Booking System (Web Checkout & Booking

Moving from a Temporary Platform to a Permanent Home

Block Party Co. was running their booking system on a platform that wasn't meant for long-term business use. We needed to move everything to professional hosting while keeping all their existing bookings, calendar connections, and customer data intact. The business couldn't afford any downtime or lost information during the switch—parties were already scheduled and customers needed their confirmation details to stay accurate.

Preventing Double-Bookings Across Time Zones

Jacksonville operates in Eastern Time, but web servers often work in universal time behind the scenes. This created a problem where a booking for one PM would show up at the wrong time on the calendar, risking double-bookings or the team showing up at the wrong time. Even a one-hour mistake would mean showing up to a house full of excited kids with no party host ready.

Different Deposit Rules for Different Packages

Most party packages require half the total cost as a deposit, but the custom "Build Your Own" package needs a flat hundred and fifty dollar deposit regardless of final price. The payment system had to calculate this correctly every time, show the right amount to customers before they entered their card, and charge the exact amount promised—any mismatch would create confusion and erode trust.

Protecting Promotional Discount Codes

Discount codes for testing and promotions were being exposed in a way that tech-savvy customers could find them by viewing the website's code. Once discovered, these codes could be shared on deal sites or parent Facebook groups, potentially costing significant revenue if unlimited people used codes meant for limited testing or specific campaigns.

Making a Long Form Feel Easy on Phones

Planning a party requires collecting a lot of information—package choice, number of kids, date, time, location, parent contact details, special requests. Too many questions at once overwhelms people and they abandon the process. This is especially true on phones where screen space is limited and typing is slower.

Built on Reliable, Scalable Infrastructure

We moved the entire system to professional hosting designed for business applications, carefully transferred all existing booking data and calendar connections, and set up automatic backups to prevent any data loss. The new platform connects to a secure database that's built to handle growth as Block Party Co. expands, and we implemented multiple layers of security to protect customer information including names, addresses, and payment details.

Let the Calendar Handle Time Automatically

Instead of trying to manually convert between time zones—which is error-prone and breaks twice a year when daylight saving changes—we let Google Calendar handle it natively. We tell the calendar system "this party is at one PM Eastern Time" and it figures out how to display that correctly regardless of where someone's viewing it from. This eliminated the timezone bugs completely and works reliably through seasonal time changes.

Smart Deposit Calculation That Shows the Right Amount

The payment system checks which package someone selected and automatically shows the correct deposit amount—fifty percent for standard packages, one hundred fifty dollars flat for custom packages. This happens throughout the booking process so customers always see accurate pricing, and the charge that hits their card matches exactly what they expected. No surprises, no confusion, no awkward refund situations.

Moved Code Validation to the Server

We relocated all discount code checking to the secure back-end of the system where customers can't see it. Now when someone enters a code, it gets verified on the server, checks if it's expired or reached its usage limit, and returns just whether it's valid and the discount amount—without ever exposing the list of valid codes. The business owner can create and deactivate promotional codes through settings without worrying about them being discovered and shared.

Broke the Form into Clear Steps with Progress Tracking

We divided the booking process into four clear stages—choose your package, pick your date, enter party details, pay deposit—with a progress bar showing how far along you are. Each step focuses on just a few related questions, and the system saves your answers as you go. On phones, there's a sticky header that keeps the progress visible even as you scroll, and helpful labels explain what information is needed and why.