This month, a new platform called Hex launches with a simple goal: to become a clean source of truth for hotels and travel agencies. The idea is straightforward — help hotels manage their data while finally solving the commission conundrum that has long plagued the industry.
For decades, hotels and agencies have operated in a fog of mismatched data. Bookings don’t reconcile, commissions vanish into black holes, and payment delays stretch for weeks if not months. The result: distrust and frustration on both sides of an industry built on relationships.
Robert Sasaki, co-founder of Hex (short for Hospitality Exchange), calls it what it is: a broken foundation and a data disconnect.
“If a hotel and an agency can’t agree on the same number, you can’t build loyalty, you can’t build trust, and you can’t build a foundational partnership,” he said in an interview with Luxury Travel Advisor ahead of the launch.
But before Hex can fix commissions, it must first tackle the data problem itself. Many hotels still run on Oracle’s aging Opera On-Premise property management system, even as Oracle slowly migrates clients to Opera Cloud. Each property stores data differently, which means Hex often spends up to a month per hotel cleaning and mapping information before the system can run.
“It’s tedious, but thankfully we’re seeing some patterns in the way the data is structured across hotels,” Sasaki said. “We can’t fix payments until we fix the underlying data.”
Rebuilding the Foundation
Hex’s platform, which began onboarding hotels quietly in August and goes fully live this month, promises a single ledger where both hotels and agencies see identical information — reservations, commission amounts, payment status and exchange rates — all verified at the source.
Hex is a data infrastructure company, but the clarity that infrastructure brings transcends one of the industry’s largest pain points: transparent commission payments.
The mission is to rebuild the connective tissue between hotels and agencies through a shared database that cleans, normalizes, and synchronizes booking data in real time.
Sasaki spent sixteen years at the intersection where hotels meet the trade, most recently as a senior executive at Ultimate Jet Vacations, a Miami-based wholesaler behind some of the luxury world’s biggest bookings.
“One of UJV’s most valued innovations was paying commissions in advance of a client’s travel dates,” said Laura Sangster, founder of The Journey Group Travel.
That speed and transparency built loyalty, but it was possible only because both sides had clean, unified data. Every advisor knew how much commission they would receive at booking. Discrepancies were flagged before travel. When it came time to pay, everyone was on the same page.
That experience became the genesis of Hex’s vision.
“At UJV, I sat at the intersection of sales, supplier relations and business development, which illuminated a massive opportunity to bring quality data directly to hotels and agencies,” said Sasaki. “The problem was that the platform to do so didn’t exist, and the existing commission processors weren’t built to support it — so we became obsessed with making it happen.”
The People Behind the Platform
Years of handling supplier relations taught Sasaki that many hotels try to stay as lean as possible, especially independents and small chains without access to the sophisticated tools used by larger brands.
“Some think all hotels are these cash cows that ignore their partners,” he said. “In reality, many don’t have the tech or the staff to manage their data. They need help.”
His co-founder and CTO, travel-tech veteran Angel Monticelli, built startups with teams fluent in data and all too familiar with the commission headaches that have long divided hotels and agencies.
This middle-seat perspective—half hotel, half agency—puts Hex squarely at the center of the commission conundrum.
“Travel advisors have always been a cornerstone of our success, and we’ve invested heavily in taking care of this community,” said Nikheel Advani, COO and Principal of Grace Bay Resorts and an early founding partner and collaborator of Hex.
“Partnering with Hex allows us to make payments faster, reduce the fees agencies face and bring transparency to a process that has long been opaque,” he added. “It’s good business — and it’s the right thing to do for our partners.”
Bringing Travel into the 21st Century
Hex’s first clients now see live booking data reflected instantly on dashboards that mirror what agencies view.
“Everyone will finally be looking at the same page,” Sasaki said.
The platform tracks every step of the commission process — booking creation, modifications, discrepancies and even hotel response times. Each action is timestamped and stored in the ledger, creating a transparent record that neither side can alter.
Where legacy systems rely on post-checkout reports, Hex captures booking data before the guest arrives. The goal: transparency for both sides and fewer manual reconciliations after checkout.
According to data and interviews with agencies in the U.S., U.K., Italy, India and the Asia Pacific region, legacy processors often apply foreign exchange markups as high as 6%. Once fees are added, total costs can range from 8% to 10%.
By contrast, Hex’s fee structure is flat: 2% across the board. Its FX rate sits slightly below mid-market, making it cheaper than a typical bank transfer, and every conversion is displayed on the invoice.
“We asked a simple question,” Sasaki said. “Why should moving a commission cost more than processing a credit-card payment?”
From Commissions to Clarity
One of Hex’s biggest surprises wasn’t about payments at all but about data visibility. Hotels are excited about the reporting capabilities, particularly given the limits of existing PMS systems.
Custom reporting that identifies the agent of record on each booking will be a core part of the platform, offering real-time ROI visibility on trade performance.
“It lets hotels treat their agency programs like any other marketing investment,” Sasaki said. “If you’re paying 15% commissions instead of 10%, you should know exactly what you’re getting back, while also identifying areas of opportunities for agencies that typically fly under the radar.”
In other words, Hex operates similarly to the Four Seasons Preferred Partner model, a centralized platform for agreements and visibility that also processes commissions.
“When data becomes standardized and shared between hotels and agencies, you don’t have to feel compelled to do every tradeshow under the sun,” added Sasaki. “The data allows you to be more targeted, more return focused, and potentially reduce the scope of your sales and marketing expenses.”
That democratization may make some established players nervous. A transparent marketplace where hotels engage directly with agencies—backed by verified production data—could eventually erode the gatekeeping role of traditional networks.
Sasaki compares Hex’s ledger to a public record system in real estate—transparent, traceable and shared.
“Real estate has one truth,” he said. “Hospitality should, too.”
If Hex gains enough momentum, it won’t just speed up payments. It could reshape how the luxury travel industry measures ROI and value.
Jacques Ledbetter is a Luxury Travel Advisor contributor and founder of The Luxe Ledger newsletter.
