VAIA completes the HTNG Express PMS standard
Avalora announced on 1 October 2026 that its VAIA Agentic AI Assistant completed the American Hotel & Lodging Association's HTNG Express PMS integration, and that the integration was validated with Visual Matrix. Avalora states that VAIA is the first AI assistant to complete the integration. The dateline is Auburn, California.
HTNG Express PMS is a specification built for integrations with a PMS that needs a limited set of data, so a vendor can complete an expedited integration. It covers reservation, guest and room information, and it aligns the industry on one standardized method.
What VAIA does inside the stack
VAIA is Avalora's agentic AI assistant. The company sells it alongside Cloud PBX and connected communications products, available independently or together, through an open integration ecosystem.
"We are proud that VAIA is the first AI voice assistant to meet the specifications for HTNG Express PMS," said Mark Cederloff, chief executive officer of Avalora. "These industry standards will help hotels have compatible technologies working better together towards a truly Connected Hotel."
"The inclusion of VAIA means that hotel teams can access useful operational information through natural conversation, helping them coordinate service and work more efficiently."
Cederloff sits on the HTNG working group that writes the common standard for connecting guest, reservation and room information from compatible PMS platforms.
Avalora's own account carries the operating picture. With the integration, VAIA retrieves available PMS information and explains it conversationally. In the vendor's demonstration, a team member asks VAIA about room 102, and VAIA reports that the room is occupied, its housekeeping status is dirty and a make-up-room request is recorded. Avalora states that available information depends on the connected PMS and the hotel's integration configuration.
The AHLA side of the standard
Darrell Hugh, director of workgroup operations at AHLA, framed the specification as an integration-cost measure. "HTNG Express represents an important step toward making hotel technology integrations simpler, faster and more scalable," he said. "Avalora's integration demonstrates the value of bringing technology providers together around a more consistent approach to PMS connectivity, helping reduce integration complexity while giving hoteliers greater flexibility to adopt innovative solutions."
AHLA's own workgroup page states that HTNG Express reduced the time required to integrate vendor systems with PMS platforms. The same page lists what the next phase adds.
Phase II brings folio posting, so a vendor can post charges, which AHLA names as the most-requested missing capability. It expands the Guest, Reservation and Room data fields, and it continues the use of sandbox environments to accelerate testing and rollout. The workgroup chairs are Brian Erdman, chief technology officer at Hapi; Jason Huges, chief technology officer at Visual Matrix; and Tegan Wilson, senior director of enterprise architecture at Sonesta.
The sequencing matters for a technology stack. A certification against the current specification delivers read access to reservation, guest and room data. Charge posting arrives with the next phase.
The day-use read
A day-use desk sells a limited window in a room that would otherwise sit unsold, and it needs three data classes: which room is free, which reservation holds the slot, and who is arriving. Those are the three classes the specification covers.
The limit is the one AHLA states. Charge posting is a Phase II capability, so an assistant running against the current specification can read the operational picture without posting a folio charge for a block.