Webjet is expanding its blockchain initiative,
Rezchain, to four companies: Thomas Cook, DidaTravel, Mitra Global and Far East
Hospitality.
Webjet created the solution in partnership with Microsoft
beginning in 2016. Since then it has been using it internally for the B2B
segment of its business, WebBeds, which offers more than 250,000 hotels in
Europe, Middle East, Africa, North and South America and Asia through its
brands Lots of Hotels, Sunhotels, FIT Ruums and JacTravel.
The company says Rezchain is the hotel industry’s first
functioning blockchain-enabled platform. Webjet adopted blockchain to add
efficiencies and cuts costs in the hotel distribution process.
In a statement, Webjet estimates that industrywide “3‐5% of
bookings are disputed in some form when one party attempts to invoice the other
party and disputes can take months to resolve.”
This system allows companies to share data on a blockchain,
where smart contracts match data in real time and flag any discrepancies so
they can be fixed early in the booking process rather than later when there may
be out-of-pocket costs to settle disputes.
“For instance, if one side thinks it’s cancelled and one
side thinks it’s booked in their system, that would throw up an alert,” says
Graham Anderson, Webjet’s head of technology.
“In hotel distribution there are many players from the hotel
through to the client, whether they are wholesalers or other OTAs or local
distributors. We thought what if there is a distributed network that is fully audited
and a source of truth between how these systems talk to each other.”
Webjet says blockchain has shortened the time it takes to resolve
disputes and has allowed it to grow its business “without needing to increase
accounts receivable and accounts payable resources at comparable rates.”
For now Webjet is offering “blockchain as a service” to
other companies, to create a quick, easy way for them to adopt this new
technology.
“Rezchain requires no technical integration on the part of
the participating company; a simple daily file is all that is necessary to
begin matching data and solving booking issues” says John Guscic, Webjet’s managing
director.
“In a low margin, high transaction volume business, it is
essential to find ways to be more efficient and eliminate administrative
burdens that add no value. It was this
fundamental principal has led to the development of Rezchain.”
“Thomas Cook is pleased to be working with Webjet, and other
innovative industry partners, to create a more efficient and productive
industry,” says Thomas Hohn, chief of group complementary product at Thomas
Cook.