StayTonight is like a stockroom, only for travelers. Hotel owners can rent out vacant rooms at the last minute and earn something, and travelers can find hot deals and get a good deal on a room.
A startup from St. Petersburg approached us. The guys wanted to make an alternative platform for booking hotels, which would be used by those who couldn't find a suitable option or were unable to rent rooms through well-known services like Booking.com and «Ostrovok».
Rustam Mukhamedyanov, Head of WINFOXThe customer wanted to check that by offering lower reservation prices and a more flexible room inventory management system than competitors, it was possible to enter an oversaturated market and stay in it. To test this hypothesis, we had to develop a new service.
We had to make an aggregator that would be an additional sales channel for hotel owners and another platform for travelers. Such a service should work on both desktops and mobile devices.
The target audience of the service is travelers who spend a lot of time on the road and need to be able to book accommodation directly from their smartphone. So we started with a mobile version, and then transferred it to the desktop.
Alexander Khrushchev, Technical Director of WINFOXWe already had some work to do on the booking engine. And the task, at first glance, was to adapt it to the new design. But during the design it became clear that the new service is very different from the classic one. Therefore we had to review many components of the user interface and the backend.
The admin panel is a separate product that allows you to manage business scenarios and moderate content. We have two-way moderation for the panel: new hotel cards and room offers can be edited by both hotel owners and StayTonight employees.
Alexander Khrushchev, WINFOX Technical DirectorEvery change is logged and all of it can be tracked. Due to this, we were able to realize one of the main principles of the project - full automation of the interaction between the service and the hotel owner in the system, without personal communication.
To see available rooms in hotels nearby, simply specify the city you are in.
By clicking on the dates in the calendar, you can select check-in and check-out days. This information is displayed at the top of the screen in separate bars - so it is easier to read.
The service is designed for people from different countries, so at the bottom of the screen you can quickly select the desired currency and language
Search results are displayed on the map. The traveler immediately understands in which area it is possible to book accommodation for the selected dates and how much it costs.
Alexander Khrushchev, WINFOX Technical DirectorNext to the price, the traveler sees the hotel rating, which is calculated based on the reviews of real people. It is done for better orientation of the user in the search results.
Hotel cards are presented in a grid. You can also integrate other user-friendly content, such as bonuses for subscribing to social networks or loyalty system promotions.
By clicking on the point on the map, the user enters the hotel card. In the drop-down menu provides information about the room, accommodation rules, food.
By clicking on the slider in the hotel card, you can see photos of the rooms. It is easy to flip through them by swiping.
On the booking page the user can check the order. To pay for it, you need to enter the card details.
The "My bookings" section contains all paid bookings. The banner of each booking displays the most important information: number of guests and nights, check-in date and cost.
Alexander Khrushchev, WINFOX Technical DirectorWe worked with business processes new to us, such as generating documents online with facsimile seals and signatures based on completed questionnaires, loyalty program based on publications in social networks, as well as payments in different currencies. Now we know how to properly implement such solutions without reducing the productivity of the service.
By clicking on the plus sign, you can add a new hotel room to the system.
You can enter data manually or by using the drop-down menu. With this function to this you can quickly add numbers directly from your smartphone.
The left menu "Guests" contains data about all people who have booked rooms. The data can be sorted by date and other parameters.
In the upper right corner there is a button "Export". By clicking on it, you can unload and print the booking sheet.
The service administrator can view data on bookings, partners of the project, the amount of commissions earned. The data are presented in graphs, so they are easier to perceive.
Hotel owners can change the booking and accommodation conditions for their guests. They must be reviewed and approved by the administrator before the changes can be displayed on the website.
When a user registers in the system or performs a key action, they usually receive an email. Such mailings can be done directly through StayTonight - no third-party service is needed.
The hotel owner can run the business from anywhere, and travelers can make hotel reservations. This does not require a computer, everything can be done from a cell phone.
With the help of the service it was possible to test and confirm the customer's hypothesis. He realized that the idea worked, and that it was possible to make money on it.
We carried out automated load testing, and the service withstood very high loads. If we run a large advertising campaign with many clicks to the site, it will not collapse.
Alexander Khrushchev, Technical Director of WINFOX
Project Manager
Dmitry Turmyshev
Technical Director
Alexander Khrushchev
Reservation Engine Developers
Sergey Smagin
Viktor Milosevich
Alexander Khrushchev
UI service developer
Olga Miroshnichenko
Developer of business scenarios engine
Alexander Khrushchev
UX/UI designer
Yegor Polyakov