Replacing WhatsApp threads with a regional booking platform
How a six-week build gave Lebanon its first structured home-services marketplace — from scheduling logic to cash payments.
Overview
From informal networks to a structured market
In Lebanon, home services ran on trust and texting. Customers found cleaners, electricians, and beauticians through personal referrals and WhatsApp groups — no way to compare, no way to verify, no reliable way to book. For the team behind done., this wasn't a product gap. It was a market that couldn't professionalize without infrastructure.
SpawnLabs was brought in to design and ship that infrastructure: a full booking platform — customer-facing, provider-facing, and operationally complete — in six weeks.
The Challenge
A market with no digital rails
The problem wasn't just "build an app." Lebanon had no existing platform layer for home services. No scheduling standard, no provider profiles, no centralized way to handle payments or availability. Customers couldn't compare options or book with any confidence. Providers had no tools to manage their own capacity.
On top of that, the product had to work in a market with inconsistent internet, mixed Arabic-English usage, and a population still split between card payments and cash. Any platform that ignored these realities would fail on adoption before it failed on features.
Strategic Response
Build the operating layer, not just the interface
Rather than assembling off-the-shelf services, the decision was to build every layer purpose-specific. The booking logic, provider matching, scheduling rules, and payment flows all needed to reflect how this market actually works — not how a generic SaaS template assumes it should.
This meant writing a custom backend from scratch: typed API, database schemas designed around real booking patterns, and business rules shaped by local payment behavior and provider workflows. The goal was a system the done. team could operate and iterate on independently after launch.
What Was Built
A complete marketplace stack
The platform spans three surfaces. A customer booking flow — service browsing, real-time availability, location input, and checkout — designed to reduce drop-off and get users to a confirmed booking fast. A provider operations dashboard — schedule management, incoming job assignments, cancellation handling, and earnings tracking — giving providers control over their own capacity. And an admin and backend layer — booking engine, provider matching by location and skill, scheduling rules, payment processing for both card and cash, and automated notifications — with every endpoint and schema built specifically for this product.
The entire system ships bilingual — full RTL Arabic alongside English — and is optimized for mobile-first usage on slower connections.
Key Capabilities
What the platform enables
Custom Backend & API
Purpose-built server logic — booking engine, provider matching, scheduling rules, payment flows, and admin tools — all connected through a secure, typed API layer. No off-the-shelf backend; every business rule designed for this market.
Low-Friction Booking Flow
Multi-step booking: service selection, real-time availability, location input, and checkout — designed to minimize drop-off and move users from intent to confirmed booking fast.
Provider Operations Dashboard
A dedicated control surface for providers to manage availability, view incoming bookings, handle cancellations, and track earnings — replacing informal coordination with structured workflow.
Real-time Scheduling Engine
Availability updates instantly based on provider location, capacity, existing bookings, and service duration. Eliminates double-bookings and stale time slots across the network.
Bilingual Arabic & English
Full RTL Arabic support alongside English — every screen, every flow, every notification operates natively in both languages without layout compromise.
Automated Lifecycle Notifications
Confirmations, reminders, status updates, and provider assignments via email and in-app notifications — keeping both sides of the marketplace informed without manual follow-up.
Dual Payment Infrastructure
Card payments and cash-on-delivery — both essential in a market where digital payment is growing but cash remains the default. The system handles either without friction.
Product UI
Platform screenshots
Service browsing, category selection, booking flow, and checkout experience.
How It's Built
The stack behind it
Frontend
Backend & Data
Infrastructure
Integrations
Impact
Live and operational
A 96% completion rate validates the low-friction booking flow. 68% of customers return for a second booking — strong early retention for a new marketplace. And 71% card adoption in a cash-dominant market signals real behavioral shift.
Building in a market with no playbook?
When there's no template to copy and no incumbent to benchmark against, the work is infrastructure — not just interface. If you're standing up a platform where none exists, we should talk.