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GDS Trainer's Manual

Hotelligence Report - User's Guide

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The GDSs (Global Distribution Systems), of which there are four major competitors including Amadeus, Galileo/Apollo, Sabre and Worldspan, originated as private networks for use by travel agents.  An individual hotel automatically participates in the GDS as part of their membership in a hotel chain or representation company. This base level involvement provides the display of available room types and the rates for those rooms, for any date(s) in the coming 12 months, and a display of an extensive description of the hotel.

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To improve its presentation in the GDSs, your hotel has several options:

  • Ensure it is open and available for sale in your hotel or representation company’s central reservation system (CRS) since the GDSs reflect the availability and rate data in the CRS.
  • Provide a full spectrum of public rates – rack, corporate, senior citizen, government / military, weekend and promotional.
  • Participate in consortia and negotiated corporate rate programs.
  • Ensure the room descriptions provided by the CRS to the GDSs are appealing, as well as accurate.
  • Periodically review the GDS property description for your hotel.
The property description is frequently the only resource a travel agent reads prior to recommending a hotel to a client.  Copies of the property description that appears in the GDS to describe your hotel can be obtained from the GDS database department of your chain or representation company.  Use that same opportunity to request, review and revise your hotel’s property description in the CRS. 

Two further levels of GDS participation and promotion are available to you, one free of charge, the other at a fee.  In the first, no-cost bulletin boards are available in each of the GDSs for posting announcements about promotional rates, seasonal packages and important news about individual hotels.  These bulletin board announcements can draw travel agents’ attention to your special offers.  Contact your chain’s GDS or electronic distribution department to inquire about displaying your hotel’s information on these bulletin boards.

The second level offers a wide range of paid advertising options.  Each of the GDSs have sign on messages displayed to travel agents as they begin their day, as well as numerous on-screen advertising opportunities tied to specific cities.  All of these advertising options are now offered by a single a company, TravelCLICK.  It represents all four of the GDSs, allowing convenient one-stop evaluation and selection. 

"You must have mindshare before you can have marketshare." - Christopher M. Knight
Copyright © 2010  Robert J. Thompson.  All rights reserved.