Pūķarags

Pūķarags — Booking Platform That Fills Every Room

From OTA-Dependent to Direct Bookings

Pūķarags is a seaside holiday complex on Latvia's Baltic coast offering guest rooms, weekend houses, camping cabins, and tent sites. The owner needed more than a website — they needed a booking engine that competes with Airbnb and Booking.com while keeping commissions at zero.

We rebuilt their entire digital presence from the ground up: a fast, multilingual booking platform with real-time availability, dynamic pricing, and a management dashboard that any team member can operate without technical training. The new site went live on 8 March 2026.

The Results

First season on the new platform — 8 March to 1 August 2026, compared with the same period in 2025. Confirmed bookings only.

Confirmed website reservations

46to→218+374%

Booked nights

138to→503+264%

Website booking value

+157%vs. the same period in 2025

Avg. Google position

9.0to→6.8Lower is better

The website went from a minority channel to the dominant one. In 2025, direct website bookings were 37% of confirmed reservations; in 2026 they reached 66% — while the OTA share fell from 21% to 10%, cutting commission costs on every booking that moved to direct.

Organic search grew alongside: Google clicks more than doubled year over year, and the site now ranks visibly higher for the searches that matter.

Booking figures compare reservations created in each period on the previous site (2025) and the new one (2026). Results reflect the full rebuild — platform, content, and SEO — alongside seasonal demand.

The Problem

• High OTA commissions eating into margins on every reservation through Booking.com and Airbnb
• No visibility into performance — no way to see which accommodations earn the most or which seasons drive bookings
• Manual availability management across multiple platforms, risking double-bookings and lost revenue
• Limited international reach — non-Latvian visitors couldn't browse or book in their language
• No upsell capability — no way to offer add-on services like breakfast, sauna, or equipment rentals during booking

What We Delivered

Direct Booking System

Guests browse accommodations, select dates, see real-time pricing with applied discounts, and complete reservations — all without leaving the site. The system handles:

• Weekend houses, guest rooms, camping cabins, and bare camping spots
• Add-on services (breakfast, cleaning, sauna, equipment rentals) with per-booking pricing
• Discount codes with usage limits and date ranges
• Gift card payments with balance tracking
• Guest capacity enforcement per property

Channel Synchronization

The platform imports and exports iCal feeds, syncing reservations across all channels on a scheduled basis. Every booking source is tracked so the owner knows exactly where revenue comes from.

Dynamic Pricing Engine

Flexible date-range pricing rules with a priority system. Set seasonal rates, weekend premiums, holiday pricing, or promotional periods — all managed through the dashboard without touching code.

Five-Language Support

Every page, accommodation description, activity listing, and booking flow is fully translated into English, Latvian, Russian, Lithuanian, and German. Language-specific URL slugs ensure proper SEO indexing in each market.

Management Dashboard

A complete back-office for the property team:

• Booking management — create, edit, cancel bookings with guest communication tracking
• Revenue analytics — real-time charts showing income, occupancy rates, top-performing accommodations, and booking source breakdown
• Content editor — update property descriptions, photos, blog posts, and activity listings with a rich text editor
• Promotional tools — create discount codes, manage gift cards, and display site-wide notification banners
• Pricing control — set and adjust seasonal pricing rules per accommodation
• Configuration — business hours, contact info, camping season dates, virtual tour links

Automated Guest Communication

Booking confirmations, payment receipts, and cancellation notices are sent automatically via professional, branded email templates — reducing manual follow-up work.

Key Features

• Real-time availability and instant booking confirmation
• Dynamic seasonal pricing with flexible rules
• Airbnb & Booking.com calendar synchronization
• Discount codes and gift card system
• Add-on services (breakfast, sauna, equipment)
• Revenue and occupancy analytics dashboard
• Blog and activity content management
• 30+ amenity tags per accommodation
• Mobile-responsive design
• SEO-optimized with structured data in 5 languages
• GDPR-compliant cookie consent
• Error monitoring with automatic alerting