The Challenge: Hotels were eliminating in-room dining services due to budget constraints, but guests still expected room service convenience. We initially tried partnering with existing delivery services, but discovered two critical problems: guests were overwhelmed by too many restaurant choices in unfamiliar cities, and having to wait in lobbies for up to an hour defeated the purpose of room service.

This led us to build a hotel-specific food delivery platform, essentially an “Uber Eats”-like clone specifically designed for hotel environments, featuring only one restaurant per food category within 1-2 blocks of each property.

Technical Approach: I built the application using PHP, JavaScript, and PostgreSQL to leverage existing application infrastructure. The system had to coordinate multiple parties (hotels, restaurants, delivery services, and guests) while maintaining security and financial accountability throughout the order-to-delivery workflow.

Solution Delivered: I developed a complete room service platform that handled the entire process:

• Curated restaurant and menu selection (one per category, nearby locations only)
• Dual payment processing (credit card or bill-to-room)
• Auditable financial tracking for partner payments
• Multi-channel order delivery to restaurants (printers, fax, email based on capability)
• Real-time order confirmation system for restaurants and couriers
• Customer service dashboard for CS agents to track orders and resolve issues

Technical Challenges Overcome:

• Hybrid kitchen integration: When hotels had existing kitchens wanting to participate, I built interfaces to include in-house dining options alongside external restaurants
• Restaurant technology gaps: Many restaurants couldn’t handle digital orders, so I implemented flexible order delivery systems – from automated printers to fax machines to email, depending on each restaurant’s capabilities
• Non-digital confirmation workflows: For restaurants that couldn’t provide real-time confirmations, I programmed in contractual delivery windows that automatically communicated realistic timelines to guests
• 24/7 customer support integration: Built real-time order visibility for customer service agents to handle guest issues, especially during overnight hours

Results: Starting with one hotel in San Francisco, the system quickly expanded to multiple properties across the Bay Area and then to Chicago. Within its first year, the platform generated over US$250k in revenue across these initial hotels. The solution became HCN’s primary sales tool for closing new hotel contracts, with 24/7 uptime enabling overnight ordering that became an unexpected competitive advantage.

My Role: I handled all design, application development, deployment, and field troubleshooting as the sole developer. While I was the sole developer of this application, it was deployed inside an existing digital concierge platform maintained by other developers. I also worked closely with business leadership to coordinate the complex partner relationships and technical integrations required for successful implementation.