Mobile travel booking platform for festival-goers
About the Client
Festivalio is a proof-of-concept app designed to validate the idea that a niche travel agency can create a mobile app focused on content first, rather than travel. This agency specializes in organizing trips to the world's most popular music festivals. Their vision was to develop an app where users can explore music festivals and book trips to their chosen events. Additionally, they aimed to offer two types of booking flows: direct booking through the OTAs to transition into a travel-tech company, and an enquiry-based system for tailored, full-cycle trips.
Challenge
The primary challenge was time constraints. The agency had already lost significant time with their previous web developers, who ultimately were unable to deliver a mobile app. They approached us with the ambitious goal of launching the app within 1.5 months (45 days). Despite the tight deadline, we took on the challenge.
Another issue was their initial desire to integrate Booking.com inventory, which was not feasible due to their inability to meet the requirements for obtaining access to their API.
Solution
After a quick discovery phase, we built a basic mobile app for Festivalio in 45 days with minimal but essential functionality.
Together with the client we decided to use Travelpayout's API for their hiotels and flights data. Although they offer a smaller inventory compared to Booking.com or Skyscanner, it was enough for the MVP phase.
Currently, the app is available through a closed Beta testing group on an invitation-only basis.
Results
After launching the app for beta testing, the client garnered positive feedback. Within just two days of making the app accessible to their initial group of testers, which included 1,000 users from their email list, they received four inquiries and three users successfully made bookings through the affiliate partner.
45 days
to build a basic app
Highlights
Despite tight deadlines, we have accomplished multiple objectives for the MVP
User Experience
Despite being a simple MVP version, we devoted considerable effort to the app's design to ensure user-friendliness and adherence to best UX practices. During the beta testing phase, users particularly liked the app's aesthetic and functional design.
Data mapping
We automated several tedious tasks typically faced by content creators. By sourcing data from various available sources, we were able to align festival information, ticket-selling platforms, as well as hotel and flight data seamlessly.
Inventory APIs
We successfully integrated travel APIs from Travelpayouts into the Festivalio app. We developed middleware to ensure private API keys remain secure and are not embedded directly in the app. Additionally, we implemented several security measures to significantly reduce the potential for system abuse.
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