padi

PADI Travel

The US-based world’s #1 booking platform for scuba divers and diving businesses.
padi
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5M
Products listed on the platform
200K
Users around the world
800
B2B partners
40+
Countries covered
How we started

In 2012, we were reached by Diviac — a Swiss startup aiming to build a logbook solution for scuba divers. The product was originally intended to cover logging and tracking diving activities, advise trips, and provide information about specific dive sites and locations. Diviac hired Django Stars as a technology partner aimed to cover the entire product development.

In the first stage, we focused on 3 core objectives:
  • Assist Diviac through the product design
  • Clean, prepare and migrate the data
  • Build a logbook product for scuba divers
1.4M
raised in funding
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Acquired by PADI in 2018
Location
United States
Industry
Travel
Services
Software Product Development
Partnership
Since 2012
Team size
10-15 Engineers
Why PADI Travel chose us

When we started our cooperation in 2012, Diviac had a business strategy and conceptual design but lacked the technical expertise to build the product from scratch. Diviac Logbook works with dive computers, includes a comprehensive marine database, and introduces advanced reporting and social features — and our ability to tie the rich functionality within an easy-to-use solution was the reason Diviac chose us.

PADI acquired Diviac in 2018, and we started working on the new PADI Travel platform together. With 6 years of experience designing Diviac, the obtained knowledge in travel and scuba diving booking, and technical expertise, we were the most suitable partner to help PADI evolve.

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Molo Molo

PADI Travel acquired Diviac Logbook which we developed from scratch and partnered with us because of the industry knowledge and technical expertise we bring to empower PADI’s evolution.

PADI has not only kept the Django Stars team after the acquisition, they have now declared it a strategic partner and has them involved in building software solutions outside of PADI Travel.

5.0
Joel Perrenoud

Joel Perrenoud

Chief Product & Digital Officer, PADI

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Long-term business objectives

After acquiring Diviac, PADI rebranded it to PADI Travel and focused on providing best-in-class digital experiences for dive travel.

We aimed to bring together Diviac’s outstanding digital platform and resources, knowledge, and business advantages that PADI introduced as the world’s largest divers organization. With such a combination, PADI Travel managed to successfully cover booking, shopping, planning, guidance, and cooperation with local businesses.

Together, we’ve designed an advanced service that enjoys enormous popularity among divers, and now focus on several long-term business objectives:
  • Build an all-in-one travel & booking platform
  • Strengthen a B2B presence across the globe
  • Become a world leader in scuba diving booking
Fueling the transformation
Across the years of our partnership, Diviac turned from an idea into an advanced solution acquired by a world-leading organization.

We were there for Diviac to build the logbook app and stayed with PADI Travel since the very first day of acquisition to help it transform into the #1 booking platform for divers in the world. At the most intense stages, we expanded our team to two development squads and reduced it when it was time to slow down.

Together, we’ve been through the MVP stage uncertainties, startup growth, acquisition, and integration with the large organization — and today we keep empowering PADI Travel as the world’s #1 booking platform for scuba divers.

Partners since 2012
Services Delivered
Product Design , Software Architecture , Web Development , Quality Assurance , Support And Maintenance , Cloud & DevOps
team Composition
4 Backend engineers, 3 Frontend engineers, 3 QA engineers, 1 Product designer, 1 Project manager
team Leaders
Alexander Bulanov , Artem Khalygov
Technology Stack
logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo
solutions

What makes PADI Travel a world leader.

One-stop booking solution

PADI Travel provides an all-around solution for scuba divers to search, shop, and get all the information about liveaboards, resorts, locations, dive courses, and more.

PADI Travel platform guides divers through the entire trip experience and introduces multiple features that help travelers personalize their journeys. From advanced filtering that allows users to sort travel products by price, location, meal plan, services for divers, and animal-seeing options, to advanced dive guides and multi-layer maps, PADI Travel covers any question a scuba diver might have. To shape complete, rich experiences, we’ve designed:

  • High-load booking mechanism with niche-specific features for B2B and B2C
  • Location-based mobile app to guide and navigate users during their trips
  • Travel guides feature to get travelers fully prepared for their journeys
Scuba divers-tailored shopping

Scuba divers usually plan trips ahead — for instance, booking a trip a year before is a regular thing, — so they always know what they want from their journey. To meet the audience specifics, we’ve designed a fully-custom shopping mechanism — it allows booking exactly the rooms users want, paying by milestones, and works with 100+ currencies.

The platform we designed covers both the needs of beginners and experienced scuba divers, providing a rich, detailed choice of options like routes, departure harbors, marine life types, facilities, gear, amenities, experience levels, diving intensity, and more.

Global and inclusive B2B platform

PADI Travel integrates closely with diving centers, resorts, and local service providers, and we made it possible by creating a PADI Business platform. It allows businesses of any size to join the platform seamlessly, list their products and services, manage dates and prices, and get customers. We’ve set up a seamless integration for business and affiliate partners, introduced automation to the process, and empowered PADI Travel to manage their B2B efforts in a time-efficient manner.

Today, PADI Business operates across 40+ countries and has more than 800 partners, unifying millions of products and services under one roof

PADI Travel is the ultimate B2B solution and the only platform that allows for a truly flexible dive center configuration: our partners can manage work hours and seasons, create travel products easily, and use widgets we provide to attract more customers.
Artem Khalygov

Artem Khalygov

Team Lead

features
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High-load booking engine
To provide users with a seamless experience across searching and booking the trip.
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Advanced filtering system
To provide both beginners and professional divers with the ability to configure exactly the trip they look for.
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Calendar and notifications
To help users with planning, inform them of time-limited deals, and provide details on their bookings instantly.
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Payment management system
To manage payments in different currencies and from multiple cards, employ payment by milestones, and integrate with multiple payment providers.
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Location-based mobile application
To provide travelers with timely, accurate, and relevant information on resorts and services during their trips.
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A system for travel agents
To equip them with advanced dashboards and provide sophisticated analytics on the performance of their products.
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Admin CRM System
To handle all the necessary operations and keep track of contacts and deals.
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PADI Travel dive guides
To provide users with comprehensive information on location or country specifics, the ability to meet certain animal species, and more.
Learn more about our travel & booking expertise
Contact us
testimonials

Django Stars' platforms gained over 75K users and made the company one of the leading travel agencies worldwide.

5.0
More Travel cases More US cases
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