Virgin Tickets UAE

Customers need to find events before they can book them. I built an event catalog with search, category filtering, and date-based navigation. Each event page shows descriptions, venue details, available dates, and pricing tiers. The admin panel lets staff create and manage events with rich content — images, descriptions, and seat maps — without touching code. Next.js server-rendered pages ensure fast initial loads and good SEO for event discovery.

The hardest technical problem was real-time seat availability. Two customers browsing the same event could see the same seat — the first to check out wins. I used Laravel’s database transaction locking with PostgreSQL’s row-level locking to prevent double-bookings. The seat map renders as an interactive SVG grid where customers click to select seats, see prices, and get instant visual feedback.

Initially I tried polling seat state every few seconds, but the database load grew linearly with concurrent users. I added Redis caching with a short TTL for seat availability reads — the cache serves seat map views without touching PostgreSQL, and writes go directly to the database with row-level locking. This cut database load by about 70% during peak traffic.

The checkout flow handles multi-ticket purchases, promo codes, Stripe payment processing, and booking confirmation emails. After payment, tickets are locked to the customer with a booking reference. The workflow includes cancellation handling with configurable refund policies. Booking history lets customers view and manage their tickets without contacting store staff.