HTNG's workgroups provide many opportunities to shape the industry's development.  We are always looking into new groups — or reactivating retired workgroups — to meet industry needs.  You can use the form below:

• To be included in the distribution list for initial discussions about a potential new workgroup
• To be notified if an existing group decides it wants to re-charter for additional work
• To propose your own workgroup.

NOTE: Non-members of HTNG are welcome during the planning phase when a new workgroup charter is being developed. If a workgroup is ultimately chartered to begin work, participation will require HTNG membership.  For information about joining our dynamic organization to become an active workgroup participant, visit our Join page.

If you are looking to join a current HTNG workgroup, use this form instead.

Prospective workgroups fall into one of two categories:

• A Potential Workgroup is basically an idea that one or more HTNG members have had for a future workgroup, that has been registered with HTNG.
• Any Retired or Maintenance Workgroup is a candidate for potential re-chartering to update or improve on its specifications.  Those that are actively working on re-chartering are considered Incubation Workgroups.

Potential Workgroups

These are ideas that have been informally proposed by HTNG members, which we think may be good candidates for future workgroup efforts.  Participation in potential efforts is generally open to both HTNG members and non-members, but may on occasion be limited to certain categories (such as hoteliers only).  Descriptions are based upon interest expressed by specific members and are often modified during the charter development process.

• Above Property Systems – Facilitate the migration of hotel-based systems to an above-property environment. Initial efforts might focus on the characteristics a system needs to have in order to be properly operated from a central data center, whether hosted by the hotel group, a vendor, or a third party.
• Enterprise Timekeeping – Develop a solution to standardize timekeeping records to be able to compare against sales and revenue data from the point-of-sale.  This would also allow for player tracking systems to be able to view trends, labor costs and productivity.
• Mobile Device Location – A standard data structure for describing the location of a device within a venue, including spatial coordinates and common-language descriptions (e.g. “Lobby”).
• Mobile Device Pairing with Entertainment Systems – Identify existing or developing new standards to support simple pairing of arbitrary guest mobile devices with hotel entertainment systems.
• Near Field Communications – Identify and develop solutions for the use of NFC technology in hotels, potentially including payments, door lock systems, location services, and other applications.
• Shared Global Network – Create a global managed network in which one (or more) vendor(s) would be able to provide end-to-end connectivity. Currently this is only available regionally, and not in all locations.
• Web Content Publishing Coordination – Establish standards to improve workflow approval processes for hotel-related content destined for hotel, brand and third-party sites.

Potentially Re-Charterable Retired & Maintenance Workgroups

The following Retired or Maintenance Workgroups could re-charter at a future date to revise or expand specifications.  For more details about a workgroup's work, click on its name to link to the Wiki page with relevant information about the group.

• Back Office Integration - simplified how hotel accounting (back-office) systems talk with hotel systems (PMS, POS) so that hotels can more easily post batches to accounting systems.
• Cellular Coverage - addressed cellular phone coverage issues for hotels by creating a requirements document for an existing architecture (Remote Radio Head) and adapting it for indoor use by multiple Mobile Network Operators for in-building LTE coverage.
• Customer Profile - Standardized the definition of customer profile, making data exchange easier, less expensive, and less time-consuming.  Standardized hand-off of information regarding loyalty programs and points/miles between and among CRM systems, CRS/PMS systems, and loyalty management systems.
• Device Control Integration - made it easier for guest-room devices to talk to each other, by standardizing inter-device messaging (includes environmental controls, safes, minibars, door locks, lighting, and more)
• Digital Signage - addressed the interface between catering and event management systems and digital signage systems
• Distribution Content Management - facilitated the collection, aggregation, management and distribution of descriptive and illustrative content for promotion of hotels online.
• Entertainment Device Control - created an interoperable solution for remote-controls with hospitality functionality, built on HDMI'S CEC standard.
• Folio Detail Exchange - standardized the extraction of folio line-item detail from PMSs, for use by VAT recovery, loyalty, expense reporting, and analytical programs.
• Food and Beverage Ordering - created message specifications for devices to connect to a property's POS system, and to manage payment methods for an F&B order.
• Guest & Room Status Messaging - reduced complexity and standardize interfaces between PMSs and guest-room systems, so systems can be easily personalized for each guest
• Guest Self-Service - addressed interfaces between hotel-based systems such as PMS and POS, with kiosks and other guest self-service devices
• Hosted Entertainment Content Delivery Solutions - Identified the technical challenges for hotels to deploy entertainment systems in a hosted model, with little or no on-premises equipment.
• Hosted Payment Capture Systems - designed solutions and standards for hosted capturing and processing of credit-card information, with secure application of the payment information back to hotelier systems.
• Kiosk Integration - Focuses on self check-in and check-out functionality and interfaces kiosks to property management systems
• Identity Compliance Services - Addressed management of user rights across multiple systems
• Open Data eXchange (ODX) - developed a standardized approach for the exchange of unstructured data between systems and worked to create a generic data push and pull model.
• Payment Systems & Data Security - defined alternative business processes and technical approaches related to the use of payment systems in hospitality, including specifications for secure data proxy and payment processing.  Note that the chartered Hosted Payment Capture workgroup will be continuing to build on the work of this original workgroup.
• Point of Sale - enhanced the HTNG basic point-of-sale interface to achieve tighter integration for such processes as check zoom and end-of-day processing, and to improve the guest look-up facility.
• Protocol & Message Transport - provided the “plumbing” layer of connectivity for all HTNG messages, the Web Services Framework (WSF) which allows systems to exchange any XML messages (HTNG or proprietary)
• Reference Architecture - created reference architectures for the hospitality industry including business, application, and data architectures
• Secure Payments Framework - Defined an industry framework for secure processing of payment card information, built on existing tokenization approaches, to enable most hotel systems to move outside the scope of PCI requirements, while providing secure end-to-end processing across ALL of the parties and systems that may be involved in a transaction as it flows through the distribution chain.
• Single Guest Itinerary - improved the interface that enables interconnectivity and exchange between specialized systems that book guest appointments - spa, golf, concierge, dining, ski, and others.
• Voice Communication Solutions - developed a specification for an IP PBX and hospitality SIP handset.