Turf Booking Portal Handles 1,200+ Cricket Reservations Monthly

Ascend Cricket Academy operated three cricket grounds in a busy metro area. All bookings came in through phone calls and WhatsApp messages handled by two front-desk staff. There was no shared calendar across the three grounds — staff had to call or message each other to check if a slot was actually free.

Double-bookings happened 3–5 times per week, leading to customer arguments and walkouts. Every evening, staff spent 2–3 hours reconciling cash payments, WhatsApp screenshots, and handwritten notes to figure out which slots were actually booked for the next day.

Parents and players couldn't book outside of 9am–9pm when the desk was staffed — losing after-hours bookings from night-shift workers and early-morning weekend planners.

We delivered a full-stack Next.js turf booking portal with an integrated admin back-office:

1. Real-time slot calendar: A visual 7-day calendar for all 3 grounds with 60-minute and 90-minute slots. Availability updates instantly across all devices — when someone books a slot, it's locked for everyone else within 200ms.
2. Razorpay payments + pay-at-ground option: Customers can pay online (captured instantly with auto-generated receipt) or choose pay-at-ground (slot held for 30 minutes, auto-released if unpaid).
3. Coaching batch enrollment: Parents can enroll children in coaching batches directly through the portal — batch size limits are enforced automatically, and waiting lists kick in when a batch is full.
4. WhatsApp Business API reminders: Every booking triggers two reminders: one 24 hours before the slot with ground directions, and another 2 hours before with a QR code for check-in. Missed payments get a gentle payment reminder.
5. Admin dashboard: Ground managers see live occupancy, block out maintenance slots, issue full/partial refunds, and export daily reports for accounts reconciliation.

• 1,200+ bookings per month across the three grounds, up from ~700 manually handled before launch
• 92% of bookings paid online via Razorpay — eliminating the cash-handling headache and shortening end-of-day reconciliation from 3 hours to 10 minutes
• Zero double-bookings in 4 months of live operation — the real-time availability lock works flawlessly
• 3 hours per day of staff time saved on booking management and reconciliation — redeployed to customer service and on-ground support
• 18% increase in off-peak bookings (early mornings, late evenings, weekdays) — driven by 24/7 online availability that the desk staff model couldn't serve

If we were starting this project today, we'd add a loyalty and membership system up-front rather than as a post-launch add-on. The academy now wants bulk-purchase turf packages (10-slot packs, monthly unlimited) and the membership layer would benefit from being baked into the data model from day one. We'd also add a UPI QR check-in scanner at each ground entrance to automate attendance tracking rather than relying on the front desk.