IBE for 3 hotel chains
Internet Booking Engine for aja Resorts, Urban Nature & A-ROSA Hotels
DSR Hotel Holding includes some of Germany’s most iconic hospitality brands — such as aja Resorts, A-ROSA Hotels, Hotel Louis C. Jacob in Hamburg, Urban Nature, and HENRI Hotels.
Objectives of the new development
The main reason for the new development of the booking route was its customizability. This does not mean an "off-the-shelf" booking route, but one that is optimally adapted to the DSR-specific products.
This also enables easier cross-selling between the hotels, even across the various hotel brands of the DSR Group.
Another important goal was and is to optimize the UX, taking performance, orientation and design into account
Looking to the future, the new DSR IBE enables faster, iterative further development for all brands. Measures to optimize the conversion rate, as well as upselling or cross-selling expansion, for example, can now be implemented more quickly for all brands.
Conversion-driven architecture
We achieved full customizability by decoupling the visual and UX layer from the technical logic of the booking engine. The underlying IBE now functions purely as a data hub, while the entire booking interface is rendered through our Neos CMS frontend layer, fully optimized for conversion.
This architecture enables:
- Real-time availability and dynamic pricing per day
- Bundled packages and offers for upselling
- A clearly measurable increase in conversion rates
Upselling through flat rates & packages
Conversion boost through complete individuality
In the Neos frontend, real-time availability and “starting-from” prices are displayed for each day. This helps prevent booking drop-offs—for instance, when users happen to search during a high-demand weekend, such as a festival, and abandon the process due to unusually high prices.
Additionally, users can enter their federal state to view a personalized calendar with all relevant school holidays—providing real value for vacation planning.
All of these features are implemented independently of the underlying IBE. We now use the IBE solely as a data hub, while the CMS layer in Neos allows us to build virtually any functionality without limitations in layout, UX, or UI.
Iterative development with a strong MVP foundation
The project started with an MVP that already outperformed the legacy system in terms of conversions. As we progressed, we continuously improved the interface based on real-world learnings.
Ongoing enhancements include:
- Cross-selling across brands and IBE systems
- Real-time demand indicators per offer
- Integration of new brands and accommodation types
Individual IBE with unique functionalities:
- Generating deep links: Offer links can be configured by editors at Neos Backend and enable direct access to the IBE with the corresponding default configuration. This can also be used for GoogleAds etc., for example.
- Expansion to include further accommodation types: Vacation homes and apartments
- Extension of the price calendar: integration of vacation calendars and display of public holidays in the various federal states
- Display of dynamic prices: automated also within the website
- LastMinute offers: Special display of offers within the next 30 days with savings calendar and weather forecast
- PromotionCodes: Improved display
- Accessibility: The IBE can be controlled purely with the keyboard
- Translation into various languages: The translations can be maintained via Neos Backend
- Outlook for further highlights:
- In future, location and room data will be maintained and enriched directly in Neos Backend
- Quick setup of additional hotels and chains
- Easy connection of hotels from different IBE instances
- Cross-selling between different IBE providers possible
Technical highlights in detail:
- Frontend Component and modular focus
- One code base for multiple brands: Themable fonts, colors, logo, etc.
- Quality assurance: End2End Static Analysis PHP > OpenApi > TypeScript
- ModernTech at Backend:
- PHP 8.2 with Type Safety
- Unit tests and StaticAnalysis
- Interfaces with OpenApispecs generated directly from the PHP code
- Modern Tech Stack at Frontend:
- React (JS Framework)
- TailwindCSS (Styling Utils)
- State (StateManagment)
- OpenApi (Typesafe API connection)
- TypeScript (Static Analysis)
- Tanstack Query (Server State managment)
- radix-ui (Accessible UI Components)
- Vite (Bundler)
- ViTest (Unit / integration) (Tasting)
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