Touristo.ai: Booking Ecosystem for the Tourism Industry in Montenegro
Touristo.ai is a digital marketplace connecting international visitors with local service providers across Montenegro. Designed to enhance the travel experience, the platform allows users to book diverse local services in one place, while empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs to grow their visibility and revenue.
Field: tourism Country: Montenegro
Client Problem
International tourists visiting Montenegro typically stay for 10–14 days and seek to maximize their experience in a short time. The client wanted to build a one-stop digital platform where travelers could quickly discover, book, and pay for a wide variety of local services — from dining and transfers to guided tours and yacht charters — without switching between multiple apps or websites.
Real-World Scenarios We Solved For:
- A couple books a weekend yacht rental and a sunset tour in one session.
- A family plans a day trip, reserving a transfer, lunch delivery, and a guided hike.
- Parents organize a child’s birthday — hiring an entertainer, ordering pizza, and booking a photographer — all through a single app.
Main Goals
- Build an intuitive, multi-service booking system with flexible payment options.
- Enable partners to grow their reach through a referral program.
- Develop a mobile-first, responsive interface for on-the-go users.
- Enable seamless communication between users and partners via notifications, and automation.
What We Did
We delivered a full-stack marketplace platform combining powerful backend logic with a user-centric frontend design. Every feature was built to streamline the journey from discovery to post-service feedback.
End-to-End Booking System
This system was fully developed and implemented by our team. It allows booking a wide range of travel services, including transfers, excursions, car and yacht rentals, hotel accommodation, restaurant services, personal guides and other travel-related services.
Core Features:
Flexible Payments: Online (card) or cash-on-delivery options
Transparent Flow: Full tracking of booking, payment, service delivery, and review stages
Secure Transactions: PCI-compliant encryption for online payments
Automated Workflows: Real-time notifications, confirmations, and reminders
Rating & Reviews: Public feedback system to build trust and drive service quality
Streamlined User Registration
Customers (Travelers) can sign up via email, phone, or social media (Google, Facebook).
Partners verify their phone number and complete their business profile.
Smart Booking & Confirmation Flow
The user selects service, date, time, and payment method.
Partner receives instant notification and can confirm the order manually or automatically.
Once confirmed, users receive all necessary details and contact information.
Service Completion & Feedback Loop
Partners mark services as completed and confirm payment.
Users receive a prompt to rate the service and leave a review.
If no feedback is submitted within 3 days, the system automatically issues a payout to the partner, ensuring cash-flow predictability.
Secure Payment Distribution with MangoPay
We integrated MangoPay, a regulated European payment provider, to handle:
- Online Payments: Funds are instantly split between the marketplace and the partner’s e-wallet.
- Cash Payments: Commission is automatically deducted from the partner’s wallet. Insufficient balance triggers a negative balance alert and a top-up request.
This model ensures financial transparency, scalability, and compliance.
Partner Referral Program
To drive organic growth, we built a QR-based referral system. Each partner gets a unique referral link and scannable QR code. They earn commission on every booking made through their link. QR codes are ideal for physical placement in hotels, cafes, and tourist hubs.
This low-cost acquisition strategy helped expand the partner network rapidly.
Mobile-First Responsive Design
The platform was built using a Mobile-First approach — the interface was initially created for mobile devices, ensuring convenience and fast loading on small screens. Only after the mobile version was developed were adaptations for PCs and laptops added. Built with a Mobile-First philosophy, the platform ensures fast loading on 3G/4G networks, Intuitive touch navigation, and clean, clutter-free interface optimized for small screens.
We used heatmap analytics to visualize user interaction with content. “Hot zones” (many clicks) are marked in red and orange, “cold” (rare interactions) — in blue. This allows identifying key areas of attention and improving the arrangement of elements to increase the convenience and efficiency of the site.
Geo-Based Search & Filtering
Services are filtered based on the user’s geolocation and the partner’s service area (defined by postal codes in their profile). This makes the search more relevant, which has a positive effect on user experience and conversion.
Users can set a custom search radius or enter any address in Montenegro.
Smart Partner Ranking
After each service, clients rate their experience and leave feedback. These ratings, combined with service popularity (number of bookings), determine the ranking of partners in search results. This incentivizes partners to maintain high service quality and positive reviews, contributing to a healthier, more trustworthy marketplace ecosystem.
Trip Planning Calendar
We integrated a calendar into the user’s personal account, displaying all booked services with detailed order information. This feature helps tourists organize their itineraries and never miss important activities during their trip.
View & Wishlist Analytics
We track service views and “add-to-favorites” actions. This data helps partners understand user interest and optimize their offerings, while enabling the marketplace to offer data-driven, paid promotion opportunities.
Up-Sell & Cross-Sell Strategies
To increase average order value and improve user engagement, we implemented intelligent up-sell and cross-sell tools across key pages:
- а block showing services viewed by other visitors of this page;
- promotional offers;
- services that may be of interest based on algorithms set by the administrator. For example: Food delivery – Excursions and tours, Yachts and fishing, or Excursions and tours – Extreme sports, Photo and video services.
Project Results
- Launched a fully functional, scalable marketplace tailored to Montenegro’s tourism ecosystem.
- Reduced booking friction with a unified interface for multi-service orders.
- Increased partner acquisition via a self-sustaining referral model.
- Improved user retention with mobile-optimized UX and personalized recommendations.
- Ensured secure, compliant payments through MangoPay integration.
- Enhanced discoverability with geolocation, smart filtering, and ranking algorithms.
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