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

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
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.
- Player
02Book
- Player
Picks a court and a time, and signs in with a six-digit code sent by email — no password.
- Player
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.
- Player
04Confirm
- Player
Finds the booking in My Bookings.
- The app
Sends the confirmation email.
- Player
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.
- Player
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.
- Player
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.
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 04Keep sign-in effortlessPlayers sign in with a six-digit code sent to their email — no password to choose or forget.
- 05Test safelySuper-admin test-data controls let the team test end to end without touching real bookings.
- 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.