Simard to Trial Traveler Benefits Booking with Atriis, NuTravel

Travel technology provider Simard is working with both Atriis and NuTravel to develop pilot projects integrating its Smart Contracts product, which the company hopes will be two of several proving grounds for wider applications of the technology.

Simard—launched in 2021 by Winding Tree founder Pedro Renaud Anderson and travel technology consultant Mathieu Tahon to take the core work of Winding Tree’s blockchain-based decentralized travel market—has been in talks with several booking and technology providers to develop use cases for the technology, Simard VP of sales and account management Bill Hogate said. Atriis, a collaborative platform connecting corporates and agencies, was a natural choice as a “new-generation technology” with an “excellent front-end agent desktop,” as opposed to a larger legacy technology that would be a larger undertaking, he said.

In the pilot project, Simard and Atriis are focusing on traveler benefits as a “first bite, showing that there’s value to buyers in there,” Hogate said. Simard will act as the “plumbing” with smart contracts at the point of sale with Atriis that can identify travelers and determine what sort of benefits they should get within the parameters of their corporate travel program. For example, it can display a “corporate special bundle” from a carrier that includes such benefits as fast-track security and preferred seating per a company’s agreement alongside standard rates and special bundles offered by the airline.

“All these traveler benefits are out there that are really poorly managed, and they’re automated with smart contracts,” Hogate said. “We know that buyers are interested but they don’t administer it in a way that’s best for traveler satisfaction, and we know from talking to airlines that they aren’t good at it.”

The pilot will begin within the next three months with “enterprise-level customers and major airline partners,” Atriis and Simard indicated. The intent is to enable airlines to “be much more creative in the product features they offer to customers, driving extra value for all parties,” according to Atriis cofounder Omri Amsalem.

Simard is pursuing a similar project with NuTravel, putting smart contracts behind NuTravel’s direct-booking system with airlines, in which travelers can book on airline direct channels while still receiving negotiated content and policy guidelines. As with Atriis, the smart contracts will power special corporate bundles through the system, Hogate said.

The company has a goal of getting “six to 10 meaningful use cases” in the works this year, Hogate said. “A big chunk now is around the air side, but the hotel discussions are coming too,” he said.

Those will set the stage for projects that can show “the host of things” that smart contracts can do, such as automating supplier agreements so both parties can see in real-time whether contract terms are being reached, according to Hogate. Simard also will be looking at payment systems down the road—”not a crypto play,” Hogate said, but a potential way for airlines to reduce merchant fees as blockchain technology matures.