How Xano helped Tongo go to market with a new customer app
Tongo went to market with a new hotel guest experience app on Xano after failed attempts, with 80% lower development costs and 75% faster time to market.
Tongo is a web-based app where hotels can deliver recommendations and personalized experiences to guests.
Michael Gahan, Tongo's CEO, had the app idea after spending seven years leading a luxury wine tour business. He knew that guests at high-end hotels wanted unique and personalized experiences and recommendations. He also realized that in today's review-driven marketplace, hotels need to ensure that guests' five-star experiences extend beyond the property.
Industry
Hospitality
Company type
SMB
Solution
Customer app
Use case
Booking engine
Stop 01
Challenges
Unlike many app-based business founders, Gahan had no technical background. Consequently, as he puts it, he made a lot of mistakes.
Over the course of four years, Tongo spent roughly $75,000 in three unsuccessful attempts to built the app. "We'd get something built and then find out it wouldn't do what we wanted it to do. So we'd find a new development team, and they'd insist on starting over. At the end of the day, we were left with three different codebases, all of which were completely unusable!"
Stop 02
Solutions
With Xano, Tongo built a mobile-optimized app with hotel recommendations, events, and exclusive offers - like a 24-hour concierge desk for guests. They can browse experiences, make reservations at recommended restaurants, book tours, and call venues.
Tongo integrated with existing hotel systems like Zingle, Kipsu, and Akia. Through the app, hotels can provide QR codes and send guests links with the messaging platforms they already use.
Learn more about how Xano can scale your business.
Gahan discovered Xano after Tongo's third unsuccessful attempt at getting the app created. With Xano, he was able to ensure that their backend would have all the functionality their app needed.
Xano provides the optimal combination of low cost and rapid development
"The best part about using Xano is the combination of low cost and speed to market," Gahan said. Tongo could immediately log into Xano and start building, without any DevOps setup or overhead costs. The Xano editor also allowed them to quickly iterate on their app, and see exactly what each change did.
"With a new product, these early iterations can make or break the company. I'd highly recommend a Xano backend for anyone who wants to quickly, easily, and cost-efficiently get their product to market, especially startups that are still trying to determine the ideal product / market fit."
Xano completely eliminates friction between developers
"A problem we had in the past is that no one wanted to take on the tech debt of someone else's complex backend. Xano solved this by eliminating the need for backend coding completely," Gahan explained.
Sharing and handing off work became easy, because it no longer meant staring at blocks of code. As a result, Tongo had significantly more flexibility throughout the development process. "This slashed development costs and gave us the ability to work with different frontend developers, because any frontend developer can easily understand how Xano interacts with APIs."
Stop 04
Results
Tongo launched their new app in months, with 80% less development costs
Their app had all of the features and functionality that Gahan envisioned - and they developed it for just one-fifth the cost of each of their previous development attempts.
Tongo had a future-proof, flexible app that would grow with their business
Xano's shared picture of the backend makes it easy to update projects, even as complexity increases and business goals evolve. As Tongo onboards more hotels, Xano ensures that the app scales to stay performant and responsive.
