Contessa Villas

We created a system for an agency that rents luxury tourist facilities

This project is the largest project we have realized and is complex in every aspect. The creation itself took about two years, and the upgrades are constant and will continue for a long time to come. Travel agencies sell accommodation or travel on behalf of others. The sale of tourist accommodation for others primarily means that the websites that are their sales area should be up to par.

Contessa Villas websites are custom made and use very high technologies. Next.js in a concrete example that provides the convenience of using client-side rendering of web pages for the best speed and responsiveness. The websites are trilingual in English, German and Croatian. SEO is done the same way. Websites primarily offer visitors the possibility of booking accommodation, and to make everything more comfortable they have an overview;

  • objects that are the editor’s choice
  • overview of villas by characteristics such as family, by the sea, modern, rustic, with pool and villas by the beach
  • overview of special offers at special prices
  • overview of promotional offers
  • overview of information and articles about locations
  • there is also a search engine for tourist facilities, which we are particularly proud of because it is really precise and ensures that guests find exactly what they are looking for
  • the regional division of facilities is currently under construction
     

Behind the scenes there is a management system that enables the Contessa agency:

  • reservation management
  • management of channels to which reservations are synchronized (Channel manager)
  • management of availability calendars
  • management of seasonal prices
  • management of website content
  • management of locations and contents in the vicinity
  • management of icons and pictograms of possible object contents
  • management of accommodation capacities of tourist facilities
  • management of website categories including special offers, featured objects and the like
  • management of renters and the level of their access to the system for partner renters
  • management of accounting modules
  • overview and export of statistics by renter, facility, group of facilities
  • we also created an internal API that enables connecting the system to external systems
  • the eVizitor system for registering guests’ stay as well as the self check in module is also integrated
  • creation of special offers that are sent to guests by email directly from the system
  • management of contracts with landlords and types of contracts
  • and dozens of other functionalities

Frequently asked questions

Why did the Contessa project take about two years to build?
It is not a single website, it is a full rental operation in one place. We built the trilingual public sites, the booking flow, the precise facility search engine, and behind all of that a management system that handles reservations, seasonal prices, availability calendars, channel synchronization, partner renters, contracts and accounting. Each of those parts had to talk to the others reliably, and we are still adding to it, so the timeline reflects the scope rather than any delay.
How does the channel manager keep availability and reservations in sync?
The system pushes availability and bookings to the external channels Contessa sells on, and reservations coming back from those channels land in the same calendar. That way a date booked on one platform is closed everywhere, which is what prevents double bookings. We also built an internal API so the system can connect to other external tools when the agency needs it.
What does the booking and search engine actually do for guests?
Guests can filter villas by the things that matter to them, like family friendly, by the sea, modern, rustic, with a pool, or near the beach, and then book the accommodation directly. We are genuinely proud of the search because it is precise, so people land on the few facilities that truly match what they want instead of scrolling through everything.
Is the eVisitor guest registration and self check-in handled automatically?
Yes. We integrated the Croatian eVisitor system for registering guest stays, plus a self check-in module, so the legally required guest registration happens through the system instead of being a separate manual task for every arrival.
Can Contessa manage partner renters and their access separately from their own villas?
It can. The CMS supports partner renters, each with their own level of access to the system, so a renter sees and manages what they are allowed to and nothing more. The agency can also export statistics per renter, per facility, or per group of facilities, and manage the contracts and contract types behind those relationships.
Why are the websites built as three separate languages instead of one with translations bolted on?
The sites are properly trilingual in English, German and Croatian, and the SEO is done the same way for each language rather than only for one. For an agency selling accommodation to guests from different countries, that means each market gets content and search visibility in its own language, which matters far more than a quick auto-translation would.

Key Results

2 years
development time
Largest and most complex project
Trilingual
English, German, Croatian
Websites with SEO optimization
Advanced search
booking engine
Precise facility search for guests
Comprehensive CMS
management system
Reservations, prices, content, statistics

Technologies

Figma
Figma
Hasura
Hasura
Flutter
Flutter
Next.js
Next.js

Projects from the category