50,000+ hotels
Hospitality and Group Travel
Group Hotel Index (GHI)
Group Hotel Directory and Direct Bidding Platform
Group Hotel Index is an enterprise-scale hospitality directory platform developed to connect group travel planners directly with hotels across the United States.
USAMarket
2 MonthsTimeline
3 DevelopersProject Team
Hospitality and Group TravelIndustry
Executive Summary
Group Hotel Index (GHI)
- Client
- Luke Thompson
- Market
- USA
- Industry
- Hospitality and Group Travel
- Timeline
- 2 Months
- Team
- Project Team - 3 Developers
- Services
- AI SaaS Development, Custom Software Development, AI Workflow Automation
- Technology
- Next.js, TypeScript, SSR, SSG
- Primary Outcome
- 50,000+ hotels Total Hotel Listings
Verified project metrics
Project Outcomes
Group Hotel Index made the group hotel booking process easier for both planners and hotel teams. Planners can reach suitable hotels directly, while hotels get more relevant booking enquiries and better chances to convert them into business. The platform also improves hotel visibility through organised directory pages and search-friendly content. For the client, it reduces manual work, improves enquiry management, and creates more opportunities for hotel partnerships and future growth.
Project Overview
Group Hotel Index is an enterprise-scale hospitality directory platform developed to connect group travel planners directly with hotels across the United States.
Planners can search for hotels by city, ZIP code, or location radius. They can select suitable properties and send their stay dates, room requirements, and event details to those hotels. Hotel teams can then review the request and respond through the platform.
The system also serves as a nationwide hotel directory, giving users access to property details, amenities, images, contact information, and nearby options.
A central content management system helps administrators manage hotel listings, users, images, imports, SEO details, and platform activity. The system is designed to handle large amounts of hotel data while keeping search and navigation fast.
What We Built
We built a complete hotel discovery and group enquiry system for travel planners, hotel teams, and administrators. The project included a public hotel directory, a hotel response portal, and a central management system for handling property data, users, imports, and platform activity. We also developed the frontend, backend, database structure, search setup, background processing, email workflows, security controls, and deployment environment required to run the system efficiently.
Client Background
Luke Thompson works in the hospitality and group travel industry. He wanted to create a platform where travel planners could find hotels across the United States and send their stay requirements directly to selected properties. The system also needed to help hotel teams receive direct enquiries, respond to planners, and improve their online visibility.
Project Scope
The project covered the complete process of turning the client’s requirements into a working platform. This included:
- Requirement analysis
- Planner, hotel, and administrator workflow planning
- Information architecture
- UI/UX design
- Responsive frontend development
- Backend and API development
- Database planning and setup
- Hotel directory and search development
- Group enquiry and hotel response workflows
- User authentication and access management
- Admin CMS development
- Hotel data import and management
- Third-party service integration
- SEO and analytics setup
- Performance and security implementation
- Testing and production deployment
Target Audience
Group Hotel Index is mainly built for:
- Group travel planners
- Corporate travel coordinators
- Meeting and event planners
- Wedding planners
- Sports travel organisers
- Tour operators
- Travel agents
- Hotel sales managers
- Hotel groups and independent properties
Objectives
The main objectives were to:
- 01Create a nationwide platform for finding group-friendly hotels
- 02Help planners search by city, ZIP code, and location radius
- 03Allow planners to contact selected hotels directly
- 04Reduce dependence on booking commissions
- 05Help hotels receive relevant group enquiries
- 06Manage large amounts of hotel data efficiently
- 07Keep search and filtering fast
- 08Improve hotel visibility in search engines
- 09Simplify hotel and content management
- 10Automate data updates and email communication
- 11Support high traffic and future growth
Business Challenge
At the beginning of the project, we found that finding hotels for group travel was not a simple process.
- 01Planners needed to find hotels based on destination, stay dates, room count, event type, amenities, and distance. They often had to search across different websites, contact hotels one by one, and repeat the same requirements several times.
- 02Hotel responses usually came through separate emails or calls, which made comparison and follow-up difficult. Planners also had to depend on third-party booking platforms and commission-based services.
- 03Managing hotel data was another major challenge. Thousands of property records had to remain accurate, organised, searchable, and easy to update.
- 04The main challenge was to bring hotel discovery, group enquiries, direct hotel responses, and large-scale data management into one organised system.
Our Solution
We developed one system that made group hotel search easier to manage.
- Planners can search by city, ZIP code, dates, room needs, event type, amenities, and distance. They can compare suitable hotels without visiting different websites.
- Planners can select several hotels and send the same booking details through one form. Hotels receive the enquiry and reply through the system, making responses easier to compare and manage.
- A central admin system helps manage thousands of hotel records. It keeps the information organised, searchable, accurate, and easy to update.
- The final platform brings hotel discovery, group enquiries, hotel responses, and large-scale data management in one place.
Before → After
Before
Planners searched across different hotel websites
After
Hotels can be explored through one platform
Before
The same booking details were shared repeatedly
After
One enquiry can be sent to selected hotels
Before
Hotel replies came through separate channels
After
Responses can be managed in one place
Before
Hotel information was difficult to compare
After
Property profiles follow a clear format
Before
Search options were limited
After
Users can search by city, ZIP code, radius, and filters
Before
Hotels depended heavily on third-party platforms
After
Direct enquiries connect planners with selected hotels
Before
Hotel data required more manual work
After
Bulk imports and updates simplify data management
Before
Duplicate records were difficult to manage
After
Validation checks help keep hotel data accurate
Delivery ownership
THE TISA's Role
Product Strategy
Discovery
UX/UI Design
Frontend Engineering
QA
Key Features
The platform includes the following features:
03Hotel Directory
01
Hotel Directory
- Browse hotels across the United States
- View property details, images, amenities, and contact information
- Explore hotels by state, city, and destination
Development Process
We first discussed the client’s goals and the main problems the platform needed to solve. We reviewed how planners search for hotels, send group booking details, and compare hotel replies. The requirements for data management, SEO, speed, and future growth were also defined at this stage.
Technical Challenges
Technology Stack
Next.js
TypeScript
SSR
SSG
ISR
NestJS
PostgreSQL
Redis
BullMQ
AWS Lambda
AWS SES
Modular Monolithic Architecture
REST APIs
Git and GitHub
AWS-based production environment
Design Decisions
The design focused on helping users find suitable hotels and send enquiries without unnecessary steps. Important decisions included:
- Search-first homepage for city and ZIP code searches
- Hotel cards showing essential property information
- Simple filters for desktop and mobile users
- Clear and easy-to-read hotel profile pages
- Visible group enquiry and contact actions
- Separate workflows for planners and hotel teams
- Location-based navigation supported by breadcrumbs
- Simple admin tables with search and filter options
- Clear loading, empty, success, and error states
- Consistent buttons, forms, and page layouts
SEO Work
SEO was important because the platform includes thousands of hotel, city, state, and destination pages. The work included: Private dashboards, user accounts, enquiry records, and admin pages were kept out of search engine results.
- SEO-friendly hotel and location URLs
- Dynamic page titles and meta descriptions
- Hotel, local business, and breadcrumb structured data
- Canonical URLs and duplicate-page controls
- Dynamic XML sitemaps
- Robots.txt configuration
- Open Graph metadata
- Clear heading structure
- Internal links between hotels and location pages
- Related and nearby hotel links
- Search-friendly hotel descriptions
- Image alt text
- Pagination and redirect handling
- Indexing controls for private pages
Performance Optimization
To keep the platform fast and responsive, we focused on:
- Server-rendered search pages
- Static and incremental page generation
- Redis and route caching
- PostgreSQL indexing
- Pagination for large hotel lists
- Background processing for heavy tasks
- Image optimisation and lazy loading
- Reduced client-side JavaScript
- Faster API responses
- Loading states and retry handling
- Performance monitoring
Security
The platform manages user accounts, hotel records, enquiries, and private business information. Because of this, security is an important part of the development process. Security measures included:
- Secure login with password hashing
- Protected sessions, dashboards, and backend routes
- Controlled access based on user roles
- Input validation and request sanitisation
- XSS and CSRF protection
- Secure file uploads
- API rate limiting
- Protected environment variables and database access
- Restricted admin actions
- Audit logs and safe error handling
- Secure AWS and email service access
- HTTPS communication
- Private-page indexing restrictions
Architecture Diagram
Results
For Travel Planners
- 01Planners can find suitable hotels, compare property details, and manage group booking options more easily. They do not need to repeat the same search or follow up again and again.
For the Client
- 01The client received a scalable platform that supports hotel discovery, direct group enquiries, organised data management, and future business growth.
Visual Identity
Visual Identity
GGroup Hotel Index (GHI)
PoppinsAa
Group Hotel Index (GHI)
Color
- 0B1F3A01Dark Navy11 31 58
- 2563EB02Royal Blue37 99 235
- 3B82F603Bright Blue59 130 246
- EAF2FF04Light Blue234 242 255
- FFFFFF05White255 255 255
- F8FAFC06Off White248 250 252
- 1F293707Dark Text31 41 55
- 6B728008Secondary Text107 114 128
- E5E7EB09Light Border229 231 235
- FBBF2410Yellow Accent251 191 36
Type
- 01 · Primary4 weights
Poppins
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789- Regular
- Medium
- Semibold
- Bold
Client Testimonial
Before Group Hotel Index, managing hotel details and group enquiries took a lot of time. Now everything is available in one place, which has made the process much easier for us. Planners can find hotels and send their requirements quickly, while our team can keep hotel details updated without extra manual work. The TISA team did a great job and built a platform as we wanted.
Luke Thompson
Future Scalability
The platform can support future additions such as:
- 01
International hotel listings
- 02
Multi-language support
- 03
Hotel self-registration and profile verification
- 04
Real-time availability and direct bookings
- 05
Online payments
- 06
Planner and hotel messaging
- 07
Saved hotels and recommendations
- 08
Team and hotel group accounts
- 09
CRM and property management integrations
- 10
Advanced reporting
- 11
Premium hotel plans
- 12
Automated data-quality checks
Lessons Learned
From this project, we learned that:
- 01
Large hotel directories need a clear data structure
- 02
Fast search depends on proper database planning
- 03
Bulk imports need strong validation and duplicate checks
- 04
Heavy data tasks should run in the background
- 05
SEO should be planned with the page and database structure
- 06
Performance testing should use realistic data volumes
- 07
Public and private pages need separate indexing rules
Conclusion
Group Hotel Index is a hospitality platform created to support group hotel searches and enquiries across the United States. It connects travel planners, hotel teams, and administrators through one organised system. The platform was built to manage a large hotel directory, handle regular data updates, and support different user workflows. Its structure also gives the client a reliable base for adding more hotels, locations, and services in the future.
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