I built their entire platform.
BookitSocial is a social booking marketplace for the Australian market. When Social ARC Pty Ltd came to me, they had an idea. When we finished, they had a live mobile app, two web panels, a backend engine, and a cloud infrastructure that could handle real growth.
I did not consult. I did not advise. I built.
// What I delivered
Four products. One engineer.
Most engineers build one thing. I built the whole ecosystem. Every screen a user touches, every click a host makes, every payment that moves connects to something I wrote.
Cross-Platform Mobile App
React Native (Expo) - iOS and Android
A single codebase that runs natively on both iPhone and Android. Users browse events, make bookings, pay securely, receive push notifications, and scan QR codes at venue entry. Felt native, not like a website pretending to be an app.
Host Dashboard
Next.js web application for event organizers
A powerful but clean web panel where hosts create events, manage bookings, set ticket limits, and track earnings. Integrated Google Places autocomplete so every event has a precise, map-ready location. Real-time booking feeds so hosts always know who is coming.
Admin Control Panel
Next.js web application for platform operations
A separate, fully secured admin portal for the business team to manage users, moderate events, issue refunds, and monitor platform health. Role-based access control so the right people see only what they need.
The Backend Engine
Node.js and TypeScript, built from scratch
The brain that powers everything above. Handles all bookings, payments, notifications, user sessions, and business rules. Designed to be fast, safe, and impossible to game. No off-the-shelf booking engine was used - every rule was coded specifically for how BookitSocial works.
// Engineering decisions
The hard parts, solved.
Building a booking platform sounds straightforward until you hit the edge cases. Here are the real problems I solved, explained for both technical and non-technical readers.
The Double-Booking Problem
The real-world problem
“When two people try to buy the last ticket at the exact same moment, who gets it?”
How I solved it
Implemented PostgreSQL Advisory Locks (pg_advisory_xact_lock) with FOR UPDATE row locking to serialize concurrent transactions at the database engine level.
Outcome
Zero double-bookings in production. Both users get an instant response. One gets the ticket, one sees it is sold out. No overselling, ever.
Money That Actually Moves Correctly
The real-world problem
“A guest pays, BookitSocial takes a cut, the host gets the rest. Simple to say. Hard to build safely.”
How I solved it
Stripe Connect with delayed payouts triggered 48 hours post-event via background cron jobs. Payout amounts are calculated server-side after deducting platform fees. QR code check-in is required before any payout is released.
Outcome
Hosts get paid automatically after every event with no manual intervention. Fraud is mitigated by the 48-hour window and attendance verification.
Notifications That Actually Land
The real-world problem
“Calendar invites sent as file attachments often end up in spam. Push notifications to dead phones just waste resources.”
How I solved it
Deep-linked Google Calendar integration bypasses .ics file downloads entirely. Firebase FCM token lifecycle management with automated stale token cleanup via scheduled background jobs.
Outcome
Guests receive calendar events that appear legitimate and are pre-filled with booking codes and venue maps. Push delivery rates stay high because dead tokens are automatically removed.
Moving the Entire Platform to AWS, Live
The real-world problem
“The platform started on Azure. It needed to move to AWS. The app could not go down during the migration.”
How I solved it
Parallel infrastructure provisioning with database logical replication, off-peak DNS cutover, and PM2 cluster mode for instant crash recovery on the new environment.
Outcome
Zero downtime. Zero data loss. Users experienced nothing. The team just woke up on AWS one morning.
// Technology
The full stack
Every tool was chosen deliberately for the specific problem it solves in a booking marketplace context.
Mobile App
Web Panels
Backend
Database
Cloud
Payments and Auth
APIs
// Platform Status
Live, growing, and maintained.
BookitSocial is live on both the App Store and Google Play, steadily approaching 100 active users. I remain the primary engineer, shipping features, fixing issues, and keeping the infrastructure healthy. This is what long-term ownership looks like.