Case study · Hospitality · Web app
Jara Beach Resort: every way to the beach, booked online, from idea to launch
We took Jara Beach Resort from an idea to one booking system for overnight stays, day passes, retreats and live events. That meant the guest booking flow, the back office behind it, the build, and running it after launch.
- Client
- Jara Beach Resort
- Platforms
- Web: guest booking and back office
- Services
- Discovery, UI/UX, web app build, launch, CTO as a Service
- Live at
- booking.jarabeachresort.com
4
Ways to book: overnight, day pass, retreats and live events
13
Back-office modules, from guests and staff to payments and Club 100
[X]
Weeks from idea to launch
[N]
Bookings taken online since launch
The idea
A beach resort sells far more than rooms
Jara Beach Resort, a Lagos beach resort since 2019, offers overnight stays across room types from studios to ocean deluxe, day passes for a few hours on the sand, wellness retreats, and live music nights like Mádé Kuti at the Beach.
Each one used to need its own enquiry. The resort wanted guests to book any of them online, and wanted management to see revenue, occupancy and every guest's history in one place.
The brief in one line
One booking system for every way guests come to Jara, and a back office that knows each guest by name.
Who it is for
Couples and families planning a beach weekend · Day visitors and retreat groups · Fans booking a concert night · The front desk and management running the resort
The challenge
Four things an off-the-shelf hotel booking engine would get wrong
Four products, one checkout
A night's stay, a day pass, a retreat and a concert ticket each work differently, but guests expect to book all of them the same way.
Prices that change with the week
Weeknights are 10% cheaper and weekends 10% dearer. Holiday dates, vouchers, multi-night discounts and 12.5% VAT all have to land in one correct total.
Payments that don't always go through
When a card payment fails halfway, the team needs to see it, follow up with the guest and close it off, not find out at the front desk.
Guests who come back
Regulars expect to be remembered: their usual spa slot, a birthday on this visit, how they like to be contacted. And the team needs a way to flag the few guests it won't host again.
How we did it
From idea to launch in five stages
01 · Discovery
Shape the idea
- Workshop with management
- Every product the resort sells
- Rate, discount and tax rules
- First-version scope
02 · Design
Design every step
- Four ways in, one flow
- Pending reservation panel
- Back-office dashboard
- Built on the Jara brand
03 · Build
Build the system
- MERN stack
- Peak and off-peak pricing
- Payments and booking logs
- Guest profiles and notes
04 · Launch
Go live
- Tests with real bookings
- booking.jarabeachresort.com live
- Staff training
- Launch date [date]
05 · Run
Keep it growing
- CTO as a Service retainer
- Hosting and support
- New products and events
- Reporting for management
Stage 02 · Look and feel
Sea glass, sky and a clear next step
The booking site takes its colours from the resort's own brand: a soft sea-glass green across the page, a lagoon blue for the step you're on, and near-black for what's done. The back office keeps the same calm palette, with an ocean blue for charts.
Indulgent Escapes
Sea glass
#9DD4D3
Lagoon
#75A9BF
Mist
#EBF9FF
Ocean
#6188C0 · charts
Ink
#111111
Stage 03 · The booking flow
What we designed, and why
Guests pick how they're coming, then move through four clear steps. A pending reservation panel follows them the whole way, so they always know what they've chosen and what it costs.
Step 1
Guest details
Who's coming, and how to reach them.
Step 2
Dates and rooms
Available dates first, then the rooms free for them.
Step 3
Alcohol and meals
Food and drinks packages added before arrival.
Step 4
Extras and experiences
Spa, cakes, riding and personalised touches.
Dates and rooms
Weekday deals the guest can see
A “See available dates” button shows open dates before a guest tries to pick, so nobody gets stuck on a full weekend.
The reservation panel counts off-peak nights (Sunday to Thursday, 10% off) and peak nights (Friday and Saturday, 10% more) as the dates change, so the price never needs explaining.
The back office
The whole resort, run from one dashboard
Thirteen modules cover bookings, booking logs, guests, blacklisted guests, staff, tasks, vouchers and discounts, payments, the Club 100 membership, settings and an admin audit log.
Dashboard
The numbers a hotel manager actually uses
Beyond bookings and revenue, the dashboard tracks average daily rate, GOPPAR and TRevPAR, occupancy against cancellations, average length of stay and how far ahead guests book.
Occupancy is broken down by room type, and day passes, retreats and manual bookings each get their own count.
Guest record
Every guest, remembered
Each booking opens into one page: who the guest is, how they found Jara, how they like to be contacted, the full cost breakdown and the payment.
Staff add special-occasion notes and “The Usual”, like a 2 pm spa session on day one, so a returning guest is looked after without asking twice.
Check-in, check-out and post-stay feedback all happen from the same screen.
Staying in control
Resolved by staff, set by the resort
Booking logs catch every failed or pending payment, and staff mark each one resolved once it's sorted.
Rooms, extras, holiday dates and blocked dates are all set by the resort team, with no developer needed.
Stages 04 and 05 · Launch and run
Built for this resort, and still looked after
We built the system from scratch on the MERN stack: MongoDB, Express, React and Node.js. One backend serves the guest booking site and the back office, so a room or day pass sold online is counted everywhere at once.
After launch we stayed on as Jara's technology team on a CTO-as-a-Service retainer, keeping the platform running and adding new products and events as the resort grows.
- MongoDB
- Express
- React
- Node.js
- [Payment gateway]
- Back office
Live at
booking.jarabeachresort.com
Overnight stays, day passes, retreats and live events, all booked and paid for online.
Help, one tap away
A WhatsApp “Need Help?” button sits on every page, so a guest with a question reaches the resort without leaving the booking.
The result
Live, and filling the beach
Stays
[N]
Overnight bookings taken online since launch
Day passes
[N]
Day pass and retreat tickets sold
Direct
[N]%
Of stays booked direct, with no commission
Occupancy
[N]%
Average room occupancy in [period]
“[Quote from the Jara Beach Resort team about working with 24 Design Co.]”[Name], [role], Jara Beach Resort
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