Direct Booking & Property Management Platform
An end-to-end direct booking website and admin platform built to reduce reliance on OTAs, featuring live availability, secure payments, bi-directional PMS synchronization, and automated guest check-ins.
Role
Solo Full-Stack Developer
Environment
Web & Cloud Infrastructure
Tech Stack
Gallery
The Challenge
While reducing reliance on expensive Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) was a financial priority, the client’s primary hurdle was finding a developer capable of delivering a truly bespoke digital experience. Previous agencies they consulted only offered rigid, outdated templates that provided basic PMS (Property Management System) integrations but severely compromised the brand's identity and user experience. They needed a cohesive, custom-designed booking platform that seamlessly integrated complex enterprise APIs directly into a modern, brand-enhancing UI.
Core Operational Friction:
- Inability to source a flexible solution; existing market options forced a choice between rigid, outdated website templates or building from scratch without PMS expertise.
- Heavy reliance on expensive third-party OTA commissions due to a lack of an engaging, trustworthy direct-booking channel.
- Fragmented guest management and manual administrative overhead for identity verification, payments, and dispatching entrance codes.
The Solution
I engineered a fully bespoke website and end-to-end booking platform built entirely from the ground up using Svelte, Tailwind CSS and inspiration from the industry. Instead of forcing the client to settle for a generic template, I delivered a custom-designed UI that perfectly aligns with their brand consistency, elevating the property's premium feel from the first click.
Beyond the tailored frontend, I seamlessly integrated their Property Management System directly into the UI alongside Stripe Elements for payments. This powers a universal Guest Portal where users (both direct and OTA) can verify their identity and receive automated entrance codes. For the business owner, the custom-built Admin Dashboard provides a central hub to manage pricing, cross-platform bookings, and manual check-in overrides without ever touching the raw PMS database.
System Architecture
How the system integrates front-end booking, backend logic, and third-party enterprise APIs.
01 Frontend & Universal Guest Portal
Built with Svelte and Tailwind CSS, the responsive frontend handles the direct booking flow. A universal portal allows guests from any channel to verify identity via Stripe and access dynamic PDF invoices stored securely on Cloudflare R2.
02 Asynchronous Backend & Auth
A high-performance FastAPI (Python) backend hosted on Google Cloud Run handles business logic, while Supabase securely manages user authentication and relational database state.
03 Bi-Directional PMS Synchronization
The system communicates directly with the Rentals United API to pull live availability and push confirmed reservations, ensuring the local database and central Property Management System remain perfectly aligned.
Technical Hurdles
Relying purely on live XML Webhooks for the Reservation Live Notification Mechanism proved unreliable due to intermittent server cold starts on Google Cloud Run, which caused webhook timeouts. To solve this, I architected a hybrid, fault-tolerant synchronization pipeline. I maintained the live webhooks for real-time updates but engineered a robust fallback cron job that polls the PMS every 10 minutes to catch and ingest any dropped payloads.
Additionally, building the logic for automated check-ins required secure gating. The system maps complex state changes to ensure physical entrance codes are only released if a guest’s Stripe Identity verification passes, the payment is confirmed, and the time matches the admin's scheduled release window—while still maintaining manual override capabilities for edge cases.
Impact & Results
Eliminated OTA Commissions
Enabled the business to capture direct revenue through a premium, frictionless booking experience.
Operational Time Savings
Completely automated manual tasks including identity verification, check-in instructions, invoicing, and pricing updates.
Unified Guest Experience
Standardized the post-booking flow for all customers, establishing an account-based architecture to support future loyalty programs.