Carbet booking platform

Carbets are traditional Guianese cabins, often run by individuals or small operators. Tourist demand is real, but booking management was entirely manual.

Bookings were handled by phone and private messages: uncertain availability, double bookings, no online payment, and a lot of wasted time on both sides.

• Centralize listings and availability
• Enable online booking and payment
• Reduce owners' time spent on management
• Give visitors a clear, reassuring booking flow

Two audiences: visitors searching for and booking a stay, and owners managing their listings, rates and calendar.

A booking site with a real-time availability calendar, secure payment, automatic confirmation, and an owner portal to manage listings, rates and bookings.

Web application with a React front end, a Node.js API and a PostgreSQL database. The availability calendar is the single source of truth: every confirmed booking locks its dates transactionally to prevent conflicts.

• Search by location, dates and capacity
• Real-time availability calendar
• Secure online payment
• Owner portal (listings, rates, date blocking)
• Automated confirmation and reminder emails
• Booking dashboard

Payments run through a specialized provider rather than an in-house implementation, for security and compliance. Transactional emails are generated from centralized templates, easy to edit without touching the code.

The trickiest part was handling booking conflicts: two visitors could try to book the same dates at the same time. The booking is locked in the database during payment, with automatic release if it's abandoned.

Owners now run their business from a single tool, and visitors book in minutes, any time of day. The process no longer depends on anyone being reachable by phone.

• Bookings handled end-to-end without a single phone call
• Double bookings eliminated thanks to the centralized calendar

• Post-stay guest reviews
• Automatic seasonal pricing
• Mobile app for owners