Winding Tree Partners with Sciant to Expand HTNG's Hospitality Distribution Standards
Winding Tree, an open-source blockchain-based travel distribution platform, announces a partnership with Sciant in order to make Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) standards compatible with the Winding Tree platform. Winding Tree is working together with Sciant, an information technology and software outsourcing provider with a focus on travel technology, who will make an open source adaptor code to seamlessly convert HTNG standard message formats to the Winding Tree format.
Many hotel property management systems (PMS), central reservation systems (CRS), and channel managers (supply systems) currently use the data exchange standard created by HTNG to send hotel rates and availability to online travel agencies, in order to distribute their hotel rooms and inventory. However, in order to work with a blockchain distribution platform, such as Winding Tree, these providers need to modify their existing product by implementing a new interface, a task many do not have the technology or resources to do.
Sciant is creating an open-source adaptor for the providers whose hotel customers are distributing their rooms using the HTNG data exchange standard, so they will now be able to quickly connect to the Winding Tree platform without significant change to their product. Inventory and rates will flow up from the supply systems, which Winding Tree will then be able to share via its platform. Winding Tree will also be able to send reservations directly back to the providers.
PMS companies and channel managers will be able to download the open-source adaptor code and easily integrate it into their products, without cost. Winding Tree will host the adaptor code in the GitHub code repository for general public download and will be accessible through HTNG's API Registry.
The benefits of the adaptor code between Winding Tree and HTNG include:
- PMS, CRS and Channel management companies will be able to use their existing legacy code to communicate with Winding Tree with very minimal investment
- PMS, CRS and Channel management companies will deploy the adaptor between the existing HTNG property distribution interface endpoint and the Winding Tree endpoint, leaving the adaptor to handle all of the communication
- Each system would speak in its own messaging and the adaptor will handle the translations
"The collaboration with HTNG and the deployment of Sciant's open source adaptor code is a huge step forward for hospitality providers looking for new ways to list and share their inventory," said Pedro Anderson, COO and Co-Founder of Winding Tree. "Being able to communicate directly with various PMS, CRS, and channel managers is huge, and it means that more inventory will flow into the Winding Tree platform, with even more reservations flowing out.
"Being strong proponents of blockchain, open-source technologies, HTNG and hotel distribution in general, Sciant is extremely excited to participate in this project," said Stephen Burke, SVP of Travel and Hospitality for Sciant. "By enabling the many existing hotel technology providers that currently use HTNG messaging to rapidly convert their existing investment to be compatible with the Winding Tree API, Sciant believes that a major barrier is removed that will accelerate blockchain adoption across the hospitality industry."