Sector(s)

Project Team

  • Client: Best Deal Car Hire
  • Design & Development Partner: JAVALI

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Organizations Involved

Community contributions

This project reflects JAVALI’s ongoing commitment to building with Drupal in a way that combines real business needs with reusable technical expertise.

The work carried out for Best Deal Car Hire builds on JAVALI’s broader experience in developing Drupal solutions for demanding operational contexts, including payment integrations and sector-specific digital products. By applying Drupal in a structured, scalable and business-oriented way, the project reinforces the value of open-source technologies in mission-critical digital platforms.

It also demonstrates how specialized product development — such as JAVALI CHS — can extend Drupal’s relevance into vertical markets while preserving flexibility, maintainability and long-term sustainability.

Best Deal Car Hire is a well-established car rental company based in Algarve, Portugal, operating since 1994. With strategic locations near Faro Airport, Quarteira and Albufeira, the company has built a strong reputation for convenience, service quality and customer trust.
As a long-standing player in a competitive market, Best Deal Car Hire needed a digital platform capable of supporting both its brand presence and its operational requirements, while delivering a smooth and reliable booking experience to customers.

About the project

Goals

The main goal of the project was to modernize Best Deal Car Hire’s digital platform and align it more closely with the company’s operational and commercial needs.

The project aimed to:

  • upgrade the platform from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11;
  • improve the booking journey and overall user experience;
  • integrate secure online payments through SIBS;
  • enhance platform performance and usability;
  • introduce new business rules to improve operational control.

Requirements

To achieve these goals, the platform needed to support both customer-facing and operational requirements. These included:

  • a full migration to a current and supported Drupal version;
  • a more intuitive and streamlined reservation flow;
  • secure credit card payment integration;
  • improved interface clarity and responsiveness across devices;
  • the implementation of booking restrictions for reservations made less than 24 hours in advance;
  • a maintainable technical foundation capable of supporting future growth.

Outcome

JAVALI delivered a fully updated platform based on JAVALI CHS and upgraded to Drupal 11, providing Best Deal Car Hire with a more robust, efficient and future-ready digital solution.

The final outcome included:

  • a complete migration from Drupal 7 to Drupal 11;
  • integration with SIBS for credit card payments;
  • UX/UI improvements across the booking experience;
  • performance optimization for a faster and more consistent experience;
  • enhanced business management features, including the restriction of bookings with less than 24 hours’ notice.

The result is a platform that better supports the business reality of the client, improves the customer experience and creates a stronger base for long-term digital evolution.

Technical specifications

  • CMS: Drupal 11
  • Previous version: Drupal 7
  • Solution base: JAVALI CHS
  • Project type: Corporate website and online car rental booking platform
  • Payment integration: SIBS credit card payments
  • Main improvements:
    • Full Drupal core migration
    • UX/UI enhancements
    • Performance optimization
    • Booking flow improvements
    • Business rule implementation for reservation restrictions
  • Focus areas: Security, scalability, usability, operational alignment and long-term maintainability 

Why Drupal was chosen

Drupal was chosen for its flexibility, scalability and ability to support complex business requirements within a robust and secure framework.
For this project, Drupal was particularly well suited because it allows:

  • the integration of institutional content and business-critical booking functionality within the same platform;
  • the implementation of custom business rules tailored to the client’s operational model;
  • long-term maintainability and future evolution;
  • strong performance, security and stability;
  • seamless integration with third-party services such as payment systems.

The project was built on JAVALI CHS, JAVALI’s proprietary Drupal-based solution developed specifically for car rental companies. This sector-focused product combines a corporate website and an online vehicle booking system in a single solution, providing a strong foundation for faster implementation and business-specific customization.
 

Screenshot of Best Deal's Drupal 11 platform developed by JAVALI

Technical Specifications

Drupal version:

screenshots of Best Deal CHS platform