More than 20,000 hotels connected to The Hotel Trader Exchange gained access to Book&Pay, Shiji's global distribution marketplace, through a supply partnership announced today from Barcelona. One integration now handles contracting, transaction management, cross-border payments and invoicing between hotels and travel buyers.

Hotel Trader joins Book&Pay by Shiji Horizon Distribution as an international supply partner. The deal brings inventory from The Exchange into Book&Pay's network of travel demand partners, replacing a structure where buyers needed separate commercial agreements with each hotel supplier.

What does the integration replace?

For travel buyers, the change is commercial rather than technical. Book&Pay provides a centralized framework: one agreement covers access to a growing portfolio of directly contracted hotels across international destinations, serving both leisure and corporate demand. Buyers no longer negotiate individual supplier contracts to reach that inventory.

For hotels on The Exchange, the partnership opens new demand channels, including markets across Asia-Pacific. Properties can push promotional offers, package rates and corporate negotiated rates through Book&Pay's network while keeping their B2B distribution under one connection.

The connectivity model matters for rate integrity. The Exchange links hotels directly to their property management or central reservation systems (PMS/CRS), which serves as the source of truth for rates, availability and inventory. That direct link, rather than cached or intermediated data, underpins Hotel Trader's approach to transparent distribution.

The eight-minute connection

Shiji and Hotel Trader frame speed as the operational differentiator. The Exchange, directly integrated with a property's PMS or CRS, lets hotels connect, configure and start selling in under 8 minutes. From that point, a single integration reaches hundreds of travel buyers worldwide.

Nick Beard, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at Hotel Trader, said the combined platform pairs directly contracted inventory with intelligence drawn from billions of data points. "We combine directly contracted hotel inventory with intelligence from billions of data points, helping hotels protect rate integrity, understand where their rooms are being sold, and identify opportunities to grow revenue," Beard said. "Data only creates value when it helps hotels make better-informed decisions."

Natalie Kimball, Vice President, Strategic Account Management, Americas & EMEA at Shiji, framed the economics from the partner side. "With a single agreement, Book&Pay makes it easier for partners to connect with a growing global network of supply and demand, creating a simpler and more scalable approach to hotel distribution," Kimball said.

Laura Lopez, Senior Director, Strategic Account, Horizon Distribution at Shiji, said the addition "creates new opportunities for hotels and travel buyers to connect more efficiently."

Who pays and what runs underneath

Book&Pay runs on Shiji Switch, which delivers real-time availability, rates and inventory (ARI) connectivity alongside the centralized commercial layer — contracting, transactions, payments and invoicing. The marketplace model means hotels plug in once and reach demand partners; buyers plug in once and reach supply. The announcement does not disclose fee structures.

The Exchange itself is positioned as the first open hotel exchange, purpose-built to give hoteliers control over which partners they connect with, enabling direct, performance-driven partnerships from first connection to final payout.

Shiji, the parent company, provides cloud-based PMS, point-of-sale, guest engagement, distribution, payments and data intelligence solutions to more than 91,000 hotels worldwide, including the largest chains.

The partnership reflects the industry's shift toward platform-based distribution, where connected infrastructure reduces fragmentation on both the supply and demand sides. By pairing Hotel Trader's direct PMS/CRS connectivity with Book&Pay's transaction infrastructure, the two companies aim to make global hotel distribution cheaper to enter and simpler to operate for hotels and travel buyers alike.