Maitres: Restaurant Booking & Payment App

4irelabs  has started a collaboration with Maitres, a Swedish restaurant booking company, in 2018 and our goal was to create an innovative restaurant booking mobile app with an integrated payment system that will be scalable further in other EU based countries and having a sophisticated anti-fraud system.

The Maitres app emerged in a response to the need for clients and restaurants to digitize the booking and dining services, while at the same time simplifying the process of making digital payments in compliance with the new PSD2 regulations. 

Challenges 

When working on the mobile ordering app for Maitres, 4irelabs experts had to address the following identified challenges: 

• Several engineering teams that previously worked on the app’s creation failed, so the technical challenge was considerable. 
• The application was designed to work in the territory of the EU, so we needed to bring its financial system in compliance with the PSD2 legislation and SCA standards. 
• Previously, numerous fake credit cards were added to the system, so we had to incorporate a robust fraud detection solution. 

Contribution and value delivered by 4ire Labs 

Customization of user experience  

Users can download the Maitres restaurant booking app from Google Play Market and App Store. It is a free, subscription-free app allowing users to make a reservation in any of the included restaurants and to pay for their visit afterward.

One-time verification 

Maitres enables one-time verification of the user’s payment card, allowing to automate all dining-related activities without the interference of the client, without even a single click that needs to be made to complete the transaction. 

Stratified client approach. 

Maitres incorporates several options for their users depending on the patterns of their restaurant attendance. Starting from autumn 2020, the platform offers separate features for individuals and businesses, allowing the latter to accumulate certain credit with Maitres and pay a monthly invoice for all restaurant attendances of their staff at the end of the month.

In this way, business owners can visit restaurants for some time with Maitres paying their bills, while they pay to Maitres once within a stipulated time frame based on the monthly invoice issued. 

Technical details of the Maitres project 

The 4irelabs team working on the project comprised four engineers (2 back-end developers, and iOS and Android developers). 

They combined Go, PostgreSQL, Redis, Heroku Cloud, and React to create the platform that currently integrates 80+ restaurants in 5 cities across Sweden and is continuously improved to expand the coverage to other European countries. 

A new payment method was integrated into the app via the 3d Secure system, compliant with GDPR requirements. The innovative software supports integration with POC systems, including Duno, Domino, Cloud Dino, TrivecLite, Ancon, Pluto, and Rebnis, removing human error from the restaurant billing process. 

Additional work on the project included: 

• Development of additional features typical for restaurant mobile applications (system of credits, admit panel for credits, branded loyalty system, and integrated discount and bonus system).
• Manual work automation 
• Sophisticated reporting system for Maitres record-keeping 
• Re-development of the payment system in line with the latest EU legislative changes
• Restaurant integration with POS through cloud
• Full design review

Our team worked on all stages of back-end development, optimization of the app for iOS and Android, and multi-channel marketing of the app. 

What’s next 

The launch of the Maitres dining app was a success, with the project attracting over $1.5 million funding from Acast founders Måns Ulvestam and Karl Rosander only during spring 2020. Here are the future directions of Maitres app development: 

• The launch of a new loyalty system in September 2020 
• Introduction of B2B invoicing solutions for companies 
• Further expansion to Denmark and Spain 
• API integration with POS systems

With over 10 years of practical industry experience and a creative approach to app design that our programmers exhibit, we can deliver innovative, robust software helping businesses increase their market share, attract new customers, and improve the user experience of existing clients.