DiveRACE
A liveaboard dive operator drowning in booking paperwork. We built a custom WordPress booking platform with Stripe payments and automated follow-ups, then redesigned the site around their new flagship vessel.
Built a WordPress booking platform that takes deposits through Stripe, chases balance payments automatically and collects immigration details before boarding, then redesigned it in 2025 for a new flagship vessel.
What we were solving
DiveRACE has run liveaboard scuba trips since 2009, sailing groups of no more than 20 divers to the Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock in the Andaman Sea. Every booking carried a pile of admin. Deposits, balance payments, equipment rental, immigration paperwork, agency commissions and pre-trip briefings all fell on a small team.
The rules made it harder than a normal online shop. Payments reconcile into a Singapore bank account via Stripe but display in each visitor's local currency. The deposit logic changes with the calendar: a small deposit at booking with the balance due a set number of days before departure, or full payment upfront inside that window. Immigration details must be stored masked to the last four characters and deleted after six months under the company's retention policy. And 80% of traffic arrived on mobile.
Success meant direct and agency bookings completing online without a human in the loop, and the follow-up admin running itself.
How we tackled it
A booking engine inside WordPress
We built a custom theme with content types for vessels, itineraries, destinations, schedules and members. Guests browse a calendar-style trip schedule, pick their dates and cabin, and check out through a conditional form pre-filled with their selections. Stripe handles payment, priced in local currency from the visitor's IP. Trips close automatically once cabins fill, with a waiting list for full departures. Members and agencies each got a dashboard: members store their immigration and diving details and hold referral codes tied to trip credits, while approved agencies book for clients under their own codes with tiered commissions.
Automating the admin around every booking
Most of the work happens after checkout. We integrated ActiveCampaign and Zapier so the balance due date drives the email logic: confirmations, balance reminders at set intervals, and escalation when a payment goes overdue. Abandoned cart sequences nudge hesitant bookers. Thirty days out, guests get a full pre-trip briefing. After the trip, automated emails request testimonials and Google reviews, and referral and birthday credits bring past guests back. Booking and immigration data flows to Google Sheets for clearance paperwork.
A redesign for the new flagship
When DiveRACE commissioned a purpose-built vessel, MV DiveRACE Class X, the site needed to sell it. From late 2024 we redesigned the site around the new boat and a sharpened Thailand liveaboard focus, with rebuilt itinerary pages running from 5-day, 14-dive trips to a 7-day, 22-dive Andaman expedition, plus careers, coral restoration and scuba course content. The new site launched in late 2025 and moved straight onto our website care plan.
What we delivered
DiveRACE now takes deposits at the point of booking, and the payment chasing, pre-trip paperwork and review requests that once consumed the office run on their own. Guests see prices in their own currency and agencies book under their own codes without emailing the team. The same platform absorbed a new vessel and a repositioned brand without being rebuilt from scratch, and the redesigned site is on our care plan for the years ahead.
What we learned
Booking platforms live or die on their date logic. The balance due cut-off touched everything (checkout behaviour, email sequences, refund windows), so mapping those rules with the client before writing code mattered more than any design decision.
Automation belongs in the CRM as much as in the codebase. Building the sequences in ActiveCampaign rather than hard-coding them means DiveRACE can reword a reminder or add a follow-up without a developer. A content model built around vessels and itineraries paid off when Class X arrived: the site grew with the fleet.
Impact & outcomes
active users, up 68% year on year
