More bookings that do not pay OTA commission. We make your website easy to inquire on, run your ads to cost per inquiry, and train your team to book more of what arrives. We deliver it as the 90-Day Safari Growth Program. Your first new inquiries within 14 days of going live, or we work free until they arrive.

  • 37 websites and apps built, including 5 safari sites
  • USD 100K+ client ad spend managed
  • USD 750K+ revenue generated for clients
  • No more than 10 operators at a time

See if your company qualifies

4 short steps, about 2 minutes. No payment and no obligation.

Your business

Start with the easy part.

What do you run?

Wherever you are based, if you sell trips in East or Southern Africa.

No website yet, or one you are unhappy with? Leave it blank. You can type the address without https.

Live 30-minute group call

See how the Direct Booking System works, live in 30 minutes

A 30-minute group session on Google Meet, hosted by Growth Informer, for lodges, camps and safari operators. Pick a time that suits you, listen in, and ask your questions live. No payment and no obligation.

What we cover in 30 minutes

  1. Your cost per inquiry. The sum, with your own listing and ad numbers.
  2. Fill. More direct inquiries from your website, Google and Meta.
  3. Close. Turning more of those inquiries into bookings, and the 7 in 10 training target.
  4. Keep. Guest communication that brings reviews and repeat bookings.
  5. Live questions. Ask about your own company.

It is a group session on Google Meet, so other people may join the same call. If you can, bring two rough numbers: what you paid listing sites and ad platforms over the last 12 months, and how many inquiries they sent you.

Group calls open soon

Be the first to hear when call times are up

Group calls open soon. Message us on WhatsApp to be told first.

Three lions resting in the Masai Mara
Masai Mara, Kenya. Photo: Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Why direct bookings stay small

Four leaks between a traveller's search and a booking you own

Your lodge, camp or safari company already sells, and travellers already look for you. These are the four places where direct inquiries and bookings slip away. Check how many apply to you.

  1. You rent your guests

    Booking.com, Expedia and TourRadar charge a commission on the bookings they send. SafariBookings charges for each quote request, whether or not it becomes a booking. Agents and DMCs take their share. The guest met you on someone else's platform, with other lodges and operators a tap away, and next season you pay again to reach the same kind of traveller.

    Marketplaces are worth keeping for reach. The problem is depending on them. See what OTA commission costs you in a year, then decide how much of it you would rather keep.

  2. Your website makes asking hard

    A traveller finds you on Google or taps your ad, lands on a page that is slow or confusing on a phone, cannot see a simple way to ask about dates and rates, and books through a marketplace instead.

  3. Inquiries are not bookings

    Travellers often ask more than one lodge or operator. A fast, clear reply with a price range and a next step gives you the best chance. A Monday reply to a Friday night inquiry can be too late, and you never find out why it went quiet.

  4. Nothing is joined up

    No SEO working in the background. No pay per click run to cost per inquiry. No way to see which ad, page or channel produced last month's bookings. So marketing decisions become guesses, and the marketplaces keep the share they already have.

Elephants below Kilimanjaro in Amboseli National Park
Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Photo: Ninaras, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.
How the Direct Booking System works

Fill. Close. Keep. Run as one 90-day program.

Three phases, run by one team, so your website, your ads and your replies work together instead of through four separate suppliers. We are operators: we build it, run it and train your team.

Phase 1

FILL: more inquiries you own

  • Your website rebuilt or fixed so asking about dates and rates is effortless on a phone, and the form collects the dates, group size and budget your team needs to reply well.
  • SEO on the searches travellers use to choose a lodge or a safari, so organic inquiries can grow month by month.
  • Google Ads run by us, and Meta where it fits, managed to cost per qualified inquiry, not clicks.
  • Tracking from ad to booking, so you see inquiries, cost per inquiry and bookings for each channel, direct and OTA side by side.

Phase 2

CLOSE: more of them booked

  • Reservations team training, with a written process your team can follow on a busy weekend.
  • Reply scripts for the questions that stall a booking, like price, permits, safety and dates.
  • A follow-up cadence, so no quote goes silent after one message.
  • Reply-time targets, measured, so slow replies are spotted and fixed.

Training target: about 7 bookings from every 10 qualified inquiries. It is a target we train your team toward, never a guarantee.

Phase 3

KEEP: guests who come back and send friends

  • Before the trip: clear messages so guests arrive prepared.
  • During the stay: a check-in, so small problems are fixed while the guest is still with you.
  • After the trip: a proper request for a review, and a reason to book again direct or refer a friend.

Your part

You own the website, the domain and the ad accounts, from day one.

  • Access to your website and ad accounts, or permission to set them up in your name.
  • Your rates and availability, so replies and ads are accurate.
  • Time from the people who answer your inquiries, for training.
  • An ad budget of at least USD 2,000 a month, paid by you straight to Google or Meta, never through us.
See if my company qualifies
Proof you can check

Operators, not consultants

We build the websites and run the ad accounts. Here is what you can check for yourself.

Google Ads overview, 1 September 2025 to 14 September 2026: 11.3K clicks, 453 conversions, 75.2K impressions and USD 23.4K cost
One of the Google Ads accounts we run, Sep 2025 to Sep 2026
  • 37builds in our portfolio, websites and apps. See them all.
  • USD 100K+of client ad spend managed.
  • USD 750K+of revenue generated for clients.

One of the Google Ads accounts we run

11.3K clicks, 453 conversions, 75.2K impressions and USD 23.4K spend, 1 September 2025 to 14 September 2026. That is about 4 conversions from every 100 clicks.

A conversion is whatever goal that account tracks. Read this as proof that we run real budgets and measure what they return, not as a forecast of your inquiries or what they will cost.

Safari websites we built

Open any of them on your phone.

Lodge, camp and resort work

We do not name lodge, camp or resort clients without their permission, so that work is not listed on this page. Ask us about it on the call.

We also build our own software: Growth Informer Business, a live POS and business platform. Karibu, software for travel companies. Moyo Pay, a wallet built on a double-entry ledger.

Porters carrying loads on a boardwalk trail in the Rwenzori Mountains
Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda. Photo: Vincent Mugaba, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.
Inquiries are not bookings

More inquiries will not help if the replies do not sell

Here is how marketing gets blamed for a reply problem. An owner buys more traffic. The inquiries arrive. Then they wait in an inbox, get one slow or vague reply, and go quiet. The owner decides direct bookings do not work and goes back to the marketplaces.

Often the marketing worked. The reply did not.

So in the program your team gets:

  • A reply-time target, and a simple rota so it holds at weekends too.
  • First replies that move the booking forward: a clear price range, the right question and a next step, in one message.
  • Follow-up that continues after the first quote.
  • Answers for price, permits, safety and timing, without reaching for a discount.
  • Coaching on your real inquiry threads, so the training fits your rooms, your trips and your travellers.
Who this is for

Built for lodges and operators ready to grow. Not for everyone.

This is for you if

  • You own or run a lodge, camp or resort, or a safari or tour company, selling trips in East or Southern Africa: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and their neighbours. Your office can be anywhere.
  • You already sell, with a steady flow of bookings, and want more of them direct.
  • Or you are a new safari company ready to invest more. Startups are welcome: the extra setup work means the program costs more, and we explain the full investment on a call.
  • You pay Booking.com, SafariBookings, TourRadar, other OTAs or agents and want a channel you own alongside them.
  • Someone answers your inquiries, even if that someone is you.
  • You could fund an ad budget of at least USD 2,000 a month for 90 days, paid straight to Google or Meta.
  • You will let us train whoever answers your inquiries.

This is not for you if

  • You need a full house next week. SEO and repeat guests build over months, not days.
  • You want us to answer your inquiries for you. We train your team, we do not replace it.
  • You are not willing to reply quickly or share price ranges with travellers.
  • You are looking for the cheapest agency you can find. That is a different purchase.

We work with no more than 10 operators at a time, so every account gets proper attention. If every place is taken, we tell you, and let you know when one opens.

The guarantee

What we guarantee, and what we do not

Your first new inquiries within 14 days of going live, or we work free until they arrive.

Going live is the day your fixed or rebuilt website and your first campaigns are switched on. We agree that date with you before work starts.

We put the guarantee on your first new inquiries because that is the part we control most. We do not guarantee a revenue figure or a booking count. Those depend on your prices, season, availability and team, and we will not pretend otherwise.

What happens next

Four steps. You decide at the end.

  1. Answer 4 short steps. About 2 minutes, at the top of this page. Your answers come straight to us when you send the form.
  2. We review your answers and look at your website the way a traveller would. We reply on WhatsApp within 6 hours and set up a meeting for the next day.
  3. A call about your numbers. Where your bookings come from, your reply times, what the next 90 days could look like, and the full investment. If we are not the right fit, we say so.
  4. If it makes sense, you decide to start. Scope, go-live date and investment are agreed in writing first. Then we build, go live, and the 14-day guarantee clock starts.
Questions

What lodges and operators ask us first

What is a direct booking system for a lodge or safari company?

It is everything that lets a traveller find you, ask you and book with you without a marketplace in the middle: a website that makes asking easy on a phone, search and ads that bring the right travellers, tracking from ad to booking, and a reservations team that replies fast and follows up. We deliver it as the 90-Day Safari Growth Program, in three phases: Fill, Close, Keep.

Is this a booking engine?

No. A booking engine takes a reservation or a payment online. Safari trips and many lodge stays are often agreed in a conversation first, so the program is built to bring you more of those conversations and to turn more of them into bookings. If you already use a booking engine, we work with it.

Do we have to leave Booking.com, SafariBookings and the other OTAs?

No. Keep any listing that pays. Marketplaces reach travellers who may never find your website. We build a channel you own alongside them, then track cost per inquiry and bookings for every channel, so you can decide where your money goes on real numbers.

What exactly does the 14-day guarantee cover?

Your first new inquiries within 14 days of going live, or we work free until they arrive. Going live is the day your fixed or rebuilt website and your first campaigns are switched on, and we agree that date with you before work starts. We do not guarantee a revenue figure or a booking count, because those depend on your prices, season, availability and team.

Why train the reservations team as well as running ads?

Because more inquiries into slow or vague replies is money spent for nothing. Travellers often ask more than one lodge or operator, and a fast, clear reply with a price range and a next step gives you the best chance. So we fix how inquiries are answered as well as how they arrive.

My reservations team is small. Is this still for us?

Yes. A small team with a clear process, good reply scripts and a follow-up cadence can book more than a bigger team without them. If the person answering inquiries is you, we train you.

We are a new safari company. Is this for us?

Yes, if you are ready to invest more. A new company needs extra setup work because there is less to build on: often no booking history, few reviews, and no website or ad accounts yet. So the program costs more for a startup than for an operator that already sells. We take you through the full investment on a call, and every cost is agreed in writing before any work starts.

What does it cost?

We take you through the full investment on a call, after we have reviewed your answers, so you can judge it against what OTA commission and marketplace fees cost you now. Your ad budget is separate: at least USD 2,000 a month for 90 days, paid by you straight to Google or Meta, never through us. Every cost is agreed in writing before any work starts, with nothing hidden.

Do I need a new website?

Not always. If your current site can be fixed so asking for a quote is easy on a phone, we fix it. We rebuild only when fixing would cost you more in lost inquiries. Either way, you own it.

Is the 7 in 10 target a guarantee?

No. It is the training target we coach your team toward: about 7 bookings from every 10 qualified inquiries. It depends on your prices, dates, availability and the people answering. What we guarantee is this: Your first new inquiries within 14 days of going live, or we work free until they arrive.

Who owns the website and the ad accounts?

You do, from day one. The site, the domain and the ad accounts are in your name, and your ad budget is paid by you directly to Google or Meta.

Keep more of what you earn. Book more of it direct.

Answer 4 short steps, about 2 minutes. We reply on WhatsApp within 6 hours and set up a meeting for the next day. We work with no more than 10 operators at a time.

Chat on WhatsApp
See if you qualify