Case study Holiday villa rental

The website, back office and booking feeds all ran on one 15-year-old platform.

We built the new booking site on top of the existing platform, behind a new integration layer. It is live, it is stable, and the back office and feeds run on exactly as they did.

Multinational travel business Multiple languages and currencies Headless rebuild and integration layer
500+
villas booked worldwide, in multiple languages and currencies

One of the biggest systems Alpha Labs has built, launched without disturbing the back office or the feeds.

Global

guests booking in multiple languages and currencies, with local payment methods

10+ years

of support behind it, now monitoring the new system proactively

Old + new

the old platform and the new site run side by side, joined by the integration layer

You will know this one

“Everything runs off one database, so nobody will touch just the website.”

“Simple fixes take far too long because of how the old system was built.”

“Our competitors' websites are leaving ours behind.”

The client

To Tuscany lets more than 500 holiday villas across Tuscany. A back office, the feeds to Airbnb and Vrbo, and the public website all run off one database, built bespoke 15 years ago. We have supported that system for ten years, and the website side was becoming slow, dated and hard to change.

Sector Holiday villa rental in Tuscany
Scale 500+ villas, multiple languages and currencies
Connected to Back office, Airbnb and Vrbo feeds, one shared database
Delivery Two and a half years, design to launch

What we built

A new headless site for guests, joined to the 15-year-old platform by a new integration layer. The back office, the feeds and the database behind them never had to change.

The new To Tuscany villa search with dates, filters, map view and per-villa booking rules
The new villa search: live availability and filters across 500+ villas.

  • A modern booking experience

    The new site feels like an app: fast pages, smooth transitions, map search and every villa's own arrival and stay rules.

  • Built for a global audience

    Multiple languages, multiple currencies and local payment methods, for guests booking from around the world.

  • No lock-in, no big bang

    The new integration layer joins the new site to the existing platform, so the back office and the other connected systems can modernise phase by phase.

  • Faster than the old site

    The old system had been slowing down. The new one is quick, and simple changes no longer drag.

  • Stable and supported

    Bookings land in the unchanged back office, and we monitor the system proactively under a support contract, usually finding issues before anyone notices.

  1. The guest

    Browse and book

    headless multi currency

    The new site feels like an app: fast pages, smooth transitions, map search, local payment methods and every villa's own arrival and stay rules.

  2. Automatic

    Through the integration layer

    no rebuild

    A new layer sits between the new site and the old platform, translating between the two. Nothing on the old side had to be rebuilt.

  3. Office team

    Nothing changes

    same back office

    Bookings appear in the unchanged back office exactly as they did from the old site. The team work as they always have.

  4. Automatic

    The feeds keep flowing

    Airbnb Vrbo

    The API that lists the villas on Airbnb and Vrbo keeps running untouched, on the same database.

  5. Alpha Labs

    We watch it, and phase the rest

    monitored

    We monitor the system proactively, usually finding issues before the client does. The back office and the other tools can now modernise one phase at a time behind the layer.

Locked into a legacy system?

If every quote says rebuild everything at once, it is worth a second opinion. Thirty minutes. You walk me through what you have now, and I tell you whether it could be modernised in phases instead.

Book a 30 minute discovery call

No cost, no obligation. Or call 01494 413 331.

calendly.com/alphalabs/system-discovery-call · alphalabs.net

What happens on the call

  1. You talk me through your systems as they actually work today.

  2. I point out what could be modernised first and what can wait.

  3. You get a straight answer on whether phasing would work for you, including if it would not.