Powerful POS and CRM features, packaged in a simple and easy to use responsive web app and iPad app.
THE BACKGROUND
Pitaya Technologies started out as a boutique hotel in Nicaragua several years ago. As their hotel grew, they needed a better way to manage their guests, rooms, services, staff and inventory. They approached us with the idea to build an intuitive, but effective app to manage the complex everyday processes in hotels.
THE BACKGROUND
THE CHALLENGE
THE CHALLENGE
They needed a clean, simple looking app with a not-so-simple functionalities. On top of that, they had intermittent internet at their location, so the solution required not only cloud-based data storage, but localized backup data as well.
FEATURES
Users can see reserved, occupied and open rooms.
Hotel staff can add, edit and manage reservations.
We built a powerful CRM to manage guests and improve guest experience.
a payment integration allowed for secure payment management.
manage tables, inventory and recipes.
manage inventory of towels and other guest conveniences.
reporting tools gave the hotel management key intelligence reports for improving customer satisfaction and cost management.
The Solution
The interface required numerous flows to satisfy the complex nature of the app. We needed flows to manage reservations, payments, inventory, restaurants along with complex reporting for management.
The Maderas team had rough wireframe to start with, so our designers worked with their team to further elaborate on them. We then interviewed serval staff members to guide our UI/UX and design decisions.
Our architects decided that the project would be a good candidate to be developed with Yii 2.0 PHP, mySQL, Apache and deployed on AWS.
We worked in two-week sprints, so the Maderas team would review and provide feedback on the progress of the app every other week.
As the delivered features were tested on-site, we found opportunity for further refinements and iterations. For example, we learned that the internet connection on site was intermittent, so we created a localized database and general caching techniques to ensure the app would still run during times of internet outage.
RESULT
The app was so successful, the owners built a technology company – Pitaya Technologies – around it. They now white label the app for boutique hotels around the globe with continued support from the CXR Agency team to enhance and grow the experience.