# Book the lakehouse – A beautiful OSS booking calendar for holiday homes

> Source: <https://github.com/shrimbly/book-the-lakehouse>
> Published: 2026-05-27 01:29:13+00:00

[MIT licensed](/shrimbly/book-the-lakehouse/blob/master/LICENSE) · built with Next.js, React, Drizzle, Neon, and Vercel Blob

A small app for sharing the family holiday home without turning the family chat into a booking tribunal: a private calendar with a shared PIN, optional stay costs, bank transfer details, photos from the trip, and just enough ceremony to keep everyone honest.

For families with a lakehouse, bach, cabin, cottage, or other beloved place that people take turns using.

- Pick your identity, then claim dates on a spacious month calendar.
- Edit and delete your own stays — no global admin powers required.
- Optional nightly costs, bank details, and a transfer prompt at booking time.
**Mary mode**— a quiet admin area where trusted users can tick off paid stays.- Profile and stay photos when Vercel Blob is configured.
- Runs locally with demo data before you connect Neon.
- Rename the place, people, footer, PIN, colors, and cookie prefix to suit your own family.
- Agent-friendly: hand the codebase to an AI assistant, or run
`/setup`

(or`npm run setup`

) to wire up database, storage, and family settings in one go.

Mary mode is named for my aunt Mary, who embodies the idea of an admin far better than the word "admin" ever could.

## btl-1.mp4

If you have an AI coding assistant, type `/setup`

in the chat. Otherwise run
the interactive wizard:

```
npm run setup
```

It checks the Vercel CLI, walks you through linking the Neon Postgres and Vercel Blob integrations, pulls the connection strings down for you, prompts for your family-specific settings (PIN, site title, nightly costs, bank details, admins), and runs the initial schema push and seed.

Once it finishes, you're good to go.

If you prefer to configure the application manually:

- Fork and clone this repo.
- Create a
[Vercel](https://vercel.com/pricing)project from your fork. The Hobby plan is a good starting point for personal use. - Add the
[Neon integration for Vercel](https://vercel.com/marketplace/neon). It creates the Postgres database and wires the database environment variables for you. Neon's Free plan is fine for getting started. - Add the
[Vercel Blob integration](https://vercel.com/docs/storage/vercel-blob)if you want profile photos and stay photos. Vercel handles the Blob environment variable too. - Add your app-specific settings from
`.env.example`

, especially`FAMILY_PIN`

and the`NEXT_PUBLIC_*`

display text. - Run
`npm run db:push`

once, then`npm run db:seed`

to add starter people and sample bookings.

That is the whole shape of it: Vercel runs the app, Neon keeps the calendar, and Blob stores the nice little photos.

For tinkering before deployment:

```
git clone https://github.com/shrimbly/book-the-lakehouse.git
cd book-the-lakehouse
npm install
cp .env.example .env.local
npm run dev
```

Open [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000).

With only `.env.example`

copied, the app can render with demo data. Add
`DATABASE_URL`

when you are ready for real bookings to stick around.

Create `.env.local`

in the project root:

Most of the database, Blob storage, and Vercel-specific values can be created for you by the Vercel Neon and Vercel Blob integrations. Once they exist in Vercel, pull them down locally with:

```
vercel env pull .env.local
```

Then add the app-specific bits, like `FAMILY_PIN`

, display text, Marys, and any
optional stay-cost details.

```
FAMILY_PIN=1234
DATABASE_URL=postgres://...
BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN=vercel_blob_rw_...

BOOKING_COST_PER_NIGHT=50
BOOKING_COST_CURRENCY=NZD
PAYMENT_ACCOUNT_NAME="Lakehouse Account"
PAYMENT_ACCOUNT_NUMBER="12-3456-7890123-00"
PAYMENT_REFERENCE="Lakehouse stay"
PAYMENT_NOTE="Please transfer after booking."
MARY_IDS=mary

NEXT_PUBLIC_HOME_NAME="Book the lakehouse"
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_DESCRIPTION="A private family booking calendar for the lakehouse."
NEXT_PUBLIC_FOOTER_TEXT="Book the lakehouse"
NEXT_PUBLIC_REPO_URL="https://github.com/shrimbly/book-the-lakehouse"
COOKIE_PREFIX=book-the-lakehouse
```

Only `FAMILY_PIN`

is needed for the PIN gate. `DATABASE_URL`

enables the real
database-backed calendar. `BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN`

enables photos.
`BOOKING_COST_PER_NIGHT`

turns on the cost and bank-transfer prompt.
`MARY_IDS`

is a comma-separated list of person IDs for Marys, the admin users
who can open `/mary`

and check off paid stays.

This project uses Drizzle with Neon Postgres.

```
npm run db:generate
npm run db:push
npm run db:seed
```

`src/lib/data.ts`

contains the starter people and bookings used by both demo
mode and `npm run db:seed`

. Swap them out for your own family, then seed again.

Run `npm run db:push`

after pulling changes that add Mary mode, because bookings
include a persisted `payment_settled`

checklist field.

Useful database commands:

```
npm run db:studio
```

| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
`src/app/` |
Next.js app route, metadata, and Server Actions. |
`src/app/mary/` |
Mary mode checklist view for tracking stay payments. |
`src/components/` |
Calendar, identity, PIN, photo, and month UI. |
`src/db/` |
Drizzle schema, client, queries, and seed script. |
`src/lib/site.ts` |
Reusable site branding and cookie configuration. |
`src/lib/data.ts` |
Demo and seed data for people and sample bookings. |

```
npm run dev          # Start the local Next.js dev server
npm run build        # Build for production
npm run start        # Run the production build
npm run lint         # Run ESLint
npm run db:generate  # Generate Drizzle migrations
npm run db:push      # Push schema changes to DATABASE_URL
npm run db:seed      # Seed people and bookings from src/lib/data.ts
```

| Tool | Why |
|---|---|
| Next.js 16 | App Router, Server Components, Server Actions, and metadata. |
| React 19 | Client interactions for picking, dragging, uploading, and editing. |
| Drizzle | Typed schema and query helpers for Postgres. |
| Neon | Serverless Postgres that deploys cleanly on Vercel. |
| Vercel Blob | Simple public image storage for profile and stay photos. |
| Tailwind CSS 4 | Quiet, responsive styling with a small custom palette. |

PRs are welcome, especially improvements that make the calendar easier for another family to adopt. Keep it small, private-by-default, and friendly to people who just want to book a weekend away without learning a new system.

MIT.