Die Restaurantwoche
- Ausgangslage
- Viele Gäste sollen in einer Genusswoche gleichzeitig reservieren, ohne Doppelbuchungen.
- Ergebnis
- Eigenes Reservierungssystem mit Frühbucher-Logik, Mails und SMS, drei Editionen seit 2025.
Reference: platform restructuring
A fresh start for a hospitality platform: gastro.news.
gastro.news is the online magazine of the Culinarius Group with guides, deals and competitions. OSTWERK rebuilt the technical foundation: current WordPress, fewer plugins, faster pages, without SEO loss.
A project by OSTWERK, digital agency in Vienna.
At a glance
The restructuring of gastro.news at a glance.
A controlled rebuild during live operation instead of a rebuild from scratch.
- Client
- Culinarius Digital GmbH, Vienna (Culinarius Group)
- Industry
- Media and hospitality
- Services
- Inventory analysis, migration, plugin restructuring, support
- Period
- analysis September 2025, migration until January 2026, then support
- Tech
- WordPress, Raidboxes, BunnyCDN
Starting point
A grown platform that nobody wanted to touch any more.
What we delivered.
- The site ran on PHP 7.4 and WordPress 6.0, both outdated.Security: current WordPress and a current PHP version.
- Query Monitor showed 281 PHP errors, mostly from plugin and theme conflicts.Order: fewer plugins, single site instead of multisite, own test environment.
- Several sites shared one WordPress multisite with many databases.Speed: images via a CDN, faster response times.
- Reservations and deals were hard to maintain and not designed for growth.Structure: reservation and deals as separate modules.
- New features such as a job board or voucher shop needed a clean foundation.Continuity: a move without data loss and without a drop in SEO.
Build
Four decisions behind the rebuild.
Three paths were on the table: completely new with headless, clean continued operation, or a rebuild with a new design. We chose continued operation on a clean foundation, with a clear separation of development and operation.
Plugins, theme and data were migrated one after another, each with bug fixes and tests. This way no content was lost and the site stayed available.
From around 77 to 33 active plugins. Reservation and deals are separated into their own modules: one core for reservation and availability, separate interfaces for hospitality and hotels.
Instead of dynamic filter URLs there are fixed, indexable pages, for example for federal states and Vienna districts.
Project timeline
From analysis to go-live.
Analysis
In September 2025 the current state is documented and assessed with three solution paths.
Plan
In November 2025 the migration starts in stages: plugins, theme, data.
Test
In December follow tests of the reservations, emails and scenarios.
Support
In January 2026 the status report is ready. After that support and further development continue.
Result
gastro.news runs on a current, tidied foundation: fewer plugins, faster pages and a structure that can carry new features.
- Active plugins reduced from around 77 to 33
- Around 90% of images delivered via a CDN
- GTmetrix: CLS 0, FCP and LCP under one second
- Source: OSTWERK's own measurements, January 2026
Client voice
The collaboration between Ostwerk and the Culinarius Group: inspiring, precise, collaborative and always one step ahead.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about the project.
What did OSTWERK do for gastro.news?
OSTWERK analysed the existing platform, moved it to a current WordPress, tidied up plugins and separated reservation and deals into their own modules. OSTWERK has continued to support the site since then.
Why not a complete rebuild?
A rebuild would have meant time and risk for content and SEO. The controlled rebuild during operation was faster and protected the existing reach.
Where do the measurements come from?
From OSTWERK's status report of January 2026, measured with GTmetrix. They are our own measurements, not figures confirmed by the client.
How long did the migration take?
About two to three months, from November 2025 to January 2026. The analysis ran in September 2025.
More references
More websites by OSTWERK.
3 Projekte
Gutschein.Shop
- Ausgangslage
- Ein laufender Gutscheinshop braucht Stabilität und eine Struktur, die in der Suche gefunden wird.
- Ergebnis
- Übernahme und Betreuung seit Oktober 2025, neue URL-Struktur nach Region und Gutscheinart.
Mitte 15
- Ausgangslage
- Wettbewerb und Beteiligung sollen für alle Bewohner:innen verständlich und auffindbar sein.
- Ergebnis
- Statische Projektwebsite mit CMS, laufend betreut, dazu Print-Material für den Auftakt.
Next step
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