StayDreamer

Tim Andrews | March 20, 2022, 3:08 p.m.

I wish this website was still around.  It was a beautiful website.  Unfortunately, StaySmarter, Inc. and the websites we built are no longer around.  

StaySmarter Inc. was founded by a group of innovative hotel insiders.  I was employee number one at StaySmarter and it was quite an exciting couple of years going through all the ups and downs associated with a startup.  Our main products were a hotel booking mobile app and website.  The StayDreamer.com product came about because of a tool that I had built to help with customer support.  That tool had the ability to browse our database of hotel images that our booking tools used.  I was often distracted by these images, and I would find myself wasting time browsing through the gorgeous pictures of luxury hotels. 

I mentioned my new obsession to my co-workers and we immediately realized we had the potential for a great product.  The only problem was that the small team of developers at StaySmarter had their hands full with the products that we already developing.  There was no one to build StayDreamer.  It was decided that if we were going to move forward with this product that I would have the build it myself.  The only problem was I wasn't a python programmer at the time, I was still using ASP Classic.  So, on a Friday afternoon I started working and by Monday Morning I had taught myself enough Python & Flask to have built a functioning prototype of StayDreamer.

StayDreamer.com was for the aspirational traveler planning their dream vacations.  It was designed to allow guests to browse and self-discover hotels from all over the country.  The interface was designed to put all the focus on the images.  All the site navigation, search tools and hotel information was displayed in models and sidebars that floated above the images.

Unfortunately the site is no longer around.  I must have saved some screen captures from the site.  If I find them I will add them to this post.