Winding Tree, a Decentralized B2B Marketplace for Hotels, Airlines,

The hospitality and travel industries, despite being two of the fastest-growing in the world, were negatively affected by the economic restrictions induced by COVID-19, which are now gradually fading away.

Despite the impact of the pandemic on consumer behaviour and every aspect of these industries as a whole, the sectors have managed to adapt and scale significantly ever since, thanks to modern advancements in both technology and health care.

Notably, blockchain has played a vital role across several industries since COVID-19’s arrival, providing alternative, sustainable solutions where there previously were none, or where the systems being employed were outdated, for lack of a better word.

More specifically, the application of blockchain in certain areas of the hospitality and travel businesses is currently revolutionizing the experiences of both business owners and their downlines, which includes end-users.

A prominent player in this area is Winding Tree, an Ethereum-based decentralized B2B marketplace for hotels, airlines, and travel agencies, among other services.

By using blockchain technology to facilitate fair and competitive travel distribution, Winding Tree is working to create an integrated solution for B2B buyers and sellers, like hotels and travel agencies.

In an exclusive interview with Maksim Izmaylov, CEO of Winding Tree, the serial entrepreneur and blockchain enthusiast discusses the company’s approach to re-engineering the economics of travel-related transactions.

According to Izmaylov, the present state of the hospitality and travel experiences is not ideal, and while this can be attributed to a variety of factors, one of the most significant is the presence of an excess of intermediaries.

“Anyone familiar with the travel industry understands that any travel-related transaction, such as a hotel reservation made online today or an airline reservation, involves at least five, if not ten, middlemen, each of whom, of course, charges a small fee. And, you know, they basically just garble the data that flows from one provider to another,” Izmaylov noted.
Having been a standard industry-wide practice for several years, one of the initial problems that Winding Tree is looking to address is the elimination of needless intermediaries, which will result in cheaper airline and travel reservations. Interestingly, the benefits don’t end with the businesses involved, as end-users themselves would also be beneficiaries of cheaper pricing.

Winding Tree Wants Unbound Data Flow Between Market Players

In addition to solving the problem of multiple intermediaries being involved throughout transactions between buyers and sellers, Winding Tree also wants to re-engineer the process of data collection. According to Izmaylov, there is a great deal of data disparity in the current booking systems used by hotels, airlines, and travel agencies,…