Booking platforms and operations for private chefs, caterers, and event businesses.
Curated hospitality businesses sell trust, and the owner is usually the one holding it together over text. We build the platform and the operating layer underneath: inquiry-to-event workflows, talent and vendor rosters, booking and payment in one place, and the marketing system that keeps the calendar full. Our flagship build, Indulge Private Chefs, is live on the App Store.
The problems we keep seeing in curated hospitality businesses
Every booking runs through the owner
Inquiry, quote, menu, deposit, and day-of coordination happen in one person's messages. Revenue is capped by the owner's calendar, not by demand.
The roster lives in a group chat
Chefs, servers, and vendors are vetted by reputation and booked by text. Availability, rates, and quality history are in memory.
Deposits and balances chase themselves
Money is agreed in a message and collected by invoice later, if someone remembers. Cancellations and changes are negotiated one at a time.
Seasonality with no off-season system
The summer runs the owner into the ground and the winter is spent recovering instead of fixing the gaps before the next season.
What we build for hospitality operations
- Booking and payment platforms — clients book, talent delivers, and the business keeps control of quality, as a web app or a native app depending on the motion.
- Inquiry-to-event workflow — a qualifying inquiry form, quotes and menus proposed and approved in one place, deposits and balances collected on schedule.
- Talent and vendor rosters — vetted chefs, staff, and vendors with availability, rates, and history, so the next booking is an assignment rather than a scramble.
- Marketing system — the website as the intake engine, past-client and referral nurture, and seasonal campaigns that fill the calendar before the season starts.
- Operator console and reporting — bookings, margin by event, talent utilization, and lead source in one view the owner reads on a phone.
Proof from adjacent operations work
Indulge Private Chefs — native iPhone marketplace app
Live on the App Store in September 2026, a couple of months after kickoff. One integrated surface for onboarding, booking, and payouts, with explic…
Read case →Custom e-commerce with fulfillment and payments
Proof-of-market e-commerce on a stack the team controls before expanding to Shopify or additional channels.
Read case →AI-driven email marketing automation with guardrails
Repeatable campaign cycles with operator-controlled automation instead of one-off mail merges and ad hoc copy.
Read case →Anonymized engagements from adjacent, lead-driven and document-heavy businesses. We scope your build against your stack and your numbers.
Built for the operator, and for the brands scaling a curated model
A curated marketplace is a revenue engine, not a directory. Every booking runs through the platform, quality control becomes the feature clients pay for, and capacity grows by adding vetted talent instead of owner hours. The same model fits caterers, wedding and event vendors, boutique staffing, and any hospitality brand whose value is who they let through the door. Read how it went live for Indulge Private Chefs.
How we work with systems your revenue runs on
Your customer list, your lead flow, your billing — these run the business, so the engagement machinery is built for transparency: a named account lead and assigned engineer as your direct contacts, a shared workspace logging activity, decisions, and change orders, checkpoint sessions with written recaps, and milestone billing — you pay on delivered checkpoints, not on faith. We take only the access the work requires. The full delivery machinery is laid out in the method.
The low-risk way in
AI Adoption Audit
Where automation and AI actually pay back across your intake, follow-up, delivery, and reporting — with hour and dollar estimates, the data and process prerequisites you're missing, and a prioritized build roadmap with fixed pricing. Credited toward a build that starts within 60 days.
Hospitality & Events FAQ
Do we need an app, or is a website enough?
Usually a website and a booking workflow first, and an app when the two-sided motion earns it: repeat clients, a talent side that needs its own experience, and payment in the flow. We scope which one you need with your numbers, not a default.
How do you handle payments and deposits?
Through established payment providers, with deposits and balances collected on the schedule the business sets. Security, payment handling, and architecture are discussed with prospective clients under NDA during scoping.
What does a hospitality business usually start with?
The inquiry-to-event workflow and the roster, because that is what takes the owner out of every booking. Then the marketing system, then the platform if the model earns it. Scoped as a project you own, with an optional managed retainer. Start with a free Business Checkup or a scoping call.
Scope the platform your bookings are missing.
Book a scoping call and we'll map where inquiries stall, where the owner is the bottleneck, and what to build first.