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The client's goal
The idea for the project originated at Webdelo. We had the idea to create an accommodation booking service in Bulgaria with the potential to scale to other countries.
The goal is to provide the highest quality service by focusing efforts on just one country. The unique aspect of this project is that most property owners do not reside in Bulgaria, so they need assistance with check-ins, check-outs, and apartment cleaning. Website users have access to a wide range of properties, and the service earns a percentage from each successful booking.
Solution
The solution was the development of a service for booking apartments and rooms in Bulgaria. The service connects property owners and guests, providing the following functionalities:
- Communication with property owners through the website
- Calendar and booking of available dates
- Ability to set prices for different seasonal periods, block specific dates in the calendar
- Management of multiple properties by a single owner
- Online payment with full or partial payment. For partial payments, the client completes the remaining balance upon check-in.
- Refund system for standard (short-term rental) and long-term conditions (6 months or more)
- Integration with social networks
- Moderation of new listings
- Messaging with apartment owners through the website, similar to Airbnb. Additional contact details are provided after booking payment.
- Three user interfaces: for property owners, guests, and administrators.
- The admin interface includes a built-in call center.
Design
The website design extends beyond just a few types of pages visible to visitors. We meticulously crafted the design of personal accounts for both guests and property owners.
The mobile and desktop versions are developed based on UX audit data. The entire booking process can be navigated independently by the user. For instance, the search page displays each apartment on the site map and features convenient filtering options based on 20 parameters. On the apartment page, we introduced a user-friendly booking form, infographics to illustrate apartment characteristics, and a display of reviews.
- Through searching for available dates with the option to filter results.
- Through curated selections of apartments - based on locations, budget, and living space (especially relevant as we curated selections based on our experience).
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Web development
We utilized a custom PHP framework that encompasses all the necessary tools for the core system, ensuring stability and high performance. The use of Angular enabled us to create an interactive user interface, providing a pleasant user experience on the website. To optimize and cache data, we implemented Memcached and also leveraged the Laravel framework as an API service to ensure reliable integration with external systems. This technology stack guarantees reliability, performance, and facilitates our clients in conveniently leasing and renting properties.
Push notification
- Allows you to receive notifications on all types of devices
- Reduces response time to system events
- Eliminates the need to create a separate web application
SMS notification
- Multilingual SMS notifications are sent according to the primary language of the account
- Various engines can be used to send SMS
- SMS can be sent using various services depending on the location of the recipient; saving you money.
E-mail notification
- Multilingual email templates based on the language of the account
- HTML template layout
- Templates adapted to different devices
- Simple registration of a partner and receiving an affiliate code to connect referrals
- Ability to use the affiliate code in the form of a link, widget or code in a way most convenient to the partner
- Referral makes the booking after registration
- The referral receives a discount, the partner receives a part of the service profit on the first booking
Single-stage for quick payments:
Many individuals with limited mobility navigate online using accessibility technologies or keyboards.
Two-stage payment:
- Authorization of funds on the client's card.
- Confirmation of the transaction by the owner.
- Deferred withdrawal or unlocking in case of rejectio
Domain-based Multilingualism
It allows the promotion of the website in different languages based on the domain.
Session-based Multilingualism
Users can switch languages and have their choice remembered within any domain.
Account-bound Multilingualism
The selected language is saved in the user's account, enabling notifications and mailings in the user's preferred language.
Automated Account Data Population
Including profile photo, phone number, full name, etc.
Automatic Posting to User Accounts
Ability to post promotional content in the feeds of partners.
Reviews from Friends
Reviews from Friends Verification of social connections of clients for the ability to leave reviews about the property owner.
Support for 3 Social Networks
Facebook, Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki.
All site actions are accessible in the moderation section. The site moderator can assist in refining apartment listings or expediting responses from property owners.
Examples of informational messages:
- Addition of a new property
- Update of a property
- Reservation processing
- Payment for a reservation
SEO
To promote our newly started project, we employed SEO optimization and marketing technologies.
Since we offered apartments in all resort cities in Bulgaria, we created a landing page for each, such as Sunny Beach.
Each city page has its metadata, description, and assortment, being promoted in organic search.
Targeting For multilingual promotion to other pages, we used separate domains. For Ukraine - UA, for Europe - EU, for Russian - ru.
Content moderation to:
- Manually set Meta-Title and Meta-Description, adding geo-tags.
- Refine the layout of the listing.
- Specify alt and title for each image in the gallery.
- Remove unwanted content.
In 20% of cases, we additionally contacted property owners to obtain additional photos.
Marketing
Street Banners
Placement of banners in high-traffic areas and on balconies of our apartments
Distribution of brochures
Distributed over a million brochures in major cities in Moldova and Ukraine.
Brochures prepared for property owners and potential guests in three languages: Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Russian.
Collaboration with popular bloggers, organizing tours for TV stars.
Working with reviews
Conducting contests to motivate video reviews. Calling guests after their stay to get text reviews for apartments.
Implemented additional services to expand the catalog and improve service quality.
Full management of apartments under contract
Сheck-in and check-out, cleaning, bedding change, customer search, and advertisement photos.
Partial management
A subset of services from the first list.
Airport transfer organization.
Collaboration with all passenger transport companies in Moldova.
Ticket search through the administration of passenger companies. Helped guests from Moldova, Ukraine, and Russia to find cheaper tickets to Bulgaria.
Achievements
Long-term results, the best traffic channel.
One of the recent peaks: 7,000 visitors per month from Google search, and up to 8,000 monthly during the years of intensive effort. SEO promotion in search provides long-term results.
Around 1,500 successful reservations for the season.
Up to 40 registrations per week from free traffic sources like Google Organic.
User engagement chart: users who viewed more than 3 pages.
Maximum: 1,400 people per week.
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