Cloud Studio | Custom Software, Dashboards & Data insights

About the Client

arble.travel was a new platform that catered to the picky traveller. Run by two experienced ex-hoteliers, the premise of the platform was that instead of having to choose from unknown hotels in a destination you had never travelled before, the team at arble.travel had the experience and insights to select a handful of the best hotels in the most fashionable cities worldwide.

The Challenge

Since this was a greenfield project, a lot of gruntwork was needed where we focused not just on design and development, but we worked with the team at Arble to find the right partners that could make the platform work. We worked with Amadeus on live hotel availability and Spreedly for specialised credit card tokenization for the travel industry.

New API requirements

The number of external APIs required to make this project a success was staggering. We had to work with the team at arble.travel to find the right partners, who had the right APIs, SDKs and inventory.

Live availability

When users booked hotels through arble.travel, we had to ensure that live availability was up to date, prices were correct, and all relevant city and tourist taxes were displayed correctly.

Secure payments

Since users only used their cards as guarantee, popular payment gateways like Stripe or Mollie were not available. We had to find a niche partner specialised in credit card tokenization only.

Our Approach

We started working with Arble.travel at the onset of the pandemic. While this was a challenging time for the travel industry, it was an opportunity to build something online which would be ready to launch once covid restrictions would be lifted.

Phase 1

Exploration

The exploration phase with Arble.travel took a significant time, as the project presented us with numerous technical challenges. From which API and SDK to use, to database design, and credit card tokenization, we had to find not only the right tech stack, but also the right third party integrations to make this project see the light of day.

Phase 2

Design & wireframing

We worked with one of our UX designers based in the Netherlands, who created the visual identity, logos, branding and web styleguides. This was loosely based on the Material design system, in order to speed up development.

Phase 3

Database design & development

One of the most challenging aspects of this projects were our database models. They had to be rigid enough to ensure hotel content was always displayed consistently and accurately, yet had to be flexible enough to accommodate frequent updates from the Amadeus hotel API regarding live hotel availability and pricing.

Phase 4

Launch

With the Amadeus APIs connected, the UX completed and the credit card tokenization connected, the project launched with 20+ destinations and a handpicked selection of 250 hotels in these destinations.

“

Cloud Studio was the perfect partner for bringing Arble.travel to life. They perfectly captured our vision of a curated Online Travel Agency, delivering a stunning frontend and a flawless user experience. Their technical execution, specifically the complex integration of the Amadeus API for live availability and Spreedly for secure payments, was top-notch. Highly recommended for any business needing high-end, full-stack development.

Bart Wijnands

Co-founder, arble.travel

arble.travel