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Mai Trinh
ENVI
In progressActive development and stabilization

Booking & Staff Operations System Stabilization

Investigating and stabilizing an inherited booking/staff-operations system while keeping Google Sheets as an explicit constraint.

Role
Freelance developer — investigation, stabilization & active development
Platform
Web, Telegram bot
Client
Confidential client

Project overview

The problem
The client already had an operational system for room booking and staff operations — built substantially with AI-assisted tooling — that wasn't stable enough for their intended workflow, and needed to be assessed and stabilized rather than replaced.
What they wanted
A technical assessment and stabilization of the existing system, while keeping Google Sheets as the primary operational datastore — not a full rebuild.
Where they started
An inherited operational system spanning Google Sheets, Google Apps Script, a Telegram bot, and staff-facing web tooling, handling room booking and staff operations.

My role & contributions

What I found
Investigated the existing Google Sheets data model, Apps Script backend logic, Telegram Bot integration, and the staff web application; traced booking and operational workflows and tested against real operational data to identify concrete points of unreliability.
Proposed solution
A stabilization-first plan: work within the existing Google Sheets + Apps Script + Telegram + web architecture rather than proposing a rewrite, applying contained fixes to the specific failure points found during investigation.
Agreed scope
Stabilization of booking-data handling, Telegram integration, and booking-message parsing within the existing architecture, without migrating away from Google Sheets.
Out of scope
Broader production-hardening items raised during the investigation — a dedicated DEV/PROD environment split, a Cloudflare Worker, token rotation, a shared-secret security layer, and a formal automated test harness — remain proposed, not part of the confirmed active work, unless separately confirmed.

Challenges & solutions

  1. Challenges

    Diagnosing and fixing concrete reliability issues in a system already relied on for real bookings and staff operations, without disrupting the client's day-to-day use of it.

    Key decisions

    Prioritized contained, verifiable fixes (booking-data handling, Telegram integration behavior, booking-message parsing) over a rewrite, consistent with the client's explicit requirement to keep Google Sheets as the operational datastore.

    Outcome

    The client agreed to proceed and made a first payment installment; development is actively underway. As of this update, the team's own current-state estimate is that development is roughly 45–55% complete — a snapshot, not a precise measured metric. The specific commercial terms (exact amounts, payment schedule) are not published.

Architecture & technologies

Technologies

  • Google Sheets
  • Google Apps Script
  • JavaScript
  • HTML
  • Telegram Bot API
  • Webhooks
  • Netlify

This project demonstrates

  • Existing System Maintenance
  • Production Debugging
  • Third-Party Integration
  • Automation

Current progress

Approximately 45–55% through the current development scope — a current snapshot, not a precise measurement.

  1. System discovery

    Done

  2. Real-world validation

    Done

  3. Solution planning

    Done

  4. Scope & collaboration agreement

    Done

  5. Implementation

    In progress

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