Backstory
From idea to execution in just one month – Viimsi sports hall booking system completed in record time
Viimsi Haldus approached Häki with an exciting challenge – to create a fully functioning solution for managing bookings for the newly opened football and athletics hall within just one month.
The goal was not only to provide access for regular customers wishing to use the sports facilities, but also to offer booking options for contractual clients and companies wanting to reserve the entire hall or specific areas for a full day.
Challenges
The requirements immediately introduced a number of complexities, as the booking logic had to apply simultaneously to multiple areas that needed to function together and be visually represented in the calendar. For example, the football area can be booked as a whole, by halves or by quarters, while the athletics area is divided into running, jumping and throwing sections. In addition, the hall includes a bookable gym and meeting room.
The first challenge for the Häki team was defining the full scope of the solution and mapping out the functionality together with the client. Due to the tight schedule, several rapid and effective workshops were held with both the client and partners. The building automation company Bisly quickly joined the project to provide a secure door code solution. A payment solution and authentication system also needed to be confirmed to apply youth discounts for Viimsi residents. All of this— including scope mapping — was completed within one week.
Additionally, it was necessary to consider contractual clients who have fixed weekly time slots for specific areas, while ensuring that any unused times remain freely bookable for regular customers.
In essence, a complex mathematical system with advanced control logic had to operate behind the scenes in a very short development time, while keeping the user experience clear and intuitive.
Häk OÜ delivered a full end-to-end solution: design, development, integrations, and on-site signage
- Web-based booking platform (Laravel) with both mobile and desktop views.
- Booking calendar – flexible, accounting for different areas, ticket types and time slots. Ticket rules also include morning/evening prices, seasonal and off-season rates. The system even calculates mixed-rate bookings: for example, if half an hour of a reservation falls into a discounted period, the system automatically factors that into the total price.
- Payment solution – secure and fast payments at the time of booking.
- Access via Bisly – each booking generates a time-limited door code that is automatically sent to the customer by email.
- Admin self-service – administrators can adjust prices, manage bookings and availability, add contractual clients’ training schedules, and manage door codes.
- Visual identity and signage – the system was designed according to Viimsi municipality’s CVI. In addition, navigation signage was created for the hall to ensure a seamless experience. Just weeks before opening, the entire area was photographed and, in collaboration with the design team, 30 different print files were created to guide visitors to the correct facilities.
All of this was achieved while ensuring the system remained secure, sustainable for future updates and changes, easy to manage for administrators, and simple to use for customers.
