Creiden stuck to the agile methodology and delivered features and artifacts every 2-3 sprints.
Ithaka
Travel & Tourism2023 — 2024Multi-Vendor Travel Marketplace
Custom Multi-vendor travel marketplace built from scratch for Egypt's tourism sector.
ServicesWeb PlatformsE-Commerce
Ithaka product previewOverview
Ithaka is an Egyptian travel platform with a clear product mission: make Egypt's local experiences bookable and discoverable online. The vision was a full multi-vendor marketplace where tour operators, transportation providers, accommodation hosts, and event organizers could manage their own listings, and where travelers could find, book, and pay for those experiences from a single platform.
Egypt's travel and experiences sector runs largely on social media inquiries and word of mouth. No central booking channel. No transactional infrastructure. Vendors had limited online visibility and no reliable way to accept bookings. Travelers had no way to compare options, verify reviews, or pay securely. The platform Ithaka needed wasn't a frontend refresh. It was a full digital infrastructure build for a category with no online home.
We built the platform from scratch on Laravel and Next.js: a multi-vendor marketplace with separate admin and vendor dashboards, Google Maps integration, a city-based destination discovery system with editable Hidden Gems labels, Paymob and Geidea payment processing, and a user review and ratings system. A change request mid-build reworked the booking flow. September 2023 to November 2024, full scope, delivered on schedule.
The Challenge
How do you build a two-sided marketplace from scratch for a market with no digital booking infrastructure?
A two-sided marketplace is harder than a standard web build because it has to work for two completely different audiences at once. Vendors need to list services, manage bookings, approve reservations, and track revenue. Travelers need to browse, filter, book, and pay.
The service model added technical complexity: some services allow instant booking, others require vendor approval before the booking becomes payable. The platform had to manage the full lifecycle: inquiry, approval, payment, and confirmation, with email notifications at every stage. The destinations system added a non-standard requirement: a Hidden Gems label that only administrators can assign, surfacing correctly in search results and filters across the full platform.
Our Approach
Four workstreams. Fourteen months. A live marketplace that serves vendors and travelers from day one.
01 / WORKSTREAM
Architecture & UX design
We opened with architecture before design. Four user roles with distinct permission sets, a service model that handles both instant and approval-based booking, and a content model that needed to support destinations, services, events, and Hidden Gems as linked entities across a city-based taxonomy.
UI/UX design covered every surface: the public-facing marketplace for travelers, the vendor dashboard for service providers, and the admin dashboard for the Ithaka team. Every interaction from Browse to Book was mapped before the first component was built.
- Four-role permission model: administrators, service providers, customers, and guests
- City-based taxonomy linking destinations, services, events, and Hidden Gems
- Separate UX tracks: public marketplace, vendor dashboard, admin dashboard
02 / WORKSTREAM
Marketplace & booking
The core marketplace handles two service models simultaneously. Services that allow direct booking move the customer straight to checkout. Services that require approval hold the booking in a pending state until the vendor confirms, at which point payment is unlocked. Either way, the booking record is visible to both parties from their dashboards.
Vendor tools cover the full operational surface: add and manage services and events, link listings to destinations, configure booking settings, and view revenue reports filterable by service category and date range. The admin layer adds vendor account management, platform-level reports, and full control over destinations, locations, and Hidden Gems labels.
- Dual booking model: instant and approval-based, per service
- Vendor dashboard: services, events, bookings, and revenue reporting
- Admin dashboard: vendors, users, destinations, locations, and platform-wide reports
- Hidden Gems label: admin-controlled, surfaces across search and filters
03 / WORKSTREAM
Payments, discovery & community
We integrated Paymob and Geidea as the payment layer, with booking confirmations sent automatically on successful payment. Once a booking is paid, cancellation is locked out, protecting vendor revenue while keeping the confirmation process clean for travelers.
Google Maps integration ties every service and destination to a real geographic context. The search and filtering system handles location, category, price range, and Hidden Gems status simultaneously. User reviews and ratings feed back into listing pages. Social login via Facebook and Google reduces registration friction at the top of the funnel.
- Paymob and Geidea integration: secure checkout with automatic booking confirmation
- Google Maps integration across all services and destinations
- Search and filtering: location, category, price, and Hidden Gems status
- User reviews and ratings on all listings
- Social login: Facebook and Google
04 / WORKSTREAM
Booking flow
A change request reworked the booking flow so guests can proceed through to the order summary page before being asked to log in. Promo codes are only accessible to logged-in users, with an inline prompt shown to guests. Mobile verification integrates cleanly with the post-login redirect back to order summary.
- Guest checkout to order summary, login required only at payment
- Promo code gating for logged-in users with inline guest prompt
- Mobile verification with automatic redirect to order summary after sign-in
Engagement Timeline
Engagement Timeline
0
Phase 1
Kickoff & architecture
User role model, permission system, content taxonomy, and UX design across all three surfaces.
6
Phase 2
Core platform build
Public marketplace, vendor dashboard, admin dashboard, and booking lifecycle.
24
Phase 3
Payments & discovery
Paymob and Geidea integration, Google Maps, search and filtering, reviews, and social login.
44
Phase 4
Booking flow CR
Guest checkout to order summary, promo codes, and mobile verification.
57
Phase 5
Launch & handover
UAT complete, platform live, vendor onboarding begins.
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