Hel Bells Tents plan and install luxury bell tents. They work with event organisers as well as hosting their own events to cater to a variety of events from private parties and weddings to public sporting events and festivals.
Through their custom web application, Hels Bells Tents can create and manage events and bookings. Their customer portal provides a platform for event attendees to book, manage, pay deposits and settle balance payments.
Nothing brings us more excitement than working with people who have a unique business which aligns with our own interests and passions. Hels Bells contacted us when they formed their new company to enquire about building an online booking solution to bring their idea to life.
This project was a fantastic opportunity to work with passionate business owners who want to make their dream business a reality. The first step was to get to know them and to learn about their business objectives and the goals for this project.
We knew that it would be important to provide an eye catching yet distraction free website to give potential customers a sense of confidence when using the website. We settled on a design with a simple colour palette, with enough white space to allow for the photography to stand out. Some simple brand embellishments were incorporated into the design to break up page sections, completing a cohesive look.
With the expertise of our graphic designer, we worked closely with the client to design and produce unique graphics and custom icons to match the Hels Bells brand. These further strengthened the brand identity and brought consistency to the the website. The assets have also since been used in other marketing and promotional material.
Of course, there’s more behind the website than just the visuals. Navigating the visitor to their end goal is key, and structuring the user journey to drive the user to the required goals is vital.
It was crucial to understand who the client’s target audience was so that we could build customer journeys effectively. We had to look at who would be visiting their website and what they were trying to achieve. Our research identified two main types of users:
These unique types of users would navigate around the site using different paths to find the information relevant to their needs.
To cater to event hosts we made it clear who Hels Bells Tents provides their services to by listing the event types, (like sporting, private, weddings), using clear visual tiles. This approach helps guide users to the appropriate areas of the site to enquire, while providing inspiration for those researching if bell tents could be a viable option for their needs.
Hels Bells provide their services to both public and private events. Public events can be booked by anybody, whereas private events are “gated” with a password which is communicated only to their guests. Public events can be displayed on the homepage, along with a prominent link in the navigation menu, making them easy to access and begin the booking process.
At the heart of this project is a custom-built booking system. The fundamental purpose of this is to allow Hels Bells admins to create events, provide a booking interface and manage the bookings, although it has much more to offer. We saw great potential in this system and further extended the solution to provide more value to our client.
We needed to understand how the business was going to be run to build a system that allowed them to achieve their objectives. Understanding and structuring the data within the booking system was a fundamental part of this. The information that the system needed to manage, and process includes:
Events are at the centre of the booking solution. During this process, Hels Bells can configure basic event information like location, time, and event category. Tent type, inventory and tent package selection including pricing can be initialised.
Alongside generic fields, including time, date and location, the desired size and types of tents can be selected. The quantity of each type of tent for the event can also be set as well as additional settings like the publish status, password, and deposit amount can be set.
Self-service customer bookings are made on the Hels Bells website, via a custom booking interface integration with the web application. Customers can choose to pay the full balance or pay a deposit amount, if configured.
Once bookings have been made, Hels Bells can view and manage these in the web application. All aspects of the bookings can later be amended by admins providing flexibility when managing their guests’ stay.
Event attendees who have paid a deposit will receive a notification email when the balance is due. They are then able to pay the outstanding deposit via a self-service payment interface thus completing their booking. Hels Bells admins can easily report on bookings with outstanding balances and manually send reminder emails where necessary.
As bookings are made, the required tent package inventory is recorded for the event in a “packing list” visible to admins.
By collating the resources required for the tent packages booked by guests in a simple view, admins can easily view the extras, package items, and tents needed for an event in one place. This useful resource has saved many hours of manual checking and reduces human error.
After five years of working with the solution we designed and built, technological advancements and new requirements opened the opportunity for further development. We helped the client to move to a more modern payment provider to solve persistent reliability issues with their previous provider. We also worked with the client to carry out an overhaul of the web application and give the website a facelift, which has also made it easier to manage the content.
The requirement to implement a new payment provider was made due to reliability issues with the existing provider. We helped the client to integrate Stripe, a more modern and easier to use platform within the upgraded portal. The payment platform gave a more robust solution for online bookings, while also saving them money in transaction fees.
By separating out the two systems into a backend web application and a front-end CMS website, we greatly improved the functionality and flexibility of both platforms. Choosing a CMS with a visual page builder empowered the client to create and manage their own content with ease through the website. This also opened a whole new avenue for marketing activities, with branded landing page templates, pop up banners and notification reminders all now within the client’s full control.
As the company had grown, there was a need to calculate and record VAT on their sales. During the portal rebuild we added this functionality to allow full control of vatable items, with the option to export VAT report data.
We were perfectly positioned to use this opportunity to fine-tune and optimise the web app to meet their increasing needs. The new app design is even easier to create and configure tents, events and packages.
The new solution is more robust and easier to manage. It has significantly reduced technical debt providing a longer-term solution and ensures we can keep pace with industry trends.
Quality assurance (QA) is an integral component for the success of web development projects. We carried out in-depth QA with extensive testing of the web application and the website. To accomplish this, we methodically worked through possible scenarios mimicking user input to find potential bugs. The result of this process is a system that is as robust as possible prior to launch.
UAT (User Acceptance Testing) is another important part of developing a system that delivers results. With real-world testing carried out by real users, the feedback we receive is collated and the next development steps are planned and carried out.
We provide ongoing managed hosting and technical support. This gives Hels Bells the assurance that their website and booking system will work reliably so they can confidently run their business.
As a UK based team, if technical support is required, or they have questions; our team are readily available. We proactively monitor our applications and websites and strive to fix anything that may not be right, usually even before the client knows about it.
We have helped them develop several feature improvements and additions through the development of a statement of work (SOW). This helps structure the future development works that are to be carried out on the site and provide the client with accurate timescales.
Since its launch, Hels Bells’s website and booking platform has significantly increased the number of bookings made online. The revenue generated from this has allowed them to more than double the number of tents they now have available for hire. This has led them to having regular spots to deploy bell tent villages at prestigious events, such as the Silverstone British F1 Grand Prix.
Weaving Webs are great!
Helen (Hels Bells Tents)
Weaving Webs Limited is a company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 03739247.
Registered office: Weaving Webs Ltd, The Den, Bridge Street, Buckingham, MK18 1EL. VAT reg no: 277 6535 60
