Industry, Hospitality
Hospitality websites, from the team that built Merivale, Doltone House and The Boathouse Group
A hospitality group's website has a hard job: one brand, many venues, each with its own menus, events and way to book, and traffic that arrives all at once when something good goes on sale. We built the websites for three major Sydney hospitality groups, Merivale, Doltone House and The Boathouse Group, and we still support Merivale and Doltone. For Venues NSW we built the Sporting Club of Sydney members app and Booka, the booking platform behind its stadiums.
- 2018
- building since
- 70+
- designers, engineers and product people
- Sydney
- headquarters with team members across several countries
- 230+
- code repositories in our own GitHub organisation, before counting client-owned ones
What hospitality groups need
Many venues, one platform
Each venue needs its own identity, menus, events and way to book, without the group running a disconnected site for every one. For The Boathouse Group, rebuilt on Laravel and Next.js with design agency New Republique, the content architecture is what makes it easy to browse venues, plan events and explore what each offers.
Found on Google, venue by venue
Most guests meet a venue in search and maps before they reach its website. Each venue gets its own indexable page with its hours, menu, booking link and function enquiry, marked up as a Restaurant or LocalBusiness so Google can read them. Menus go on the page rather than in a PDF. Booking through Google itself comes from the booking provider, since Reserve with Google works through certified partners such as SevenRooms and OpenTable.
Booking, ordering and functions, handed off cleanly
Guests book through a reservations platform such as SevenRooms or Now Book It, order through an order-and-pay system, buy tickets through a ticketing system and send function enquiries into a sales tool such as Tripleseat or iVvy. The website should hand them to those systems cleanly rather than rebuild them. Hay St Market launched on a custom Laravel and Next.js site, integration-ready for Chewzie, SwiftPOS and Ticket Booth. More on what to buy and what to own in ticketing.
From enquiry to event
Function and wedding venues sell through enquiries, not carts. Doltone House moved from a slow, outdated site to a high-performing WordPress platform with intuitive navigation, streamlined enquiries and room for each venue to tell its own story, with event ticketing running through WooCommerce.
Members apps and gate entry
For a members club the app is the front door. We rebuilt the Sporting Club of Sydney app in React Native for Venues NSW: QR entry at gym and stadium gates, membership cards in the phone's wallet, and live and historical gym busyness from the venues' occupancy monitoring.
Booking systems for the venue itself
Some venues outgrow off-the-shelf booking. Booka, the booking and event platform we built, now runs every stadium in the Venues NSW network, with provisional holds, conflict detection across spaces, approvals and an audit trail. It is available to license for other venues.
Built for the busy hour
Hospitality traffic is uneven: quiet midweek, then everyone at once for a launch, a long weekend or a sell-out event. Merivale runs a high-traffic platform serving dozens of venues, and our work there spans performance tuning and infrastructure as much as design, because the site has to stay fast when it matters most.
Support that is a partnership
Merivale came to us when its previous digital partner could not deliver the consistency a multi-venue platform needs. Today we build and run the platform: maintenance, performance, integrations across its booking software and CRM tools, and new features. We also support Doltone Hospitality Group on an ongoing basis. How a takeover starts.
One group, many sites
Venue groups rarely have one website. For Doltone Hospitality Group we have delivered websites across its venue portfolio, including Hay St Market, Midden and LUA Fish Market, alongside Doltone House itself. A shared approach across a portfolio keeps each venue distinct while keeping the group maintainable.
The proof
Work we have shipped, not a capability deck.
- Merivale We built and run the Merivale website, a high-traffic platform serving dozens of venues: performance, booking and CRM integrations, new features and hosting. Read the case study
- Booka for Venues NSW The booking and event platform every stadium in the Venues NSW network runs on: provisional holds, conflict detection, approvals and an audit trail. Read the case study
- Sporting Club of Sydney The members app for Venues NSW's members club, rebuilt in React Native with QR gate entry, wallet membership cards and live gym busyness. Read the case study
- Doltone House A customised WordPress rebuild for Doltone Hospitality Group's function venues: venue discovery, streamlined enquiries and WooCommerce event ticketing, with ongoing support. Read the case study
- The Boathouse Group A Laravel and Next.js rebuild with New Republique across dining, events and retail venues, focused on the guest journey, page speed and internal tool integration. Read the case study
- Hay St Market Laravel and Next.js for Doltone Hospitality Group's Sydney food and beverage precinct, integration-ready for Chewzie, SwiftPOS and Ticket Booth, built to carry a launch. Read the case study
Common questions
Can you integrate our booking, ordering and ticketing systems?
Yes, and integrating is usually better than replacing them. Hay St Market was built integration-ready for Chewzie, SwiftPOS and Ticket Booth, Doltone House runs event ticketing through WooCommerce, and for Merivale we work across its booking software and CRM tools. The website should hand guests to those systems cleanly rather than rebuild what they already do.
Can you support a site another agency built?
Yes. That is how the Merivale engagement started: we took over the full support contract from a previous digital partner for a high-traffic platform spanning dozens of venues, stabilised it, and moved on to performance work, integrations and new features. When a platform arrives from someone else, the first job is an audit, not a rebuild. See project rescue for how a takeover starts.
WordPress or a custom build for a hospitality site?
It depends on what the site has to do. Doltone House runs on WordPress, which suits a venue group whose team publishes venues, events and campaigns themselves. Hay St Market and Boathouse Group are Laravel and Next.js, because ordering, ticketing and backend integrations needed more than a content site. We recommend the lighter option when it will do.
Do you work with hospitality groups outside Sydney?
Our head office is in Sydney and we work with clients across Australia (Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and regional NSW included) as well as in New Zealand, where the duty free stores across the major airports have run on a platform we build and support since 2021. Delivery has been remote-first for years, so a project runs the same way whether you are ten minutes away or across the Tasman: scheduled calls, a shared board you can see at any time, and one named point of contact. We are happy to meet in person in Sydney.
Trusted by
“We partnered with Shakewell in 2024 to help improve and maintain our website technology. The team are friendly, diligent and routinely demonstrate a breadth of technical understanding that is hard to find. Their support has put us in a much stronger position to scale and enhance our web presence.”
Aidan Arentz
Digital Product Owner of Merivale
“Collaborating with Shakewell Agency on the Sporting Club of Sydney members app has been a pleasure. Michael and his team came on board at short notice and very quickly responded to our business needs to deliver an improved solution for members and their guests.
No task has been too big or too small, their proactive approach, clear communication, and passion for the work have meaningfully enhanced the digital experience. Their expertise is driving us forward with more robust and scalable solutions.
It’s rare to find an agency partner so deeply invested in our success. It’s a pleasure working with the Shakewell Agency team, and I’m excited to continue improving our solutions together in the future.”
Ryan Selvage
Digital Experience Manager of Venues NSW
Engagement models
How we work
Four straightforward ways to engage us. Pick the one that fits, or mix them as your needs change.
Staff Augmentation
Add experienced Shakewell developers, designers or specialists directly to your own team. Engagements typically run three to twelve months, but can be as short or long as you need, you get the skills without the commitment and cost of hiring full-time.
About staff augmentationFixed-Scope Projects
Have a defined outcome in mind? We scope it, price it and deliver it as a project, a clear timeline, agreed milestones and a single point of accountability from kickoff to handover.
Embedded Delivery Teams
For larger or longer-running work, a cross-functional Shakewell team (development, design and delivery management) plugs in as your delivery arm, working to your priorities and your reporting cadence.
Support & Maintenance
Already live? We keep websites, stores and apps secure, updated and performing through ongoing retainers, business-hours support as standard, with 24/7 coverage available for critical issues.
About support & maintenance