Hotel Technology Next Generation

CHICAGO | Connectivity among hospitality systems was enhanced recently with the release of new specifications from the working groups of the nonprofit industry association, Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG). The specifications create new standard interfaces for connecting hotel guest kiosks to property management systems, as well as for simplifying connectivity of payment systems and enabling a new model for more accurate and seamless hotel distribution.

The specifications are part of HTNG's ongoing effort to improve the operations and connectivity of technologies throughout hotel properties. Workgroups release new or revised specifications about every six months. Vendors can certify their products to most specifications, so that hoteliers and partners know that such products conform to the highest standards of open-systems interoperability. The highlights of the latest cycle include:

Connecting a guest kiosk to a Property Management System (PMS) will be easier with the first specification from HTNGs Kiosk Integration workgroup. The specification provides a standard interface that helps guests check-in, issue room keys, review folios, check-out, and process payments. Companies who need to connect kiosks to PMSs will benefit by only needing to write an interface once; the same interface should then connect to any other system that also uses the specification, with minimal effort. To ensure maximum compatibility with existing technologies, the workgroup has based its initial work on OpenTravel Alliance schemas, and also leverages messages from another HTNG workgroup that focuses on payment systems. Several of the kiosk and PMS vendors who collaborated in creating the specification are already working on implementing the specification in hopes of achieving a significant reduction in custom development time, effort and cost for new installations.

Another workgroup created a specification that will simplify the effort to create and maintain interfaces between PMSs and payment gateways. A primary goal of the new specification is to eliminate the need for PMS vendors to write and maintain multiple interfaces to payment gateways and vice versa — currently a very time consuming activity. This specification provides a single interface solution that covers standard credit card activities: authorization, incremental authorization, authorization reversal, settlement, sale, void settlement, and returns. To achieve greater operational efficiency, the specification also establishes web services as the transport and handshake protocol for transactions as a more reliable means of communications.

Consumers shopping for hotel rooms online will receive more accurate data and faster transactions from suppliers using the HTNG's new distribution specification. The latest addition to the already robust and widely adopted Distribution specification include a "Seamless Shop and Book" distribution model, which offers a more real-time status about room availability, rates and inventory to online shoppers, by retrieving this information directly from the source. It is also much easier to implement than either the existing "Push" or "Pull" versions. Other models typically call for the storage of availability, rates and inventory in a cache at a third party location which creates the potential for the information to get out of sync, causing end-user frustration, for example when a website is unable to confirm a room rate that it displays as available.

In addition to these efforts, HTNG members are actively working in many other hospitality technology areas, and HTNG is also currently assessing the possibility of several new workgroup efforts focused on these areas:

Anyone can register interest in any of these potential efforts through this web form, which has additional details about the topics. Note: Any industry experts, including non-members of HTNG, are welcome to participate in these evaluative discussions and contribute their expertise to our approach. However, if the effort evolves into a new workgroup, HTNG membership is required in order to participate.

For copies of any of the specifications mentioned in this release (and other specifications HTNG has created for hospitality), visit http://www.opengroup.org/htng/specs/ and choose 2010A. Alternatively, information about these and other HTNG specifications is also available on the association's website at www.htng.org or its wiki that provides more details on the latest status of any of workgroup or its collaboration site which lists all completed specifications.

About Hotel Technology Next Generation | The premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG is a self-funded, non-profit organization with members from hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, and other industry members including consultants, media, and academic experts. HTNG's members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards. Where necessary, it also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.

Membership in HTNG is open to hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, academics, press and others. Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including most of the world's leading hotel companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's Board of Directors alone represents more than 2.3 million guest rooms. Workgroup proceedings, drafts, and specifications are published for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. Specifications are released to the public domain as they are ratified by the workgroup. For more information, visit www.htng.org.

Contact
Tami Craig
HTNG | Communications Manager
Phone: +1 847 303.5560 x204
Email: Tami.Craig@htng.org

Organization
Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) - AHLA
www.ahla.com/htng
1250 Eye Street N.W., Suite 1100
USA - Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 1 202 289 3100
Email: ewilson@ahla.com