🚀 Building Tripzy – A Flask + SQLAlchemy Intercity Booking Platform

August 9, 2025

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Shamsuddin Hamdule

Building Tripzy – A Flask + SQLAlchemy Intercity Booking Platform
Introduction
As part of a recent project at SE Software and Web Developers, We built Tripzy, a web-based travel booking platform designed to connect small towns with major cities.

The goal was to create a seat-based and full-vehicle booking system that’s easy to use for travelers, vehicle owners, and administrators — all from a single responsive web app.

Tech Stack
Backend: Python Flask

ORM: Flask SQLAlchemy

Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap 5

Database: SQLite (development)

Hosting (Dev): Replit (temporary)

Core Features
For Travelers
Browse available rides

Book individual seats or entire vehicles

For Vehicle Owners
Post vehicle availability

Accept & manage bookings

For Admins
Manage users and rides

Monitor platform activity

UI/UX Overview
The platform has:

Hero section highlighting the service

“How it Works” step-by-step visual cards

Mobile-first responsive layout using Bootstrap

Development Approach
Database Design

Models for Users, Rides, and Bookings

Relationships managed via Flask SQLAlchemy

Used SQLite for quick development

Routes & Blueprints

Organized app routes for admin, owner, and customer dashboards

Template Rendering

Jinja2 templates for dynamic content

Reusable components for cards, forms, and navigation

Responsive UI

Bootstrap grid system for flexibility

Hover effects and animations for better interactivity

Challenges Faced
Client-side vs Server-side Validation: Had to ensure form validation both in the browser and backend for security.

Data Model Relationships: Getting SQLAlchemy relationships right for booking logic took some planning.

Live Preview on Replit: The public preview link doesn’t stay live without the project running, so I relied on screenshots for demos.

Current Status & Next Steps
The project is complete and in staging mode — pending final payment and deployment. Next steps include:

Deploying to a cloud platform Replit

Final Thoughts
Tripzy was a fun project to work on — a blend of real-world transportation needs and modern web development practices. It also showed the value of rapid prototyping with Flask + SQLAlchemy for startups and small businesses.