The short version: Nina and Monique co-founded Lewis & Luyt Travel to design bespoke luxury journeys across Southern Africa. They built the business on Waybird from the outset, using the itinerary builder for creative flexibility and tour operator payment software backed by a PTS trust account for secure client payments. Booked value grew 80% from 2024 to 2025, and the first six months of 2026 have already overtaken the whole of 2025.
Booked value at Lewis & Luyt Travel grew 80% from 2024 to 2025. By the middle of 2026, the business had already booked more than it did in all of 2025. Growth at that pace usually catches up with a small team eventually, in the form of admin that quietly eats the hours meant for clients.
Co-founders Nina and Monique split their time between South Africa and Zambia, visiting the lodges and properties they recommend so every itinerary is built on what they’ve experienced firsthand rather than what a supplier’s website says. That’s a lot of ground to cover, and it leaves less room to also be wrestling with spreadsheets and chasing payments. They built the operational side of the business on Waybird from the outset — the itinerary builder for proposals, and tour operator payment software handling deposits, balances and trust account payments — and the growth has stayed ahead of the admin, not the other way around.
Nina and Monique, co-founders of Lewis & Luyt Travel.
Who are you and what does your company do?
We’re Nina and Monique, co-founders of Lewis & Luyt Travel, a bespoke luxury travel company specialising in Southern Africa. We design highly personalised trips across South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Mauritius, combining the region’s most exceptional lodges and experiences with the knowledge of people who know it firsthand. We’re based in South Africa and Zambia and spend a lot of our time travelling throughout Southern Africa, visiting properties and experiencing destinations for ourselves. That’s what allows us to make genuinely personal recommendations, based on what we’ve experienced and what we know will work for our clients, not just on what looks good on a website.
What were you looking for when you found Waybird?
We were building the business properly from the start, and we knew we needed a system that could do more than produce a good-looking itinerary. Our trips are highly bespoke, so it was important to have the flexibility to be creative with how we present each one, from writing our own lodge descriptions and experiences to tailoring the itinerary around each client. At the same time, we wanted the practical side to be seamless, particularly pricing, invoicing and payments. The trust account integration mattered a lot here. It meant we could manage client payments securely within the same system instead of piecing everything together through separate invoices, payment links and bank details. Waybird gave us both: creative flexibility and a professional, streamlined payment process.
Why did you choose Waybird over the alternatives?
The itineraries were a big part of it. Waybird makes it straightforward to build, edit, price and present an itinerary that actually captures what an African trip feels like. Because everything we do is highly personalised, being able to reshape a trip quickly and creatively, without it turning into an afternoon of formatting, was a huge advantage.
The integrated payments through our PTS trust account appealed to us too, since it brings the whole process together in a professional, seamless way for us and our clients.
Another factor was the flexibility Waybird offered us as a start-up. Rather than a fixed monthly fee like many other platforms, Waybird took the time to understand where we were as a business and offered a pricing structure built around a long-term relationship and mutual trust. That meant a lot to us as a young company and gave us the confidence to grow with the platform.
What do you remember from onboarding?
The onboarding experience was fantastic. Gustav was incredibly helpful throughout, taking the time to guide us through the platform, answer all our questions and make sure we felt comfortable as we got familiar with how everything worked. Having that support in the early days made the whole process feel easy and gave us the confidence to start using the platform straight away.
We were already impressed by the itinerary builder, but having the Waybird team set up our branded portal with our logo and colours made a great first impression. From the very first itinerary we sent to a client, it felt like a genuine Lewis & Luyt experience.
How do you use Waybird day to day?
Waybird is where the whole trip lives, start to finish. Proposals go out from the platform, and once a trip confirms, guests have everything they need in their dashboard: the itinerary, the map, their payment schedule, their details. Behind the scenes we lean on the content library and the supplier database, and our specialist bios sit on our profiles so clients know exactly who’s building their trip.
What about payments?
Payments live inside the itinerary, which changes the whole dynamic. Clients pay by card straight from their trip page and it flows into our PTS trust account. Bank transfers we record against the booking in a couple of clicks. Deposits, balances and guest details all have automated reminders, so nobody has to write the awkward chasing email. We’ve even handled group trips where the payment splits across several travellers, the kind of thing that used to mean a spreadsheet and crossed fingers.
What feedback do clients give on the itineraries?
It’s the thing we hear about most. The itineraries are visually stunning and clients tell us so, unprompted. For a bespoke operator that matters more than any advert. When your proposal looks considered, people trust that the trip will be too.
Let’s talk numbers. What has growth looked like?
Steady, then steep. Our booked value grew 80% from 2024 to 2025, and the first six months of 2026 have already overtaken the whole of 2025. Growth like that would normally mean drowning in admin. Instead the system has never once been the bottleneck.
How have you found the support?
The support has been fantastic and incredibly responsive. We once reported a pricing display issue just after 7am and it was fixed before 9am, and we’ve had new suppliers added within the hour when we needed them. What we particularly appreciate is how the team often sends short screen recordings rather than long email explanations. We can watch them when it suits us and go back to the recording later if we need a refresher. It makes getting help and learning the platform easy, without arranging a call every time we have a question.
Has the platform changed since you joined?
Constantly, and usually in the direction we were hoping. We’d wanted a way to record payments that arrive outside Waybird, and when it shipped, our reaction was that we were already hoping it was in the pipeline. The same with automatic guest-detail reminders and specialist profiles. Features keep arriving that quietly remove another manual job. We love Waybird, and part of that is knowing it isn’t standing still.
Any hesitations at the start?
Our worry was that a platform this polished might make every operator look the same, and our trips are anything but off-the-shelf. In practice, that worry didn’t hold up. The itineraries flex around what we design rather than forcing us into a template, and with our own branding and portal, clients experience Lewis & Luyt, full stop.
Is there anything you still do outside Waybird?
We do some of our initial pricing calculations outside Waybird, since our trips can involve complex pricing structures we find easier to work through separately first. Once the calculations are finalised, we add the pricing totals into Waybird so everything the client sees is in one place. We also design our printed itineraries as keepsake booklets in Canva, since we enjoy the extra creative freedom with layout there. But for the client-facing journey itself, building the itinerary, presenting it, managing final pricing, payments and guest details, Waybird is at the centre of it.
What advice would you give an operator starting on Waybird?
Don’t start from a blank page, because you don’t have to. The lodges and properties are already loaded in Waybird with write-ups and photography, which saved us weeks. Spend your setup time on the things only you can write: your trip templates, your standard travel notes, the way you talk about a destination. And set up your payment schedules from the very first proposal so the reminders do the chasing for you. Future you will be grateful.
What’s next for Lewis & Luyt?
More of what’s working. Bookings are growing faster than our admin, which is exactly the ratio we want, and we’re sitting down with the Waybird team to make sure we’re using the platform to its fullest as we scale. The ambition is simple: keep the trips deeply personal while the business behind them gets bigger.
Growth at a glance
- Focus: bespoke luxury travel across South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Mauritius
- Built on Waybird: from the start of the business, itinerary builder and PTS trust account payments in place from the first proposal
- Booked value growth, 2024 to 2025: 80%
- H1 2026 booked value: already ahead of full-year 2025
- Payment reminders “written by hand”: zero, automated from the first proposal
- Currently: working with the Waybird team to use the platform to its fullest as the business scales
Frequently asked questions
Can a bespoke travel company run highly personalised itineraries and streamlined payments on the same platform?
Yes. Lewis & Luyt Travel builds fully custom Southern Africa itineraries in Waybird, including their own lodge descriptions and experiences, while payments run through an integrated PTS trust account with automated deposit and balance reminders.
How does tour operator payment software handle client payments securely?
Lewis & Luyt take card payments directly from the client’s trip page into a PTS trust account, and record bank transfers against the booking in a couple of clicks. Deposits, balances and guest details are followed up with automated reminders rather than manual emails.
How fast can a growing tour operator get support when something goes wrong?
Lewis & Luyt reported a pricing display issue just after 7am and had it fixed before 9am, and have had new suppliers added within the hour when needed.
Growing faster than your admin is the whole point — that’s what Waybird’s itinerary builder and tour operator payment software are built for. Read how Southern Drift Travel got started, or request a demo and we’ll show you what it looks like with your own trips.
