Three hospitality industry associations partnered on a program to develop unique global hotel identifiers.

The Hospitality Technology & Financial Professionals, Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association and Hotel Technology Next Generation organizations in a joint statement explained that a single hotel identifier "would significantly improve the accuracy and efficiency of transactions between hotels and their trading partners," and would facilitate an industrywide credit-card security project led by HTNG. Without such a system, the groups said, industry players are challenged to maintain updated databases when, for example, a hotel opens, is renamed or is rebranded, a problem exacerbated in recent years by "the proliferation of thousands of Internet sites with hotel data." HFTP, HEDNA and HTNG indicated the project is supported by the OpenTravel Alliance, the Convention Industry Council and Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International. "We envision a simple and low- or no-cost registration system, based on principles similar to those used for Internet domains," according to a statement attributed to HTNG CEO Douglas Rice. HEDNA since 2006 had been working on a unique hotel identifier before last year handing over project leadership to the Hospitality Technology Strategic Initiatives Council, an umbrella organization that includes HFTP, HEDNA, HTNG and other groups. United Kingdom-based Travel Technology Initiative, also a member of the Open Travel Alliance, planned to launch this month a similar initiative for 200,000 hotels worldwide, chairman Peter Dennis last month told The Beat.