DOs and DON'Ts for Referencing HTNG in Press Releases and other Marketing Collateral

You are more than welcome to include factual statements about your company's HTNG involvement in press releases ad collateral material.  Examples of things you may include without prior approval (assuming they are true!):

• [Company] is a member of Hotel Technology Next Generation, an industry trade association dedicated to fostering the development of next-generation technologies
  • You may say "active member" only if your company regularly attends meetings of one or more HTNG forums or workgroups.
  • You may say "Platinum Member" if you are a Platinum Member.
  • You may say "Benefactor" or "Benefactor Member" if you are a Benefactor Member.
• [Company's] flagship product, [Product name and version], are certified to the HTNG [product specification name].
  • The product name and product specification name must be identical to those stated in the HTNG Register of Certified Products.
• [Company] has joined the HTNG [xyz] workgroup, in order to...
• [Company] has been actively working with the HTNG [xyz] workgroup and is now adapting its products to implement the draft specification.
• [Company] has contributed its specifications for [xyz] for use by the HTNG [xyz] workgroup.
• [Person] from [Company] has [been active in, chaired, co-chaired, etc.] the HTNG [xyz] workgroup.

Except as specifically permitted below, you may not make statements that:

• State or imply compliance or conformance with any HTNG specifications, except as specifically authorized by a Trademark License Agreement signed under the HTNG Certification Program
  • Where authorized, remember that in materials that are not specific to a particular, HTNG certified product, you must clearly delineate that certification claims refer only to specific products that have been certified
• Include statements about what you have done with HTNG copyrighted specifications, without written approval
  • This includes claims such as an interface being "based on" an HTNG specification
• Quote HTNG staff, board members, or volunteer leaders without written approval
• State or imply actions taken by HTNG with respect to your company, without HTNG's written approval.
  • Phrases such as "HTNG selected," "HTNG recognized," "HTNG appointed," "HTNG named," and similar constructions imply actions on our part that require approval
  • You may, however, without approval, state that HTNG certified (or granted certification to, or awarded certification to, or similar language) one or more of your products, as long as you follow the guidelines for certification claims outlined above.

Requests for approval of quotes and/or statements of HTNG actions with respect to your company should be directed to the HTNG Membership Mailbox.

Please feel free to compose a quote from an HTNG officer or director if you believe it is relevant; if you do this, you need the permission of BOTH the individual AND HTNG.

Before you send it to us, ask yourself whether you would want HTNG to approve an identical quote for one of your competitors.  If the answer is NO, then we will probably have to ask you to reword it!

• We cannot generally permit any quote that implies that your product or service is superior, high-quality, etc.
  • Exception:  If your product is HTNG-certified, we may approve a quote that touts the value of HTNG certification to a buyer, thus differentiating all HTNG certified products (including yours) from non HTNG certified products.
• It is difficult but not impossible for us to approve quotes about the value of specific contributions your company has made to an HTNG workgroup.  We may need a vote or consent from the workgroup, and unless it has already been discussed and minuted at a workgroup meeting, this may take considerable time (weeks or months).

If you need material at the end of a press release describing HTNG, please use the following text:

About Hotel Technology Next Generation

The premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG is a self-funded, non-profit organization with members from hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, and other industry members including consultants, media, and academic experts. HTNG’s members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards. Where necessary, it also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.

Membership in HTNG is open to hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, academics, press and others. Currently, more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including most of the world’s leading hotel companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's hotelier members represent more that 4.3 million guest rooms worldwide. Workgroup proceedings, drafts, and specifications are published for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. Specifications are released to the public domain as they are ratified by the workgroup. For more information, visit www.htng.org.