FastX and the Global Network for Hotel Connectivity

Introduction

Hotel connectivity did not become complex overnight.

It started with simple connections, then grew into vast networks where hundreds of systems interact in milliseconds. As scale increased, so did fragmentation — different codes, different standards, different ways of describing the same reality.

This article follows that evolution:

🔹from understanding where today’s complexity comes from,
🔹to introducing FastX as a shared response,
🔹and finally exploring how a common language reshapes the entire ecosystem.

PART I — The invisible complexity of hotel connectivity

1. What happens after a hotel search?

When a traveller searches for a hotel on an OTA, a metasearch engine, or any travel website, something invisible happens in the background.

In just a few milliseconds, hundreds of systems start talking to each other so that one simple “Search” button turns into real, bookable options on the screen.

On the surface, the traveller only sees prices and availability.

Behind the scenes, a Buyer — the company running that website or booking engine — connects to dozens of Sellers: bed banks, wholesalers, DMCs, hotel chains, channel managers, and more, all working together to build the final offer.

Since 2012, Travelgate has been the technology partner behind this invisible choreography, giving B2B Buyers and Sellers a single place to connect and trade hotel inventory.

➡️ Today, we describe ourselves as “The Global Network for Hotel Connectivity”: a complete ecosystem that democratizes and simplifies hotel sourcing and distribution for companies of any size.

And now, that network speaks a new shared language: FastX.

2. From a single connection to a global network

When Travelgate started, the mission was simple:

"Give any travel company – from small agencies to global players – access to a large hotel network through a single connection."

Over time, that single connection evolved into a true marketplace.

Today, the Travelgate network brings together:

✅400+ Buyers (OTAs, agencies, tour operators, tech platforms)

✅ 600+ Sellers (bed banks, hotel chains, channel managers, wholesalers)

✅ 9B+ hotel searches per day and 65k+ bookings per day, with 99.99% uptime

Since 2012, Travelgate’s platform has processed more than 5.4 trillion hotel search requests.

On top of pure connectivity, Travelgate has also invested in security and trust. The platform is now ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified, which means its information security management system follows globally recognized standards, with certification valid from April 2024 to April 2027.

➡️ This combination – massive scale + security + openness to apps and partners (like mapping, repricing and analytics tools) – is what allows Travelgate to act as a real network, not just an API.

3. The hidden cost of “speaking different languages”

Scale brings power — but it also brings complexity.

Every Seller has its own internal logic:

• Different hotel codes for the same property.

• Different board codes for similar meal plans.

• Different room descriptions, even when the room type is effectively the same.

For each new Seller, Buyers have traditionally had to:

1. Map hotel codes (one by one, or using third-party mapping).

2. Align boards and room types.

3. Clean and deduplicate results so that a traveller sees one coherent set of options.

👉 This work is heavy and repetitive. It slows down time-to-market, increases operational costs, and makes it harder for small and mid-sized companies to compete with large players.

➡️ In game-theory terms, every Buyer and Seller ends up solving the same mapping problem on their own. The result is a suboptimal equilibrium for the whole network: everyone spends time on the same work, and nobody sees the full benefit of a common standard.

PART II — FastX: a shared language for the network

1. Introducing FastX

FastX is Travelgate’s answer to this problem:

A unified layer of standardized identifiers for hotels, boards and rooms across our entire network.

Instead of each Supplier’s code system being “the truth”, FastX introduces Travelgate-wide IDs that sit above them:

• FastX Hotel IDs – a consolidated master list of properties across connected Sellers.

• FastX Board IDs – standardized meal plan codes (BB, HB, AI, etc.).

• FastX Room IDs – real-time standardized room types built from Suppliers’ descriptions.

➡️ A Buyer maps once — to FastX. Travelgate then maintains the relationships between FastX IDs and each Supplier’s native codes in the background.

2. How FastX works in practice

When a Buyer searches:

1. The request is sent through the Hotel-X API using FastX codes

2. Travelgate translates those codes into each Seller’s native identifiers

3. Sellers respond in their own language

4. Travelgate standardizes, aggregates, and deduplicates the results

5. The Buyer receives a clean response containing both FastX and native codes

👉 This ensures full transparency while dramatically reducing operational effort.

➡️ FastX becomes, at the same time, the product and the language of the Global Network for Hotel Connectivity.

PART III — A smarter ecosystem for Buyers and Sellers

The value of FastX grows with every participant in the network.

1.Value for Buyers (OTAs, tour operators, B2B platforms)

FastX helps Buyers:

• Reduce mapping work: map once to FastX instead of repeating the process per Supplier.

• Activate new Suppliers faster: less configuration overhead, quicker time-to-market.

• Get cleaner results: with standardized IDs, aggregation and deduplication can remove duplicates and highlight the best options.

• Stay in control: responses still include Supplier-native codes, so internal systems remain traceable and auditable.

➡️ For OTAs and similar front-ends, this means better use of traffic: more consistent results, fewer errors, and the ability to re-use one content layer every time they plug in a new Seller.

2. Value for for Sellers (bed banks, wholesalers, chains, DMCs…)

FastX is also a tool for Sellers to clean and boost their presence:

• They can use a web interface to validate how their hotels and boards are mapped to FastX.

• Validated content can be prioritized in aggregated searches when Buyers choose to work with standardized data.

• Clean mapping means fewer “wrong hotel” or “wrong board” issues and a lower support load.

➡️ In other words, good data becomes commercial advantage.

3. FastX as the “dominant strategy” in hotel connectivity

In a network like Travelgate’s, each company faces a strategic choice:

• Stick to their own mapping and code systems, or

• Align with a shared standard that others are increasingly using.

FastX is designed so that, over time, “adopt FastX” becomes the dominant strategy for both Buyers and Sellers:

• If you adopt FastX and your partners do too →

  you all benefit from less mapping, cleaner content and faster activations.

• If you adopt FastX and some partners don’t yet →

  you still keep native codes, but you’re ready the moment they join the standard.

• If you don’t adopt FastX while others do →

  you carry a higher operational cost and risk falling behind in how well your content is exposed across the network.

➡️ As more participants move to FastX, the Global Network for Hotel Connectivity becomes not just bigger, but smarter and more efficient for everyone.

Looking ahead

From the first connection in 2012 to today’s 9B+ searches per day and ISO 27001 certification, Travelgate has consistently followed one idea:

great connectivity should be accessible to any travel company, not just the giants.

FastX is the next logical step: it turns that connectivity into a shared language that:

🔹Reduces mapping and content work.

🔹Speeds up time-to-market for new Sellers.

🔹Gives apps and platforms a standard backbone to build on.

🔹 Moves the entire ecosystem towards a better equilibrium.

➡️ For OTAs, bed banks, chains, DMCs, tour operators and technology providers, the question is no longer if the network will standardize on something – it’s how fast you want to be part of that standard.

What to do next

If you’re already connected to Travelgate or considering joining the network:

• Explore FastX on our site – understand how hotel, board and room identifiers work as one layer.

• Dive into the documentation – see how to start using FastX over your existing Hotel-X integration.

• Talk to our team – plan a FastX readiness or validation session for your Buyer or Seller setup.