Case studyTuvaju & Velintis
The client
From one booking siteto a platform for travel agencies
Tuvaju sells tickets and tours for the best things to do in Thailand. Velintis sells the system behind it to other travel agencies.
Dirk once ran his own travel agency into a successful business. He had the audience, the industry know-how and a clear vision. What he was missing was a technical foundation he owns, so he could sell straight to travellers instead of routing everyone through someone else's platform, and later sell that same system to other agencies. We designed and built both, and they run on the same foundation.
- Client
- Tuvaju & Velintis · Thailand
- Services
- Product architecture · UI/UX design · Booking & payments platform · Admin · Marketing website · Design system · Observability · AI-assisted delivery
- Timeline
- Aug 2025 – Present
- Technologies
- Adonis.jsVue.jsInertia.jsTypeScriptPostgreSQLNuxtTailwind CSSStripeTiqetsTypesense
The challenge
What we're solvingfor Tuvaju
First, Tuvaju had to sell one agency's tours, well: bring in live inventory from a ticketing provider, present hundreds of attractions and tours clearly, and let a traveller book and pay in a few minutes, all while staying fast and trustworthy on a phone. There was no existing technology and no design team.
Then the goal grew. A booking site built for one agency had to become something Dirk could sell to many: with its own brand, its own website to explain it, clear pricing in two currencies, and a way to launch a new agency in weeks instead of months. And all of it without slowing down the live site that was already taking bookings.
The traveller's journey
- 01SearchBy destination, attraction or city
- 02ChoosePhotos, tickets, what's included, real reviews
- 03PaySecurely with Stripe, in their own currency
- 04E-ticketsBy email, straight after payment
- 05ReminderBefore the trip, sent on its own
The strategy
How weworked
We built Tuvaju on one foundation that everything else plugs into, with the business rules written into it rather than bolted on. That is what let one agency's booking site become a product other agencies buy.
- 01
Build on one foundation
Attractions, tickets, prices, availability, bookings and payments live in one platform, with the business rules written into it. The booking engine, admin and emails Tuvaju proved in production are the same ones Velintis now offers other agencies.
- 02
Plug into live inventory
A live connection to a ticketing provider gives instant access to hundreds of attractions and keeps prices, availability and reviews up to date on its own, while Dirk lists his own hand-picked tours alongside them for healthier margins.
- 03
Design around confidence
Every attraction has a clear page with photos, ticket options, what's included and real reviews, so a traveller knows exactly what they are buying before they pay.
- 04
Design for the phone first
Most bookings happen on a phone, often on the way to the airport, so every page was designed for mobile before desktop.
- 05
Set up a design system on day one
Brand colours with full scales, neutrals, message colours, two typefaces and a set of building blocks. Every new page looks right the day it ships, and a brand change is one edit instead of a hunt across the site.
- 06
Hand the team the controls
A full admin, built alongside the storefront, lets the team add tours, set prices and follow every booking without a developer in the loop.
- 07
Work in a weekly loop
We meet Dirk every week. He brings what he hears from travellers and agencies, we bring real user feedback and analytics, and both turn into changes on the live product, usually within days.
- 08
Turn it into a product
Once Tuvaju was selling, we packaged it as Velintis: its own brand, its own website and pricing, and a launch process that gets a new agency selling online in five weeks.
The results
One agency's system,ready for many.
- From first call to selling online
- 5 weeks
- for a new travel agency on Velintis.
- Reviewed changes shipped
- 360+
- to the live product since the first commit.
- From feedback to live change
- Days
- out of a weekly loop with the founder.
- On one foundation
- 2 brands
- so a fix made for Tuvaju is ready for every Velintis agency.
Studio Prats delivery records for Tuvaju and Velintis, October 2026.
- 01
Live across Thailand
Tuvaju takes bookings across Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and beyond.
- 02
A team that runs itself
Dirk's team adds new tours on its own, and films a short video whenever something could be smoother, which becomes our next improvement.
- 03
Inventory that keeps itself current
New tickets, prices, availability and reviews arrive from the ticketing provider without anyone typing them in.
- 04
Tickets straight to the inbox
Payment received, booking confirmed, e-tickets and a reminder before the trip go out on their own. No printing, no waiting for a reply.
- 05
A product, not just a site
Velintis sells everything Tuvaju proved as a travel agency Business-in-a-Box, set up and launched in five weeks.
- 06
Built once, shipped to every agency
Both brands share one foundation, so every improvement made for Tuvaju reaches every Velintis agency too.
The project
See itin action
1.0 — Booking site
The Tuvaju booking site
Travellers search by destination, compare tickets on a clear attraction page and pay in a few minutes, in the currency they prefer.
“The booking interface and design structure look great — they match the high-end look and feel of leading platforms while keeping the experience simple and seamless for customers.”
2.0 — Mobile first
Built for the phone
Most bookings happen on a phone, often on the way to the airport, so every page was designed for mobile first.
3.0 — Admin
The admin
A booking site is only as good as the team behind it. From one place, Dirk's team adds attractions and tickets, uploads photos, sets prices in any of the site's currencies, and manages availability, timeslots, cancellation rules and hotel pickups.
As the team grew, the admin grew with it: an account for each person, standard and super roles so only the right people manage other admins, and a choice of how long each person stays signed in.
4.0 — Velintis
One agency's system, ready for many
Velintis packages everything Tuvaju proved into a travel agency Business-in-a-Box: a booking website, secure payments, instant e-tickets, automated emails, a ticketing-provider connection and the admin, set up and launched for a new agency in five weeks.
velintis.com is a fast, search-friendly marketing site in English, Spanish and Thai, with a guided demo booking page and an FAQ.
Visit velintis.com5.0 — Design system
A design system from day one
Before the first page was built, we set up a branded design system. Pages are put together from its building blocks instead of being styled one by one, so every new page looks right the day it ships.
What's in it
- 01A small palette of brand colours, each with a full scale
- 02A set of neutral greys
- 03Colours for success, warning and error messages
- 04A pair of typefaces
- 05Building blocks: buttons, links, form fields, cards and drawers
Two brands, two design systems: Tuvaju and Velintis each look consistent wherever a customer meets them.
6.0 — Ecosystem
Covering all the needs
Dirk doesn't manage a list of agencies and freelancers. He has one partner for everything digital, on one shared foundation.
- CoreOne shared foundationAttractions, tickets, prices, availability, bookings & payments
- Tuvaju booking siteFind, book & pay
- Automated traveller emailsConfirmation, e-tickets, reminder
- AdminCatalogue & bookings
- Velintis marketing websiteThree languages, two currencies
- Two design systemsOne per brand
- MonitoringProblems surface on our side first
- Live ticketing connection · TiqetsNew tickets, prices, availability & reviews, on their own
7.0 — Built with AI
Built with AI, the right way
A small team ships like a large one here because we use AI with discipline, not as a shortcut.
- Since the first commit360+ reviewed changesshipped to the live product
- Agents in parallelEach writes the code, tests & docs for its own change
- Specs in the codebaseBehaviour documented as it's built, tied to no AI model
- AI code reviewEvery change checked against our written standards
- Custom agent skillsOne per brand's design system, for on-brand pages
8.0 — Under the hood
Under the hood
Tuvaju and Velintis are two apps in one codebase, sharing tooling and standards.
- Booking platform & admin
- Adonis.js
- Vue.js
- Inertia.js
- TypeScript
- PostgreSQL
- Event-driven, domain-driven design
- Marketing website
- Nuxt
- Static site
- Tailwind CSS design tokens
- English · Spanish · Thai
- Integrations
- Tiqets
- Stripe Checkout
- Typesense
- Postmark
- Infrastructure & observability
- Cloudflare R2 with on-the-fly image resizing, so phones download only the size they need · OpenTelemetry traces and structured logs sent to SigNoz
- Quality
- 160+ automated backend test files across unit, functional and integration tests, plus tests for the marketing site, all run in CI on every change · OpenSpec specifications · CodeRabbit AI code review
The conclusion
He brings genuine strategic inputand strategic vision to the partnership.
Dirk van der Zaan
Founder, Tuvaju & Velintis
From our weekly calls
What differentiates Ivan from other candidates is his proactive and insightful approach. Instead of just acting as a developer who narrowly executes instructions, he brings genuine strategic input and strategic vision to the partnership.