The consumer and business travel services provider, Travelport, is reportedly using IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric to regulate commissions paid to travel agencies.

The blockchain was developed with IBM, three anonymous hotel chains, and the travel management agency BCD Travel, as per a statement published on August 20^th. The system purportedly intends to “put the lifecycle of a booking on the blockchain,” to decrease the disputes in payment. 

Over the last year, Travelport raised over $83 billion of travel and spent $2.4 billion in net revenue.

“Traveler modifications at the property, no shows, and complimentary room nights are just a few examples that drive commission discrepancies which in turn generate escalations, cost, and revenue loss,” said Ross Vinograd, Travelport’s Senior Product Director.

“The traveler can modify their booking multiple times, leaving room for information to go missing. For example, if a traveler arrives and then extends a hotel stay, that information might not make its way back to us as booking data,” said Marwan Batrouni, Vice President of Global Hotel Strategy, BCD Travel. 

Moreover, blockchain will also eliminate the “gaps” made by various payment systems. It will manage, track and regulate the commissions to booking agents on behalf of the hotel chains. It will also guarantee the accuracy of the payments and make them quicker than the traditional, manual methods.

If effective, this will majorly improve the business for travel agents, who in current times have to wait for 60 days to earn their commission after their clients check out.

IBM is said to host the nodes during the initial testing soon, even though it is still in the proof-of-concept phase. Hotels will later be able to host their own nodes if the project turns out to be successful.

In another statement, Vinograd said that:

“With travelers having endless options for accommodations, a booking alone is not enough to provide a commission to an agency… With blockchain, we’re able to reduce costs and ease burdens for all parties involved by improving transparency, accuracy ,and efficiencies to enhance the process.”