GateGenie

Inspiration

During discussions with the London Gatwick team, we learned that passengers spend a significant amount of time waiting at the gate before boarding. In most cases, this time is unproductive — passengers scroll on their phones or sit idle.We saw this as an opportunity to transform passive waiting time into something engaging, personalised, and commercially valuable for both passengers and the airport.

What It Does

GateGenie is a QR-based web application that passengers scan at the gate before boarding. Once inside, users select what they are interested in — not based on age, but based on intent. Categories include: *Nightlife *Luxury experiences *Family-friendly activities *Relaxation *Practical help (transport, safety, essentials) *Food

Using the destination and the selected category, GateGenie generates personalised recommendations in real time. For example: *A user selecting Nightlife sees clubs, bars, and social venues. *A user selecting Luxury sees premium hotels, high-end shopping, and fine dining. *A user selecting Practical Help receives transport options such as taxi services, pharmacies, or essential travel information.

The system dynamically pulls real locations and attractions, ensuring recommendations are relevant and location-specific.Additionally, passengers can pre-order in-flight snacks, drinks, perfumes, and duty-free items before boarding. Instead of relying on the seat-back booklet, passengers place orders directly through the app, and items are delivered to their seat during the flight.

How It Generates Revenue

*GateGenie unlocks multiple commercial channels: *Sponsored restaurant and attraction placements *Promoted nightlife and luxury venue features *Travel and return-flight partnerships *Taxi and airport transport integrations *Commission on in-flight pre-orders *Data-driven category targeting for advertisers

Because users explicitly select their interests, Gatwick can provide highly targeted recommendations while increasing engagement and monetisation opportunities.

How We Built It

GateGenie is built as a full-stack web application accessed via QR code. Frontend: *Built with a modern web framework *Handles user input, category selection, and UI rendering *Displays dynamically generated recommendations *Integrates a pre-order shopping interface Backend: *Built using a server-side API architecture *Uses geolocation APIs to identify real destinations *Integrates OpenStreetMap (Overpass + Nominatim APIs) to fetch real restaurants, attractions, and venues *Uses AI (Gemini API) to intelligently rank and personalise recommendations *Applies category-based filtering logic to ensure accurate results *Includes commercial logic for sponsored placements and monetisation features

The system combines real-world data APIs with AI-driven ranking to create intelligent, personalised outputs in real time.

Challenges We Faced

One major challenge was ensuring the platform remained genuinely helpful rather than feeling overly promotional.

We needed to: *Balance commercial placements with user trust *Avoid irrelevant recommendations *Ensure categories returned distinct and accurate results *Handle API limitations and real-world data inconsistencies *Maintain performance while querying live location data *We also had to design a realistic, scalable solution within hackathon time constraints.

What We Learned

Through building GateGenie, we learned: *Personalisation dramatically increases engagement *Users respond better when they choose their intent rather than being segmented by demographics *Commercial value must be subtle and context-aware *AI is most powerful when combined with structured real-world APIs *Building scalable systems requires balancing user experience, data accuracy, and monetisation

We learned how to: *Integrate multiple external APIs *Structure category-based filtering logic *Combine geospatial data with AI ranking *Build a production-style backend within a short timeframe

Built With

• css
• gemeniapi
• html
• next.js
• node.js
• nominatim
• openstreetmap
• overpass-openstreetmap
• react
• restful
• typescript