HelloHost

Overview

HelloHost is a conversational AI product for short-term rental hosts, designed to automatically handle guest inquiries across booking platforms. Vishaal was brought on as a back-end contractor to design and build the core system under a tight deadline, with the goal of getting real users onto the product before an upcoming industry conference.

Context

At the time of the engagement, HelloHost was pre-revenue and preparing for a major conference just four weeks away. The team needed a working beta—something hosts could actually use—not a prototype or demo.

The team consisted of:

• • Founder / CEO (product)
• • CTO (AI engineering)
• • One front-end engineer
• • Back-end engineer (contract)

Without a live system, the company would have had nothing concrete to show at the conference.

The problem

The team needed a reliable back-end foundation that could:

• • integrate with multiple booking platforms
• • keep listings, bookings, and availability in sync
• • handle real guest inquiries through native platform messaging
• • provide enough structured context for the AI layer to respond accurately

All of this had to be delivered quickly, without creating technical debt that would slow the product down after the conference.

Role

Role: back-end contractor. Ownership: back end end-to-end.

This included:

• • system architecture and database schema design
• • integrations with booking platforms
• • syncing listings, bookings, and availability
• • handling guest inquiries across platform messaging systems
• • building clean interfaces for the front end and AI layer

The AI logic itself was handled by the CTO; everything else on the back end was owned by the back-end contractor.

Approach

Given the fixed timeline, the focus was on shipping the core flows first and deliberately cutting anything non-essential.

Priorities:

• • authentication and account setup
• • initial and ongoing sync of listings and bookings
• • reliable availability tracking
• • essential admin controls (enabling/disabling listings, enriching listing data)
• • routing guest inquiries with enough context for the AI to respond effectively

More advanced admin features were intentionally deferred. The core system needed to support real usage so the AI could learn from live conversations. This kept scope tight while ensuring the product could function in production.

Outcome

Within six weeks:

• • HelloHost went from idea to live beta users
• • 2–5 hosts were onboarded, each managing multiple listings
• • The AI was handling real guest inquiries across booking platforms
• • The team had a working product to demo at a major industry conference

The system enabled the company to onboard customers, gather real feedback, and move toward early revenue instead of relying on assumptions. The engagement concluded with a clean handover and documentation, allowing a newly hired back-end engineer to continue development without rework.

Why this mattered

This project demonstrates operating under pressure:

• • prioritizing system integrity over surface-level features
• • making deliberate tradeoffs to hit immovable deadlines
• • building foundations that other engineers can extend, not replace

Prior working relationship with the founder helped accelerate trust and execution during a make-or-break phase.

What this proves

This engagement demonstrates operating when the timeline is fixed and the stakes are high:

• • ownership of core systems, not just tickets
• • production-ready foundations over surface-level features
• • deliberate scope tradeoffs to meet immovable deadlines
• • systems that other engineers can extend, not rewrite

Most importantly, it demonstrates the ability to take a product from zero to real users quickly — creating momentum when there isn't time for iteration or rework.

Result: The core back-end system was designed, built, and shipped end-to-end in under six weeks, taking the product from zero to real users in time for a make-or-break conference.