Rebuilding a rental platform AI-first, client embedded

Turning Van der Linde Texel’s in-house rental platform into a modern, scalable foundation, while keeping the current platform alive.

A platform growing faster than its architecture

Van der Linde Texel built its own software to run its rental business. That software became Tilia, the fleet management platform for hospitality brands such as Landal, Europarcs, and RCN Holiday Parks. Bikes make up most of the rentals, but Tilia handles much more: boats, tools, a built-in fun and entertainment module, and karting.

Over the years, Tilia outgrew its architecture: a legacy codebase, little documentation, and an unclear scope. Van der Linde Texel needed a new foundation for growth. Founder Martijn van der Linde set the terms: fast, agile, and without burning budget. And the current platform had to stay alive throughout the rebuild, with bookings coming in every day for Tilia, its partners, and holiday parks.

Years of business logic, hidden in a legacy codebase

The biggest risk wasn’t the code we had to write. It was the code that had to be understood first. Pricing, availability, scheduling, and partner logic sat buried in the legacy codebase, barely documented. Together, we made the call: rebuild AI-first. AI would reverse-engineer the old platform into documentation, turn every idea and conversation into structured work, and scaffold the new platform. The old platform would keep handling every booking until the new one took over.

A new rental platform, built while the old one stayed live

Within 12 months, we rebuilt the Tilia backend from the ground up, AI-orchestrated, alongside Van der Linde Texel's own team.

The client ran its own autonomous AI development team, with OpenHands agents picking up Jira tickets. They vibecoded the frontend themselves, with our support where needed, and used AI to turn meetings, recordings, and ideas into tickets. We owned the architecture and the production bar, and reviewed every backend change. AI set the pace, people made the calls.

What was delivered on the experience side:

• A new self-service and partner portal that gives partners and holiday parks direct control over orders, rentals, and tasks
• Rental webshops on the platform, with a step-by-step booking flow
• An AI-powered input funnel that turns meetings, recordings, and ideas into structured tickets, shortening the loop from idea to working software

On the tech side, we developed the following:

• A cloud-native, containerized architecture that scales dynamically with demand
• A middleware layer connecting the search index, CMS, and personalized user features into one performant system
• A separate editorial CMS layer for imagery, introductions, and curated collections, so editors can enrich the experience without ever touching the archive’s original source data
• Per-item rights metadata enforced throughout the platform, determining whether content can be viewed, embedded, or restricted
• Early prototypes and real-data testing validated with users, including people with visual and auditory impairments, low literacy levels, and limited digital experience

A new foundation, and a new way to build on it

Tilia stayed live throughout the rebuild. The old platform kept running while the new one was built. The new Tilia went live in Q1 2026, starting with Van der Linde Texel's own businesses.

Van der Linde Texel now runs on a foundation built from the ground up, ready for more resource types, partners, and holiday parks. Working AI-first made backend development 45% more efficient on average, and up to 80% faster on good days. Delivery is faster, feedback loops are shorter, and the collaboration is different: the founder prototypes frontends himself, agents pick up tickets, and engineers spend their time where it counts, on complex business logic and code quality.