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BOOKING SYSTEM / HOSPITALITY

WaltzIn

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More than just your average dinner reservation software – a complete event planner that saves time and prioritizes the guest experience.

 

Booking system as you have never experienced before.

//overview _

WaltzIn is a software as a service for restaurants to offer instant booking and internal event management for large groups, private dining, standing receptions and buyouts directly from their website.

It is the only service that gives restaurants complete control to market and offers their spaces and experiences for consumers to book instantly and directly with them for a flat monthly subscription.

WaltzIn is not a marketing service promising to bring restaurants more unqualified leads; it is a tool, like a traditional table reservation management system, which makes booking and managing large party bookings more efficient.

WaltzIn is the online solution to the challenge of succinctly and accurately marketing the many experiences that fall outside of a la carte dining on your website.

WaltzIn is the online solution to the challenge of succinctly and accurately marketing the many experiences that fall outside of a la carte dining on your website.

The system replaces static forms on hospitality companies websites. The events, spaces and experiences they offer can be marketed and sold directly from their website. This is achieved through a powerful calendaring tool that we custom-built to simply and accurately share pricing, availability, packages, add-ons and more. Guests can now do on their own what previously took many days, if not weeks, to do over email with overwhelmed venues. WaltzIn removes the friction from the event, group, and catering booking process to increase booking volume and guest check averages

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// challenges_

Making dinner reservations in NYC - and in the USA, generally - via a booking app wasn't exactly the smooth experience you'd expect, especially when it came to larger parties. Market research confirmed that users are inevitably stressed, and restaurant owners are losing productivity. Nick, the CEO of WaltzIn, a client of ours, noticed the gap in the market and decided to do something about it - which is where we came to help.

What started as a basic system for reservations, called 8for2 at the time, transformed into a more sophisticated solution and a promising flexible booking system, WaltzIn.

The transition from a booking system approach to a complete event management system required a constant observation of their current working process, and designing the system required strong attention to detail.

Since there was no one on the market, time-to-market was crucial. WaltzIn had to be introduced on the market as soon as possible to establish strong brand recognition and customer loyalty before competitors entered the arena.

Building a system that did not exist as of that day. This kind of system or any similar backbone system did not exist at the time. All the features and use cases needed to be done from scratch.

WaltzIn needed a straightforward and user-friendly UI that can be at the same time pleasing to look at and intuitive.

While restaurants were using some legacy system of their own, WaltzIn had a task to educate them to use the system to show them that there is a better way to offer to their clients.

Educating users that there is a similar way to book a big venue and show the market that there is a new system they can use.

Each restaurant has its own story, interior, branding, etc. They all wanted to be unique on the platform. WaltzIn had to introduce themes.

Technical challenges

  • Develop an application that can support multiple roles
  • Admin panel for management
  • Payment solutions including refunding on orders, reservations
  • Security layers
  • Instant reports, real-time notifications for bookings
  • Calendar for reservation, both user-friendly and restaurant friendly. The customers can make reservations in a few clicks, while the restaurants are able to set their menus and availability very easily.
  • Widget to attach to the restaurants’ website
  • Concurrency in the reservation system for the restaurants
  • Overbooking is a big no, so we implemented a solution to lock and unlock the reservation system when multiple people try to book.
  • Chat features for easier and quicker communication between the users
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// solution_

What we developed is much more than your average book-and-pay system - it’s an event management tool that streamlines and polishes the booking process for both sides. Great attention to detail makes sure the tool prioritizes user's needs and takes frustrations out of the equation but at the same time, it allows restaurants & diners to keep their autonomy when it comes to what they choose to offer at the venue.

Backend

The backend was developed in Ruby On Rails. Superb technology for fast MVPs development and best suit for startups. It helped WaltzIn get to market quickly and apply feedback from the customers in no time. The application is a monolithic solution using AWS and Heroku as hosts. It includes API for mobile, web in multiple formats. A chat feature, developed natively in Ruby on Rails v5, helped with user communication and instant notifications and reports.

Frontend

The frontend application was developed using Angular 4, which was updated later to Angular 11. The web application has customised calendar functionality with drag and drop, customised profiles for restaurants including theming for each restaurant, multiple roles such as Admin, user, restaurant, moderator roles. The application has more than 70+ screens with different types of forms for customers and restaurants

QA

The QA team was responsible for some significant test cases that made us think about approaching product and technical development. The automated test cases were part of the QA process, which was highly valued and appreciated by the Web Factory and WaltzIn team.

Flexibility and Complexity

Restaurants usually have different offers and priorities that are dependent on multiple factors. Availability, party size, number of covers and seating capacity, way of payment are just part of all conditions based on which one restaurant can design its offering to their guests at a given day and time. Numerous customisations were introduced that made this system complex yet fully flexible and responsive to any needs.

Customisation

Booking system Experience Payment (Stripe) Calendar for better visualisation and seeing information at first glance Notification system Customisable look and feel for every restaurant based on their existing web presence (trademark).

Beyond the standard booking system

Responsible for product development, we translated our client's experience and visions into a tangible service addressing the needs of multiple parties. The constant feedback imposed frequent changes in requirements and challenged us to build a system that offered more than the regular booking experience. By employing the KANBAN approach, we made sure to have a decent lead time of our requirements and respond to changes steadily.

Project kick-off & Preparations for the app “8for2”

Market research and analysis

We came to a realization that there is a need for different type of bookings

WaltzIn idea is born

and the system developed for 8for2 is being adjusted for the new platform.

Market testing has been conducted

WaltzIn development started from scratch.

FRONTEND BACKEND RESPONSIVE WEB SOLUTION

Solution definition, Architecture and Software development phase

Multiple testing sessions

on Web Factory and WaltzIn side for gathering feedback for refinement

Timeline Synca card 3

Launch of the platform and steady business growth. Onboarded first restaurants

Timeline Beta Runner card 3

Promotions, Improvements and Updates

More than 200+ restaurants and 10.000+ bookings on the platform.

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Plans for future features and development.

Team Formation

The realisation of the project was made possible with the team taking care of the complete product development, UI/UX, and software development in close collaboration with WaltzIn's CEO to make the outstanding booking engine.

// BACKEND // FRONTEND // PROJECT MANAGER // QA // DEVOPS // UI/UX

//results _

WaltzIn is a powerful booking engine that includes advanced filtering options, custom, easy and beautiful dashboards, countless functionalities for the staff, real-time reports, payment processors, processes automation, user personalisation and smooth interaction.

Before WaltzIn, no service existed that allowed restaurants to manage and offer their own spaces for instant booking for large parties and private events. Today WaltzIn makes the lives of the restaurant managers and their guests easier when booking large parties and private events.

The full event management system provides a clean and easy-to-navigate interface and unmatched functionality. Even though the project started from a diner reservations standpoint only, it has grown focused on managers and restaurants. The system has been designed with strong attention to detail. During the transformation process, the project required a constant observation of the current working process of restaurants to meet their business needs.

WaltzIn is just the beginning of what is to be a revolutionary communication, booking & payment system, soon to become an integral part of event management for restaurants & diners.

Application build on RubyOnRails with a frontend in Angular

Customized reservation system

Customized chat feature

Payments using Stripe and Paypal

Architecture and solution provided in no time.

We assigned a dedicated team of 8 people

UI/UX with product development development

Easy to navigate interface

Scalable solution that can support numerous users

10.000+ big venue reservations 200+ restaurants

Multilayer security

AWS infrastructure setup and maintenance

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Things always happen within the timeframes they give or before. What they’ve built so far looks great! I present things, and they give me their opinions and suggestions. It’s a partnership. They have a real community as part of their company. Everyone is very happy to work there. I spent over a month working in their offices, and they were very welcoming and friendly, and they’re also very talented

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Nicholas Smith

FOUNDER

Waltzin USA
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Project Highlights

1.

A technology partner that the client can rely on, 5+ years of partnership between Web Factory and WaltzIn (Spherecal Inc.)

2.

Seamless product development, UI/UX, software development

3.

Startup booster team, flexible and scalable

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