Flagship live product
HostelHack
An AI skill-for-stay marketplace that had to leave the whiteboard. Live at hostelhack.com with separate product and admin surfaces.
Problem
Nomads and hostels need different operating systems on the same marketplace. Auth, matching, and ops cannot be a single happy-path demo.
What was built
Next.js 15 product with Clerk, Supabase, Firebase, Gemini/OpenAI, Three.js globe, plus a companion HostelHackAdmin for operations.
Who used it
Nomads and hostel operators on the live marketplace at hostelhack.com.
Measurable results
- Live product
- hostelhack.com
- OS split
- NomadOS + HostelOS
- Matching
- AI-assisted
- Ops
- Separate admin app
The constraint
Nomads and hostels need different operating systems on the same marketplace. Auth, matching, and ops cannot be a single happy-path demo.
The decision
Next.js 15 product with Clerk, Supabase, Firebase, Gemini/OpenAI, and a Three.js globe as spatial presence. Companion HostelHackAdmin for operations.
Architecture evidence
- Public live product: hostelhack.com
- NomadOS and HostelOS workflows
- AI-assisted matching
- Separate admin app for operators
What I'd do differently
I would extract the matching pipeline into an explicit job queue earlier so AI retries and hostel capacity updates do not compete with request/response UX.
Related dossier entries: HostelHack.