Xcapade
A tourism marketplace and vertical SaaS for activity vendors — giving every rafting operator, trekking guide, and paragliding instructor a complete digital business: their own booking website, analytics dashboard, AI-powered tools, and automated payments.
xcapade-hero.png
Recommended: 1440 x 810 — Platform overview showing marketplace + vendor dashboard + microsite
The Problem
Tourism activity vendors in India run their entire business on WhatsApp and phone calls. No booking system. No analytics. No way to track revenue, manage walk-ins, or process payments digitally. They have zero online presence beyond a phone number.
They don't need a marketplace listing — they need a complete digital business. Their own website, their own booking engine, their own analytics dashboard, their own payment processing. What Shopify did for retail, no one has done for tourism activity vendors.
From the traveller side, arriving at destinations like Rishikesh or Manali means relying on word of mouth and local touts. No way to discover, compare, or pre-book activities. No verified reviews. No transparent pricing.
Existing booking platforms treat tourism like hotel reservations — rigid time slots with zero flexibility for outdoor activities that depend on weather, group sizes, and real-time availability. The entire industry runs offline.
The Solution
Three interconnected products: a public marketplace for travellers, a SaaS dashboard giving vendors a complete business management suite, and vendor microsites — white-labeled booking websites for each partner. All sharing a common backend with real-time communication and AI-powered intelligence.
Vendor SaaS Dashboard
A complete business management suite for tourism vendors. Revenue analytics, booking calendar, multi-step listing creation wizard, customer communication via Socket.IO, walk-in POS system, and settlement tracking — everything a vendor needs to run their business digitally, replacing WhatsApp and phone calls.
xcapade-dashboard.png
1440 x 900
Vendor Microsites
Each vendor gets their own white-labeled booking website on a subdomain (vendor-name.xcapade.in) with custom domain support. They control which listings appear, set a hero tagline and cover image, and take bookings directly at a lower commission rate (5% vs 12% on marketplace). Wildcard subdomain routing with ISR and webhook revalidation for instant updates.
xcapade-microsite.png
1440 x 900
Activity Discovery & Booking
Public marketplace where travellers discover activities by destination, category, and availability. Interactive maps, rich media galleries, and a seamless booking flow from search to payment confirmation. Each booking is tagged by source (marketplace vs microsite) for commission tracking.
xcapade-marketplace.png
1440 x 900
Spot Booking & Walk-in POS
Real-time spot booking engine with conversation threads between vendors and travellers — negotiating timing, group size, and pricing in real-time via Socket.IO. Plus a walk-in management system that lets vendors create bookings on the spot, auto-decrementing availability and generating booking IDs instantly.
xcapade-spot-booking.png
1440 x 900
AI-Powered Vendor Tools
Rule-based and LLM-powered intelligence for vendors — health scoring (0–100 based on profile completeness, booking activity, and response rate), earnings forecast, demand calendar, listing optimization tips, smart pricing nudges, and spot booking draft reply suggestions. Platform admins get anomaly detection, smart approve/reject, and natural language vendor search.
xcapade-ai-tools.png
1440 x 900
Commission & Settlement Engine
Automated payment settlement with configurable commission rates — 12% on marketplace bookings, 5% on microsite bookings, with per-vendor overrides. Detailed breakdowns per booking showing GMV, commission, GST, and net settlement. Admin dashboard for reconciliation, overdue settlement alerts, and vendor pipeline tracking.
xcapade-settlements.png
1440 x 900
Key Decisions
Three Apps, One Backend
The marketplace (Next.js 16, React 19), vendor dashboard (Next.js 15, React 18), and vendor microsites are separate applications sharing a single Strapi backend. Independent deployment cycles — ship marketplace updates without touching the SaaS tools or microsites.
Wildcard Subdomain Routing
Vendor microsites use wildcard DNS (*.xcapade.in) with Next.js middleware extracting the slug from the hostname. Custom domain support with CNAME verification and automatic SSL. ISR with webhook revalidation for instant content updates.
Real-time Over Polling
Spot bookings and vendor-customer conversations use Socket.IO. When a traveller requests a booking, the vendor sees it instantly. Confirmations, availability updates, and notification center — all real-time, no refresh.
Source-Based Commission
Every booking is tagged by source — marketplace (12% commission) or microsite (5%). Per-vendor commission overrides. Configurable settlement hold days, GST on commission, and automated payout cadence. All settings admin-configurable at runtime.
Tech Stack
Frontend
Backend
Payments
AI
Maps & Geo
Auth & Security
Results
Building a marketplace or SaaS platform?
Whether it's a two-sided marketplace, a vertical SaaS with vendor microsites, or a booking platform with AI-powered tools — I've built it end-to-end. Let's talk about your project.