Case Study | Natural World Safaris
Natural World Safaris Sees a 75% Inquiry to Booking Conversion Increase with PEAK 15
Natural World Safaris has partnered with PEAK 15 to address inefficiencies caused by manual inquiry and booking processes since 2013 – over half of its corporate lifetime. Today, 25 NWS staff members across three continents, including a newly established customer loyalty team, use the platform to drive revenue by delighting guests and reinforcing relationships. It’s an approach that works. With PEAK 15 in the co-pilot’s seat, NWS has seen a 75% lift in inquiry-to-booking conversions in the past year, a rise in repeat bookings, and a downward trend in cost per acquisition and spam inquiries.
The Company
Travel outfitter Natural World Safaris is a global leader in bespoke wildlife and conservation travel. Over the past 20 years, the company has earned a reputation for crafting rare, once-in-a-lifetime journeys that connect travelers with iconic species and remote ecosystems. Its offerings include small-group and specialist-led safaris, tailor-made expeditions, photography-focused trips, and immersive wildlife experiences in more than 40 destinations across all seven continents, from Africa’s savannahs to the world’s most remote polar regions.
The Challenge
In 2013, Natural World Safaris was suffering from growing pains. Team members managed inquiries, itineraries, and bookings by manually entering data in spreadsheets and documents. This led to lead tracking, data accuracy, sharing, and compliance issues that constrained scalability.
At the same time, SaaS options for travel outfitters were transitioning from a fringe option favored by a few early adopters to the industry standard. Company leadership believed that relief could be found in one of these new cloud-based systems.
The Solution
Natural World Safaris embarked on a search for a technology partner. Inquiry and booking attribution and tracking were top priorities for company leadership, closely followed by segmentation, cost, and ROI.
They found everything they were looking for in PEAK 15.
Of particular note, as a company based in the UK, consent records for GDPR/PECR became a necessary but previously unexpected part of company operations in 2018, five years into their relationship with PEAK 15. Embedded platform features immediately positioned NWS ahead of the competition.
The Results
Today, over two dozen Natural World Safaris travel experts leverage PEAK 15’s powerful capabilities to secure end-to-end management of everything from initial inquiries to itineraries, quotes, booking, invoices, payments, marketing, compliance, and reports.
Project and Systems Manager Becca Twist-Stern recently offered insights into the company’s operations and the results they’ve achieved with PEAK 15.
Highlighting outcomes that she believes are directly attributable to the company’s relationship with PEAK 15, Twist-Stern pointed out that, in a twelve-month span between 2024 and 2025:
- The company saw a 75% increase in inquiry-to-booking conversions, specifically for PPC inquiries.
- 33% of bookings were made by repeat guests.
- The use of offline conversion tracking informed by PEAK 15 data has led to a 95% decrease in spam inquiries.
- The company’s cost per acquisition (CPA) decreased by 4.5%.
Here’s how they’re achieving these notable results:
Automated Workflows
PEAK 15’s automated workflows play a critical role in managing inquiries efficiently and converting interested travelers into confirmed guests. By automating routine administrative and communication steps instead of managing manual tasks, the NWS team can respond to inquiries more quickly, follow up more consistently, and stay focused on moving interested travelers through the booking journey.
The system is built around clear triggers that automatically initiate tasks, communications, or reminders at each stage of the guest lifecycle. For example:
- Booking forms are emailed immediately after a traveler’s deposit is received and their status changes to confirmed, maintaining momentum from inquiry to booking.
- Guest details such as passport information, travel insurance, flights, and medical data are requested and stored centrally, reducing back and forth during the inquiry stage.
- Payment reminders are sent automatically based on the trip’s payment schedule, helping prevent drop off between initial interest and final confirmation.
- Post travel follow up messages, including feedback forms, are sent automatically, supporting repeat bookings and referrals.
- Reminders to create compliance certificates for UK travel licensing requirements such as ATOL are automatically generated and distributed to appropriate staff members, removing friction that can delay confirmations.
By handling these repetitive but essential steps in the background, PEAK 15 ensures every inquiry receives timely, accurate communication. This consistency shortens response times, reduces missed follow ups, and allows the team to drive higher conversion rates by devoting more time to personalized inquiry engagement.
Single Source of Truth
Guest history is housed within PEAK 15, which means that each team member has access to the same data, all shared within a single source of truth. The results have been felt across departments:
- Sales reps are less stressed and more able to focus on each lead as their workload and capacity become visible to all
- Finance can trace revenue by source
- Marketing can thank recent travelers for their business, then filter current and lapsed customers by areas of interest for more targeted communications that drive revenue
- Internal friction is reduced and morale has improved company-wide
“We’ve been able to scale much more easily since we’ve stopped being overwhelmed by spreadsheets.”
Becca Twist-Stern
Cultivating Guest Relationships
Traveler preferences are always recorded in the system, enabling everyone from veteran travel experts to entry-level staff to instantly view and act on them. Twist-Stern reports that it’s simple for anyone to make excursion recommendations, pre-book transportation and accommodations according to documented history, and more.
The new customer loyalty team can access trends, details of past trips and inquiries, and more without digging through multiple documents. This easy access is helping Natural World Safaris build longer-lasting, more satisfying relationships with their customers.
Twist-Stern tells the story of working with one loyal couple. They’ve taken seven trips with the company, typically 30 to 35 days at a time and involving multiple flights and a packed itinerary. It’s a lot to keep track of but, with PEAK 15, it’s easy to build even highly complex or specialized trips with just a few clicks and a bit of dragging and dropping. Even better, with everything housed in the system, nothing falls through the cracks. When a pivot is required, notes and other documentation ensure that everyone knows what’s been modified and what to do next.
When asked if she believes that NWS’s partnership with PEAK 15 improves her day-to-day work life, Twist-Stern doesn’t hesitate with a reply, saying, “Natural World Safaris has been using PEAK 15 longer than I’ve been with the company. I’ve never done my job any other way, and I wouldn’t want to.”
Ready to find out more about how custom, scheduled, and FIT multi-day tour operators attract and retain customers, reduce effort, and increase profits with PEAK 15? Request a demo today.
All-in-One View: Client Loyalty Dashboard of Open Enquiries, Active Enquiries, & Future Bookings
Key Takeaways
Traveler preferences are always recorded in the system, enabling everyone from veteran travel experts to entry-level staff to instantly view and act on them. Twist-Stern reports that it’s simple for anyone to make excursion recommendations, pre-book transportation and accommodations according to documented history, and more.