Engineering a Comprehensive Digital Platform for Modern Living
Engineering a custom, cloud-native residential hospitality platform on Google Cloud to consolidate property management systems, integrate smart building access, and deliver a seamless digital experience for 12K+ units.
Client
A leading US-based provider of residential hospitality and multifamily real estate, managing short- and long-term rentals and co-working spaces across 25 cities.
Problem Statement
The client's operations were hampered by rising infrastructure and third-party SaaS costs, reliance on external booking platforms that provided a poor user experience, and fragmented operations due to incompatibility between property and hospitality management systems.
Industry
Quick Summary
A leading US multifamily hospitality provider sought to modernize its digital platform to overcome escalating costs and an inefficient, fragmented resident experience.
- Engineered a proprietary, cloud-native digital platform (using React.js and Golang on Google Cloud) to replace reliance on third-party booking systems, streamlining reservations and payments.
- Consolidated fragmented operations by migrating and integrating multiple property management systems (PMS) into Yardi PMS and building a custom module for automated access control (SaltoKS and Stayntouch).
- Achieved a significant 70% annual reduction in cloud and SaaS spend through infrastructure right-sizing and comprehensive third-party service audits.
- Boosted conversion rates by 20%, enhanced security with Shift4 payment integration, and established a scalable foundation for market expansion.
Client Profile
Based in the US, the client is a leader in urban multifamily hospitality, focused on blending property management with premium guest experiences. Their digital-first model relies on integrating smart building technologies, such as SaltoKS smartlocks, and partnerships like Airbnb.
Challenges: Fragmented, Costly Ecosystem
The client faced operational and financial challenges that directly impacted their profitability and service quality:
- Exorbitant Infrastructure Costs: High and unsustainable spend on cloud services (Google Cloud) and SaaS tools (Contentful, Cloudinary, Cloudflare).
- Poor Booking Experience: Reliance on external booking platforms resulted in friction, a lack of branding control, and limited flexibility in pricing and inventory management.
- Operational Incompatibility: Building management systems (like smart locks) and hospitality systems were fragmented, complicating access management and resident journeys.
- Security Risk: Existing system vulnerabilities posed a threat of potential breaches in transactional data.
A Proprietary, Cloud-Native PropTech Engine
QBurst engineered a comprehensive, cloud-native digital platform to centralize operations, drive down costs, and deliver a seamless, integrated user experience.
- Proprietary Booking Engine: Developed a custom, React.js-based e-commerce channel supported by centralized Golang APIs; this eliminated reliance on external booking platforms, providing full control over pricing, branding, and user experience.
- Cloud Cost Optimization: Performed infrastructure right-sizing and implemented a cloud-native architecture on Google Cloud.
- Streamlined Integrations: Consolidated multiple property management systems (including Entrata) into the centralized Yardi PMS, and developed a custom integration module to automate the critical function of room access management, bridging the SaltoKS smart locks with the Stayntouch hospitality operations system.
- Enhanced Security: Integrated Shift4 for secure payment processing, ensuring encryption and compliance for all hotel and rental transactions.
Technical Highlights
The platform was built for scale, performance, and integration complexity:
- Modern Stack: Used React.js and TypeScript for the responsive frontend and Golang for the powerful, performant backend engine, with PostgreSQL as the core database.
- Centralized API Engine: Created APIs to manage property exploration, reservations, and seamless integration with critical external partners (Airbnb, Yardi, Stayntouch, Iterable, etc.).
- Smart Access Control: Developed a custom integration bridge to automate access management between SaltoKS smart locks and hospitality operations, improving operational efficiency.
- Scalable Cloud Foundation: Hosted on Google Cloud with a design featuring dynamic scaling, high availability, and auto-failover to handle peak demand during leasing and booking cycles.
Impact: Delivering Quantifiable Financial and Operational Benefits
- 70% Annual Cost Savings: Achieved through aggressive cloud right-sizing and SaaS service audits, freeing up capital for strategic expansion.
- 20% Boost in Conversion Rates: Resulted from the custom booking engine, which simplified the reservation flow and enhanced user experience.
- Improved Security and Trust: Shift4 integration ensured transaction encryption and compliance, strengthening customer trust.
- Scalable and Flexible Platform: The streamlined, cloud-native architecture provides the foundation necessary to expand quickly to new markets and integrate future smart-building technologies seamlessly.
Client Profile
Challenges
Our Solution
Technical Highlights
Impact