Developing an easily manageable bespoke online portal, able to respond to the specific needs of BoutiqueHomes niche audience, based on Laravel and AngularJS.
THE CONTEXT
Our Client
BoutiqueHomes is a travel portal offering access to a collection of properties that provide unique experiences through architecture, location, and services.
The venues are selected through strict criteria (uniqueness, intimacy, design, reflection of the areas’ cultural values). That’s why the database of 1,800 properties includes homes by noted architects and designers from around the world, such as Benjamin Cox, Herbert Kreisler, R.F Schindler, Frank Lloyd Wright, and several of their properties have won prestigious design awards.
BoutiqueHomes addresses their niche by following popular traveling portals principles (smart properties filtering, complete booking system, secure payment, improved mobile usability).
Client’s needs and goals
Our client’s goal was to provide a complete on-site experience to their customers.
Their old, outdated WordPress portal could no longer meet the customers' expectations nor the marketing needs.
They decided to migrate the online portal to a modern and easier to manage, custom-developed platform (based on Laravel).
THE SOLUTION
To get the expected results and be able to bring their business to the next level, the client decided to use a custom-developed platform and work with an experienced development company.
In this context, Roweb was recommended to take over the project (by an existing customer). At that moment, the rebuilding process was quite unstable, and the new portal was far from being the expected solution.
The main challenges of the project:
- unstable project legacy;
- adapting instantly to dynamic objectives;
- lack of synchronization (due to time zone differences).
Despite these challenges, we focused on the project's potential and identified the technical solutions best fitting the company's interests quickly. Our dev team developed the new solution using Laravel, AngularJS and MySQL, redesigned the entire portal interface, and migrated the existing WordPress portal content.
Provided services:
The outcome
The business is now based on a modern, dynamic, and completely custom tool to respond to BoutiqueHomes' audience niche.
Benefits for the portal owners
Using a performant sales tool, displaying offers at their true value, placing conversion features at users' fingertips, and communicating the business value in a complete and custom way.
Benefits for owners having their properties listed on the portal
Managing their property bookings and availability straightforwardly. Having instant access to the reservations calendars, payouts, and an internal messaging system to keep guest messages centralized.
Benefits for BoutiqueHomes’ visitors
Complete online booking experience - everything is placed at users' reach. For example, being able to contact the owners through the internal messaging system.
Have an outdated portal you need to optimize?
Overcoming client's expectations
From the beginning of the project, we offered technical expertise and solutions adapted to the client's needs while maintaining a flexible attitude.
Features and functionalities:
- custom menus & categories, architectured around users’ needs and interests;
- multi-value parameters for displaying relevant offers only;
- smart filtering based on specific criteria (bedrooms, pool, pets allowed, suitable for events & photoshoots, etc.);
- complete booking system;
- instant emailing for sending requests (e.g., joining the platform as a host);
- upsell feature - showing further suggestions (“Other Properties You Might Like”)
- newsletter integration;
- blog module integration (Stories);
- social plugins for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter;
- guest reviews;
- cancellation options.
Project highlights
Project team
The project development team scaled as the project progressed - at the beginning, there was 1 developer involved in the project, at the end of the project there were 3 developers involved).
TECH LEAD
DEVELOPERS
Technologies
Project Steps
Auditing the initial solution & code review
Rebuilding the portal to a Laravel custom platform
Developing new custom features
Migrating existing data
QA
Some of our works
Real estate online portal
SmartCity App
Tour operator management system