For multiple years, Select Registry and some mutual clients have requested that ResNexus share rates and availability with the Select Registry website and OTA (Online Travel Agency).

Select Registry brands itself as an OTA similar to Airbnb and Expedia but with inventory that is quality-assured to provide a unique and distinctive experience. Select Registry's OTA marketplace is funded by membership fees of around 250 properties including boutique hotels, bed and breakfasts, inns, ranches, and luxury cabins.

ResNexus entered into a connectivity partnership with Select Registry similar to what ResNexus has with other smaller OTAs and associations.

After multiple years of talks and agreements, the connection between Select Registry and ResNexus was ready for live release as early as April of 2023.

It is ResNexus' opinion that Select Registry 3rd party developer vendor ThinkReservations held the ResNexus and Select Registry connectivity partnership hostage by insisting that the Select Registry connection not be visible to the majority of ResNexus clients unless ResNexus agreed to allow ThinkReservations to display their own independent OTA product in the ResNexus system. This was in violation of ResNexus' agreement with both Select Registry and ThinkReservations to keep the two OTA connections as separate entities and partnerships.

As a result, after multiple years of negotiations and development resources, Select Registry and ResNexus have terminated their Connectivity Partnership as of September 7th, 2023.

Although ResNexus and Select Registry no longer have a connectivity agreement, mutual clients of both parties can still take reservations from the Select Registry website by using a direct booking link. Many other PMS providers work this way with Select Registry.

In many cases this may even be a superior option because it allows the guests to select specials, retail items, and travel protection during the purchase process that may not be available on the Select Registry booking portal.

The main benefit of the Select Registry connectivity partnership was to identify the source of the booking in the ResNexus back office as Select Registry. This provided properties an easy way of evaluating Select Registry's membership benefit.

Other benefits included 1) having your rate show up above a "learn more" button, 2) the ability to share your specials and offers on the individual Select Registry property landing page, and 3) options to book direct from Select's Registry's online booking portal.

Again, apart from your rates showing, all other functionality still occurs through the "book now" button on Select Registry. If the property wants to know whether the source is from Select Registry, that data may be available through Google Analytics if set up correctly by Select Registry.

Since 2018, ResNexus has provided websites that allow members of an association to list all their members on a single page and book through the association website.

If marketed and used correctly, these tools help associations rank higher in Google Search and provide more bookings to their members. For more than 15 years, ResNexus has provided properties with the ability to share their rates and availability with OTAs.

ResNexus received a website bid request from Select Registry in 2019. However, as part of the request, Select Registry required custom built software and a dedicated developer for their website. ResNexus recommended their existing solution and declined the custom development offer as the payroll cost of the developer would far exceed the proposed amount by Select Registry.

In July of 2020, ThinkReservations and Select Registry began making an online "booking engine" for the Select Registry website. This would allow Select Registry to show the availability of all its member properties and allow guests to book reservations directly on the Select Registry website. This is similar to OTAs (online travel agencies) such as Expedia or Airbnb.

Both Select Registry and ThinkReservations invited ResNexus to participate in this integration so that Select Registry members that use ResNexus could participate in the Select Registry booking engine.

As mentioned previously, ResNexus has a similar product that provides websites for national, regional, and state associations. ResNexus agreed to integrate with Select Registry in return for ThinkReservations' cooperation to integrate with ResNexus' association product. It was a unanimous agreement that all parties involved felt was a win-win for them, as well as the industry as a whole.

ResNexus signed a contract for the tri-party Select Registry integration. However, when it came time for ThinkReservations to integrate with ResNexus' association product, they refused to sign the contract. ThinkReservations objected to a provision in the contract that would prohibit ThinkReservations from "scraping" the ResNexus system.

The fact that ThinkReservations was insisting that this provision be taken out of the contract was very suspicious to ResNexus. Anti-scraping provisions are a very normal part of contracts dealing with technology. The contracts are normally issued so that the companies don't scrape information from public-facing websites of their partners. This anti-scraping policy is a standard provision in all ResNexus contracts, and has been required of ResNexus by a majority of partner integrations.

To attempt to resolve the impasse, ResNexus Vice President Nathan Mayfield and ThinkReservations CEO Richard Aday met on a call in September of 2020 to discuss the contract. During that call, Mr. Aday admitted that ThinkReservations did not want to sign the contract because ThinkReservations does in fact use automated tools to scrape/hack the ResNexus system.

Mr. Aday admitted that whenever a property wanted to switch PMS providers from ResNexus to ThinkReservations, ThinkReservations would encourage the property to breach its user agreement with ResNexus and give their ResNexus login username and password to ThinkReservations.

ThinkReservations would then log in as the customer and run an automated program to scrape all data from the customer's ResNexus account. This would assist ThinkReservations in quickly and programmatically creating the new user account within ThinkReservations. Thus, ThinkReservations would not have to hire a team of people to gather information and create new user accounts.

By gaining the login credentials from ResNexus customers, ThinkReservations had unfiltered access to password-protected ResNexus information such as the internal announcements shared with customers regarding new products, bug fixes, etc. All of this was in complete opposition and defiance to the ResNexus user agreement.

After hearing Mr. Aday's admission that ThinkReservations was gaining unauthorized access to the ResNexus system, Mr. Mayfield asked Mr. Aday to stop. Mr. Aday not only claimed they had the right to do so, but he also told Mr. Mayfield that they would encourage ResNexus to reciprocate. Hacking (gaining unauthorized access) is illegal by definition and ResNexus wanted no part of reciprocating.

Mr. Mayfield warned Mr. Aday that if they did not stop, ResNexus would most likely pursue legal action. Upon hearing this, Mr. Aday ended the phone call and also terminated the Select Registry integration contract.

ResNexus reached out in the following three days to try to work out a compromise, but were rebuffed by ThinkReservations. Within a few days, ThinkReservations again engaged in hacking by using username and passwords obtained by ResNexus clients. Upon discovering this, ResNexus put additional protections in place to stop ThinkReservations from scraping and again asked that they cease their activity. Even after these two requests, ThinkReservations continued to try to circumvent ResNexus' new protections.

ResNexus sent an official cease and desist letter to ThinkReservations. Even after an official cease and desist letter, ThinkReservations continued trying to gain access.

It became clear that ThinkReservations did not respect ResNexus' requests to stop the hacking, and that they were going to try to keep building tools to circumvent the added system protections. The only way to stop this activity was to bring legal action.

To learn more about the lawsuit between ResNexus and ThinkReservations click here. In summary, ThinkReservations only stopped their unauthorized access once they were served the lawsuit and settled with ResNexus.

Almost two years later in May of 2022, at the request of our clients, ResNexus announced to Select Registry that ResNexus had developed an open API called Availability Exchange. This universal and public API allows smaller OTAs and association directories like Select Registry to get live rates, availability, and other information from ResNexus clients.

What's more is that the ResNexus channel manager Availability Exchange prevents restricted information from being scraped/hacked from competitors such as ThinkReservations.

As part of that contract, Select Registry was allowed to use its current online marketplace software provider ThinkReservations even though the two parties were currently in legal dispute with each other.

One aspect of the contract was that Select Registry, similar to any other OTA partner, would take legal responsibility for their 3rd party developer vendor (ThinkReservations) if they misused ResNexus' open API.

In addition, Select Registry could use any developer resource they chose to build to the ResNexus API. But whatever developer vendor they chose would also have to sign our API agreement. ResNexus would cover the cost of maintaining this connection by charging Select Registry 1% of any bookings that came from their OTA website to our mutual clients.

In an act of generosity, ResNexus agreed that ThinkReservations could display and market their ThinkOrganizations Association product independently from Select Registry in the ResNexus system if they followed the API guidelines (not scrape unauthorized information) and agreed that any users of the connection would pay a standard 1% on all bookings that came through that mutual connection.

However, ResNexus clearly stated multiple times from the beginning and throughout the process that Select Registry was regarded by ResNexus as an independent and separate partner from ThinkReservations and their product. This meant that our contract was separate and independent from any agreement with ThinkReservations even if the technical connection was similar or identical to the ThinkReservations product.

After months of back-and-forth, the Select Registry's 3rd party developer (ThinkReservations) began to build to the ResNexus channel manager Availability Exchange in August of 2022.

ResNexus and ThinkReservations both spent many months testing and making adjustments to the Select Registry connection, which became ready for general use by April 2023.

However, ResNexus and ThinkReservations experienced conflict when the independent ThinkReservations product was in beta testing in March 2023. This conflict and other factors prevented Select Registry from ever becoming available to the general public.

For the Select Registry connection, ResNexus explained to both parties—including ThinkReservations—the revenue share requirements and other marketing factors required to go live as a ResNexus partner.

As mentioned above, ResNexus permitted ThinkReservations to enter into a separate agreement with ResNexus for their ThinkOrganizations Association product.

ResNexus reasonably assumed that because ThinkReservations was aware of the rollout process with Select Registry, and because ResNexus said the same process was required for the ThinkOrganizations Association product, that ThinkReservations would follow the same process for beta testing and announcing the connection.

ThinkReservations' first association to try their ThinkOrganizations connection with ResNexus was Michigan Bed and Breakfast. When ThinkReservations approached Michigan Bed and Breakfast, they did not communicate many requirements between our connectivity agreement—including pricing and fees.

In fact, it was the worst connectivity partnership rollout ResNexus has ever experienced.

The rate and availability information from Availability Exchange is one-way, meaning that the ResNexus channel manager Availability Exchange sends only ResNexus client information to OTAs such as Select Registry, Spot2Nite, ThinkOrganizations Association product, etc.

ResNexus charges a universal fee of 1% for any bookings that come through Availability Exchange. This keeps our partnership relationships simple and covers our operating costs.

The most egregious error, in our opinion, was that ThinkReservations did not disclose the 1% booking fee billed by ResNexus. This completely changed and complicated the nature of the relationship with ResNexus and any other association using the ThinkOrganizations OTA product.

Instead of being a simple OTA connection that ResNexus could standardly and universally apply the same fee to, ThinkReservations could claim to be the supporter of small associations, while inferring that ResNexus was greedy by charging a 1% fee to cover the cost of our connection.

Because this incident also occurred at the same time that the ResNexus and ThinkReservations lawsuit was preparing to go to court, ResNexus had trouble determining if this was malicious interference or incompetence not seen by any other OTA partner.

This terrible communication resulted in members of the Michigan Bed and Breakfast Association asking ResNexus to charge nothing because ResNexus is so much larger of a company and should "just support the industry".

The reality is that maintaining Availability Exchange is a constant task, not one-and-done. There are monthly fees for the cloud services it runs on, not to mention development costs. The universal fee that ResNexus charges pays for that development maintenance.

In our opinion, it is ironic that ThinkReservations could charge a smaller state association hundreds of dollars per year for their ThinkOrganizations booking engine, but ResNexus could not charge an individual property that may take an average of $150-300 in bookings per month $1-3 to maintain the connection and stay in business.

In addition, ResNexus offers the same association website services so other more economical options were available to this association as well.

ThinkReservations appeared to not be able to communicate clear requirements that all other previous and current OTA vendors had been able to. The result was that now ThinkReservations and ResNexus had to change the agreement between each other because of yet again, lack of trust and candor.

In our opinion, to prevent ThinkReservations from being able to approach local state associations and suggest that their fees were reasonable and ResNexus were not, ResNexus and ThinkReservations agreed to enhance the Availability Exchange API to be reciprocal. In addition, both parties agreed not to charge each other for connectivity.

This would allow equal footing to both companies and their competing website association products. Unfortunately, this required significant hours of development time not factored by ResNexus and that was not required for the Select Registry connection.

ResNexus added the project to our schedule. However, API updates to larger OTA partners were scheduled to be completed first.

Unfortunately, ThinkReservations then demanded that Select Registry not be able to go live without ThinkOrganizations going live as well.

Again, this was against our understanding as we considered Select Registry and ThinkOrganizations two distinct and separate partnerships. For example, Select Registry still agreed to the standard 1% fee and didn't need further development to go live.

ResNexus advocated for Select Registry's rights as an independent partner to go live and was prepared to do so at their request.

In the end, Select Registry concurred with ThinkReservations' demand.

In May of 2023, ResNexus and ThinkReservations came to a settlement agreement in regards to their lawsuit. ThinkReservations agreed to pay ResNexus $400,000 over 2 years and to never again access ResNexus' back office without permission. The penalty if they do so is $2,000,000.

ResNexus continued working through OTA required enhancements of larger vendors and was planning on working on the ThinkReservations reciprocity requirements in June 2023. Unfortunately, the changes took longer than expected, which is what ResNexus was worried about on Select Registry's behalf, and the API updates were delayed until the end of July 2023.

During this time we discovered, in our opinion, that ThinkReservations continued to behave in inappropriate and unethical activities against other competitors which were not ResNexus, even after the lawsuit, which caused ResNexus to question the trust level of this software vendor.

Should ResNexus expend even more resources to support a connectivity partner that in our opinion, continues to violate the rights of others?

One of the results of the lawsuit is that ResNexus determined that it doesn't do business with any organization or entity that it feels lacks candor and engages in unlawful business practices. This latest incident made us feel that ThinkReservations most likely could still not be trusted.

ResNexus resolved as of July 25, 2023 to terminate its reciprocity and connectivity agreement with ThinkReservations and their ThinkOrganizations product.

ResNexus said it would continue to maintain the Select Registry partnership agreement, but that it would not appear publicly because that was what was requested by Select Registry and ThinkReservations.

ResNexus also reminded ThinkReservations that if they attempted to use the Availability Exchange connection for purposes prohibited in the agreement signed by both Select Registry and ThinkReservations as their 3rd party development vendor, ResNexus would hold both parties accountable for damages.

Several weeks after ResNexus sent the notice to ThinkReservations about the ThinkOrganizations connectivity agreement ending, CEO of Select Registry Mark Reichle emailed ResNexus Vice President of Strategic Partnerships Nathan Mayfield, expressing concerns that ResNexus would not support the API connection and that Select Registry would be held responsible for any possible damages caused by their partner ThinkReservations, if such were ever to happen in the future.

Nathan communicated back that ResNexus would continue to support connectivity partnership with Select Registry just as it does with all other OTA vendors. Similar to other OTA partnership vendors, ResNexus would expect Select Registry to be responsible for the actions of whichever developer vendor Select Registry hired to support the connection.

In addition, Nathan Mayfield reached out to Mark Reichle multiple times to discuss the matter in more detail but was ultimately sent an email requesting to terminate the connectivity agreement.

Ultimately, both Select Registry and ResNexus expressed disappointment that the connection was canceled.

For ResNexus, it was the single most expensive integration request, with ResNexus charging a total of $88.29 for the bookings which occurred during the seven months of service across twelve properties, seven of which took no bookings at all. As such, Select Registry is one of the lowest performing OTA channels to have ever connected to ResNexus.

ResNexus and Select Registry's connectivity partnership ended on September 07, 2023.

This has little impact to ResNexus clients, as they can still use a direct booking link on the Select Registry website to get commission-free bookings.

It is ResNexus' opinion that ThinkReservations' control over Select Registry is not healthy for an OTA or association to have.

ResNexus doesn't do business with any organization or entity that it feels lacks candor and is disrespectful of ResNexus' legal rights.