A booking platform built to run itself
Samsú ran a successful WordPress site that had outgrown what the platform could deliver. TrueDevs migrated the entire high-traffic production site to a new architecture — adding live SuperControl availability, an AI-powered guest assistant, cabin comparison, availability-first search, and automated operations that let the team do more with less manual work.
At a glance
- Industry
- Hospitality and cabin booking
- Engagement
- Product Partnership
- Scope
- Platform engineering, PMS integration, AI chat development, SEO and content architecture
- Tech stack
- Next.js, TypeScript, SuperControl, Deepseek AI, Inngest, Klaviyo
Overview
Samsú
Samsú operates off-grid cabin stays across Ireland, offering guests a nature-focused alternative to traditional accommodation with a growing portfolio of uniquely designed cabins.
Old meets new
Before and after
Drag the handle to compare before and after
Before
AfterVision
What the client set out to create
A booking platform that could handle the operational load — availability, pricing, guest communication, and content freshness — without the team manually managing any of it. The migration had to maintain and improve upon the existing site’s traffic and engagement, not reset it.
Challenge
What made this hard to get right
WordPress couldn't support what the business needed next
The existing WordPress site was successful, but it could not deliver the specific features Samsú needed: live SuperControl availability, an AI-powered guest assistant, availability-first search with cabin comparison, and AI-ready SEO infrastructure. These required a modern, server-rendered architecture.
Migrating a high-traffic site without losing momentum
The existing site had strong traffic, good UI, and excellent social media engagement. The rebuild had to improve performance and functionality — not just replicate what was already working. The migration could not reset the progress the business had built.
SuperControl’s API was not built for a serverless world
SuperControl required IP whitelisting and had no webhooks, no OLB booking API, and no database access. Serverless platforms like Vercel cannot maintain static IPs, and the API’s reliability meant every outage could take the site down. We needed an intermediary that could handle these constraints without compromising the guest experience.
Approach
How we addressed the problem
A custom Nginx reverse proxy to bridge the gap
We built a reverse proxy that sits between the Next.js app and SuperControl’s API. It handles IP whitelisting at the proxy level, adds an extra authentication layer, and rewrites API requests so the frontend never talks to SC directly. A scheduled health check monitors the proxy’s availability and alerts the team immediately if something goes wrong. This gave us a stable, secure connection to SC without the limitations of a direct serverless integration.
ISR heartbeat polling instead of a sync pipeline
Without webhooks, a real-time sync pipeline was off the table. Instead, we set up ISR with a heartbeat job that pings each cabin page every 30 minutes to trigger revalidation. If SC is down during a revalidation, Next.js serves the last good build and recovers automatically when SC comes back up. No database cache, no Redis, no sync jobs — just the PMS as the source of truth and ISR as the cache.
AI-ready SEO infrastructure
Beyond standard SEO, we built an AI-crawler-aware infrastructure: a dynamic llms.txt that feeds structured knowledge to AI models, a robots.txt that differentiates between search crawlers and training crawlers, and JSON-LD with VacationRental schema for rich search results. The platform is designed to be understood by both traditional search engines and AI-driven discovery tools.
Solution
What we built
Live cabin platform with SuperControl integration
Live cabin availability and pricing streamed from SuperControl via the reverse proxy. Guests browse, check live dates, and book without ever seeing the PMS complexity beneath. The booking step uses SuperControl’s Calendar Widget, while the rest of the experience is fully custom.
Deepseek AI chatbot with OTP guest verification
A Deepseek AI-powered chat assistant answers guest questions about cabins, amenities, and bookings. An OTP verification system confirms guest identity before sharing contact information — keeping guest data secure while providing instant, helpful responses.
Availability-first search and cabin comparison
An availability engine checks every night of a stay against real-time SuperControl data — considering check-in restrictions, minimum stays, and per-night status — showing guests only what is genuinely bookable. A cabin comparison feature lets users evaluate properties side by side, keeping them on the site instead of leaving to compare elsewhere.
Automated operations for a lean team
Inngest cron jobs keep cabin pages, reviews, and journal articles current without manual work. Data health monitoring alerts the team to issues by severity — critical problems trigger email, warnings go to Sentry. Klaviyo syncs guest data into marketing automation automatically. The team starts each day with exceptions to review, not records to reconcile.
Technical depth
How it works under the surface
How it works under the surface
Next.js App Router migrated from WordPress. SuperControl PMS integrated via ISR heartbeat polling with Nginx reverse proxy and alert buffer. Deepseek AI models via Vercel AI SDK with a custom OTP generate-and-verify toolchain. ISR + Inngest cron revalidation for content freshness. Tiered data health monitoring: Critical alerts to Sentry + email, Warnings to Sentry only. Klaviyo API for guest CRM sync. Upstash Redis for rate limiting. Dynamic llms.txt, AI-crawler-differentiated robots.txt, and JSON-LD with VacationRental + AggregateRating schema.
Outcomes
What changed after launch
Successful high-traffic WordPress migration without losing momentum
The migration from WordPress to Next.js preserved — and improved — the site’s traffic, user engagement, and functionality. Guests and search engines alike found a faster, more capable platform from day one.
Automated operations that reduce manual work
Content updates, guest data sync, review collection, and system health checks now run on schedule. The team focuses on exceptions and strategy instead of regenerating pages or exporting guest lists by hand.
Guests complete the journey instead of scrolling and leaving
Availability-first search, cabin comparison, and the Deepseek AI chatbot work together to turn high engagement into high conversion. Guests find what they want, compare options side by side, get instant answers without forms or phone calls, and book — all within the same experience. The site no longer builds curiosity without giving visitors a clear path to act on it.
Testimonial
What the client says
“I accidentally came across Elhaam and his team via Upwork. They completely rebuilt my entire website and also have completely redesigned our SEO, our back end, the ability for users to use our website and the difference between before they started and now is night and day. I really could not recommend them enough. The best find for me in 2026.”
Project journey
How the work unfolded
Phase 1: WordPress to Next.js migration
Full platform rebuild from WordPress to Next.js, preserving Samsú’s brand identity and strong UX while migrating to a server-rendered architecture with consistent data structures and improved performance.
Phase 2: SuperControl integration and AI features
Integrated live cabin availability and pricing via ISR heartbeat polling workarounds for SuperControl’s API limitations. Added the Deepseek AI chatbot with OTP guest verification, availability-first search, and cabin comparison.
Phase 3: Automation and deepening
Built Inngest-powered content freshness jobs, tiered data health monitoring, Klaviyo CRM automation, and a comprehensive AI-ready SEO infrastructure — dynamic llms.txt, AI-crawler-differentiated robots.txt, and full JSON-LD schema.
Next steps
Elhaam Basheer Chauhdry
CTO, TrueDevs
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