Case studySports & recreation · Booking

The Courtyard

A live booking app for a pickleball venue, with an admin dashboard that works like a CRM — bookings, payment receipts, courts and players in one place — plus Open Play, a court marketplace and a members' community.

  • Booking app
  • Admin dashboard (CRM)
  • Payment receipt flow
  • Real-time availability
  • QA
Project
The CourtyardPickleball courts
Industry
Sports & recreation · Booking
Location
Davao City, Philippines
Engagement
Booking app and admin dashboard — design, build and QA
Status
Live
Platforms
Base44 · Email one-time-code sign-in · Bank QR payments with receipt upload
The Courtyard homepage: a night-lit pickleball court with Book a Court and Learn More buttons.

01Context

The Courtyard is a pickleball venue in Davao City — two professional-grade courts, specialty coffee and a community built around the game. I designed and built its booking app at thecourtyard.pro: players book and pay from their phones, and staff run the venue from an admin dashboard that works like a CRM.

Designing a booking app and a CRM-style admin dashboard for a real local sports venue.

02How it works

How it works

How The Courtyard works

Players book and pay on their phones; the venue runs bookings, payment receipts and courts from one admin dashboard that works like a CRM.

  • Key step
  • Control point
  1. 01Find a court

    • Player

      Opens thecourtyard.pro — or scans a QR code — and checks live availability for both courts.

    • The app

      Shows real-time availability, so a slot can't be double-booked.

    • Venue staff

      Keep court details and the schedule up to date.

  2. 02Book

    • Player

      Picks a court and a time, and signs in with a six-digit code sent by email — no password.

  3. 03Pay

    • Player

      Scans the venue's bank QR with any banking or e-wallet app, then uploads the receipt.

    • Venue staff

      Check the receipt in the admin dashboard and confirm the payment.

  4. 04Confirm

    • Player

      Finds the booking in My Bookings.

    • The app

      Sends the confirmation email.

  5. 05Play

    • Player

      Checks in and plays — or opens the court to Open Play and sends players a check-in link.

    • Venue staff

      Run the Open Play queue at the desk: fair teams, rotating on as courts free up.

  6. 06Plans change

    • Player

      Posts a paid court they can't use on Pasalo, the court marketplace; chats in the members' community.

    • The app

      Once a handover is confirmed, emails both players each other's contact details.

    • Venue staff

      Confirm Pasalo handovers — nobody may ask for more than they paid.

What staff manage in the admin dashboard

  • Bookings

    Every reservation by court and time, in one list.

  • Payments

    Uploaded receipts waiting to be checked and confirmed.

  • Courts & schedule

    Court details and times, adjusted by staff.

  • Players

    Who booked and when — the CRM side of the dashboard.

  • Open Play & Pasalo

    The walk-in queue and court handovers between players.

  • Test data

    Super-admin controls to test end to end without touching real bookings.

Drawn from the live app at thecourtyard.pro and the build notes. The admin screens are private, so they are described here rather than shown.Illustration drawn for this portfolio — not a screenshot.

03Problem

A court-booking business depends on a schedule players can trust and staff can manage. The Courtyard needed booking and payment that work on a phone, confirmations players can rely on, and one place where staff can see every booking, confirm every payment and control the courts.

04My role

What I owned

  • Booking workflows: real-time court availability, court and time selection, and My Bookings for players
  • An admin dashboard that works like a CRM — bookings, payment receipts to confirm, courts, the schedule and the players behind them
  • Bank QR payments with receipt upload, confirmed by staff, plus confirmation emails
  • Build on Base44: booking, payment receipts, confirmation emails, admin schedule editing and passwordless email sign-in
  • Open Play queues, Pasalo — a marketplace for handing over paid courts — and a members' community with chat and leaderboards
  • QA on confirmations, court-time changes and loading behaviour, with super-admin test-data controls
  • QR-based entry points, responsive UI, loading states and brand details on the venue's own domain, thecourtyard.pro

Platforms

Base44 · Email one-time-code sign-in · Bank QR payments with receipt upload

05Approach

  1. 01Design around the visitReal-time availability, court details and booking built for phones; players pay by bank QR and upload the receipt in the same flow.
  2. 02Run the venue like a CRMOne admin dashboard for bookings, payment receipts, courts and the schedule — staff confirm payments and adjust court times without leaving it.
  3. 03Grow the community, not just bookingsOpen Play queues for walk-ins, Pasalo for handing over a court someone can't use, and a members' community with chat and leaderboards.
  4. 04Keep sign-in effortlessPlayers sign in with a six-digit code sent to their email — no password to choose or forget.
  5. 05Test safelySuper-admin test-data controls let the team test end to end without touching real bookings.
  6. 06Chase what players feelLive issues reproduced and worked on: confirmation-email failures, adjusting court times, and toast and loading behavior.

06System & deliverables

Delivered

  • Public booking app with real-time availability and My Bookings
  • Admin dashboard: bookings, payment-receipt confirmation, courts and schedule
  • Bank QR payments with receipt upload, and confirmation emails
  • Open Play, the Pasalo court marketplace and a members' community
  • Passwordless email sign-in
  • Super-admin test-data controls
  • QR-based entry points, mobile-responsive UI, loading animation and favicon

07Evidence

Screenshots from the project and scope diagrams drawn for this portfolio. Select one to open it larger.

08Results & impact

  • Built a live booking app on the venue's own domain, with real-time availability, bank QR payments and confirmation emails.
  • Built an admin dashboard that works like a CRM, so staff confirm payments, manage courts and control the schedule in one place.
  • Extended the app beyond bookings: Open Play queues, a court marketplace (Pasalo) and a members' community.
  • Structured safe end-to-end testing with super-admin test-data controls, and worked through live issues as part of the build.

No performance numbers are shown until they can be verified and shared — this section describes what was built, structured and tested.

09Lessons

  • Booking systems are trust systems — a missing confirmation email costs more than a missing feature.
  • Test data needs its own controls so QA never touches real customers.