🏡 StayScape

Discover places worth staying.

StayScape is a full-stack travel and accommodation platform where users can discover beautiful stays, search and filter properties, save favorites, view detailed listings, write reviews, and create their own stays.

The project is built with Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, EJS, and Cloudinary, with a strong focus on clean UI, authentication, image management, security, and practical full-stack functionality.

🌐 Project

GitHub:
https://github.com/kunal-sonawane/StayScape

Live Demo:
Coming soon

✨ Features

🏠 Explore Stays

Browse available stays
Beautiful responsive listing cards
View detailed property information
Explore different stay categories
Location and country information
Price per night
Responsive design for desktop, tablet, and mobile

🔎 Search & Filtering

Search stays by:

Title
Location
Country

Filter by:

Category
Minimum price
Maximum price

Sort by:

Price: Low to High
Price: High to Low

Includes pagination for a better browsing experience.

❤️ Favorites

Authenticated users can:

Save favorite stays
Remove saved stays
View their saved properties
Manage favorites from their account

👤 Authentication

StayScape includes:

User registration
Login
Logout
Session-based authentication
Protected routes
User-specific listings
User-specific favorites
Secure password handling

🏡 Create & Manage Stays

Authenticated users can create their own listings with:

Property title
Description
Location
Country
Price
Category
Multiple property images

Listing owners can also manage their own listings.

☁️ Cloudinary Image Management

StayScape uses Cloudinary for property image storage.

Features include:

Multiple image uploads
Cloud-based image storage
Image optimization
Image delivery through Cloudinary
Image management when listings are updated or removed

⭐ Reviews

Users can:

Add reviews to listings
View reviews
Manage their own reviews
Provide ratings for stays

🗺️ Location & Maps

StayScape includes location functionality using:

Leaflet
OpenStreetMap
Location coordinates
Interactive property locations

🛡️ Security

The application includes:

Protected routes
Authentication middleware
CSRF protection
Input sanitization
Secure session handling
Security headers
Rate limiting
Environment variables for secrets
Centralized error handling
Safe production error responses

🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

HTML5
CSS3
JavaScript
EJS

Backend

Node.js
Express.js

Database

MongoDB
Mongoose

Image Management

Cloudinary

Maps

Leaflet
OpenStreetMap

Security

Express sessions
Password hashing
CSRF protection
Input sanitization
Rate limiting
Security headers

Development

Git
GitHub
VS Code
npm

Deployment

Docker
Render configuration

🏗️ Project Structure

StayScape/
│
├── app.js
├── package.json
├── package-lock.json
├── Dockerfile
├── Procfile
├── render.yaml
├── SECURITY.md
├── README.md
│
├── models/
│   ├── listing.js
│   ├── user.js
│   └── review.js
│
├── middleware/
│   └── ...
│
├── utils/
│   └── ...
│
├── views/
│   ├── listings/
│   ├── partials/
│   └── ...
│
├── public/
│   ├── css/
│   ├── js/
│   └── images/
│
├── tests/
├── docs/
├── init/
│
└── Screenshots of project/

🔄 Application Architecture

                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │      User        │
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │
                             ▼
                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │  StayScape UI    │
                    │   EJS + CSS + JS │
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │
                             ▼
                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │   Express.js     │
                    │     Server       │
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │
             ┌───────────────┼────────────────┐
             │               │                │
             ▼               ▼                ▼
       Authentication    Listings        Favorites
             │               │                │
             └───────────────┼────────────────┘
                             │
                             ▼
                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │     MongoDB      │
                    │    + Mongoose    │
                    └──────────────────┘

Property Images
       │
       ▼
  ┌─────────────┐
  │  Cloudinary │
  └─────────────┘

📸 Screenshots

The project screenshots are available in:

Screenshots of project/

The screenshots showcase:

🏠 StayScape homepage
🏡 Explore stays
🔎 Search and filtering
📄 Listing details
➕ Create a stay
☁️ Cloudinary image uploads
❤️ Favorites
🔐 Login and registration
👨‍💻 Developer section
📱 Responsive interface

⚙️ Getting Started

Prerequisites

Make sure you have installed:

Node.js
npm
MongoDB / MongoDB Atlas
Cloudinary account

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/kunal-sonawane/StayScape.git

2. Open the project

cd StayScape

3. Install dependencies

npm install

4. Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in the project root.

Example:

MONGO_URL=your_mongodb_connection_string
PORT=8080
SESSION_SECRET=your_session_secret

CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret

⚠️ Never commit your .env file or expose your MongoDB and Cloudinary credentials.

5. Seed sample data

npm run seed

6. Start the application

npm start

Open:

http://localhost:8080

☁️ Cloudinary Image Flow

StayScape uses Cloudinary to store property images.

User selects images
        │
        ▼
StayScape Server
        │
        ▼
Cloudinary
        │
        ▼
Image URL
        │
        ▼
MongoDB
        │
        ▼
StayScape Listing

This keeps image storage separate from the application server and provides reliable cloud-based image delivery.

🔐 Environment Variables

Sensitive configuration is stored outside the source code.

The application uses environment variables for:

MongoDB connection
Session secret
Cloudinary Cloud Name
Cloudinary API Key
Cloudinary API Secret
Application configuration

The .env file is excluded from Git using .gitignore.

🧪 Testing

Automated tests are included in the project.

Run:

npm test

🚀 Deployment

StayScape includes deployment configuration for cloud hosting.

Deployment-related files include:

Dockerfile
Procfile
render.yaml

The application can be deployed to a Node.js-compatible hosting platform such as Render.

📚 What I Learned

Building StayScape helped strengthen my practical understanding of:

Node.js backend development
Express.js
MongoDB and Mongoose
EJS templating
Authentication and authorization
Session management
CRUD operations
Cloudinary integration
Image upload and management
Search and filtering
Pagination
Favorites
Reviews
Maps and location functionality
Security middleware
Error handling
Git and GitHub
Deployment configuration

🔮 Future Improvements

Potential future improvements include:

🏨 Booking and reservation system
💳 Payment integration
📧 Email notifications
📊 Host analytics dashboard
🤖 Personalized stay recommendations
👨‍💼 Admin dashboard
🔔 Real-time notifications
🌍 Advanced location-based discovery

👨‍💻 Developer

Kunal Sonawane

Full Stack Developer

Building modern web applications with:

Node.js · Express.js · MongoDB · JavaScript · React.js

Connect

GitHub:
https://github.com/kunal-sonawane

LinkedIn:
https://linkedin.com/in/kunalsonawane

📄 License

This project is created for learning, portfolio, and demonstration purposes.

Built with ❤️ by Kunal Sonawane

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Screenshots of project		Screenshots of project
docs		docs
init		init
middleware		middleware
models		models
public		public
tests		tests
utils		utils
views		views
.gitignore		.gitignore
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
Procfile		Procfile
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
app.js		app.js
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
render.yaml		render.yaml

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