UniStay is a reservation, billing, and inventory management backend engine specifically designed for university student accommodations (hostels and lodges).

In university environments, off-campus housing is highly competitive and often suffers from double-bookings, manual payment validation errors, and listing mismanagement. UniStay solves this by acting as a real-time coordinator between students, landlords (agents), and payment gateways. https://unistayapi.ucsi.org.ng/

Unlike standard hotel bookings where entire rooms are reserved, student housing often books by the bed/slot within shared rooms.

  1. A room in a lodge has a defined maximum_slots (e.g., 4 students to a room).
  2. UniStay tracks slot availability in real time: occupied_slots (confirmed students) and pending_slots (temporary holds).
  3. This inventory check guarantees that a landlord never accidentally rents the same bed space to multiple students.


UniStay integrates with Paystack (a popular African payment gateway supporting bank transfers, mobile money, and cards) to automate housing deposits.

  1. It calculates prices dynamically: charging a priceFirstTime fee (which typically includes one-off registration/caution deposits) for new tenants, and a priceAnnual rate for returning students.
  2. It updates booking statuses immediately upon receipt of secure payment webhooks.


Automatic Recovery of Abandoned Bookings (TTL Release)

When a student starts the checkout process, the system puts a temporary lock on that room's slot. If the student changes their mind, closes the browser, or has a failed card transaction, the slot shouldn't remain locked forever.

  1. A background cron scheduler runs constantly.
  2. If a pending reservation reaches its Time-To-Live (TTL) expiry, the scheduler automatically releases the slot (Pending_Slot is decremented) and marks the booking as Inactive so other students can rent it.


NEXT FOR UNISTAY.

Developer-facing API platform (offering Accommodation-as-a-Service).

Turning UniStay into a developer-facing API platform (offering Accommodation-as-a-Service) is a great way to scale. Other developers, university IT departments, or property management startups can build custom frontends, sync property listings, or embed payment pipelines on top of your engine.

....Coming Soon