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Site Minder by GDS experience, serves as good example to better understand the impact of a GDS's impact on the hotel industry. GDS by SiteMinder provides a single point of entry to over 500 000 travel agents across the globe, which means that hotels can target many type of travelers in multiple geographic regions. By connecting hotels directly to the world's major GDS providers - Sabre, Amadeus, and Travelport - and travel agent network, GDS by SiteMinder offers a major convenience to participating hotels. Through this service, hotels don't have to worry about signing up with each one of these providers. Another advantage of SiteMinder is its affordability; there are no commission fees, rather, just one flat transaction fee per reservation. The company offers free services from GDS experts and free technical account management advice which are other benefits. For instance, in another article, in mid-2013, South Beach Group who has boutique hotels in the heart of Miami Beach, decided to switch its 12 hotels to GDS by SiteMinder. After moving to GDS by SiteMinder, South Beach Group representative highlights the significant increase in bookings leading to a growth in annual revenues by17% in 2013. In essence, GDS by SiteMinder advertises participating hotels to more customers globally within an incomparable distribution platform, with real-time and two-way GDS connectivity. As we can see in the article, in 2016, just within 12 months the total number of users of GDS by SiteMinder increased from 250 to almost 900. This article underlines the importance of GDS for the growth of travel industry. With Site Minder by GDS, one can realize how GDS helps increase hotel bookings by placing hotels on more virtual channels (an analogue of supermarket shelves) globally.  

This article discusses Lufthansa airlines and Ukraine International Airlines who both now impose a surcharge on GDS bookings. The GDSs Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport disagree with this strategy and say that they offer the most choice of services and think that steering clients away from using GDSs to book travel is not a smart idea. In 2015, Lufthansa and its other airlines (which also includes Austrian, Brussels, Eurowings and Swiss airlines) implemented a 16-euro fee on all GDS bookings. Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) is a much smaller airline than Lufthansa, however, some analysts believe that this decision could prompt other airlines to do so as well. About one month ago, UIA imposed a $9 surcharge on GDS bookings. Some analysts believe that the new imposed fee will drive some customers, especially the price-sensitive leisure travelers, towards other airline carriers. In addition to implementing a surcharge on GDS bookings, UIA is also adding fees to any bookings made on third-party booking sites. The airline is trying to incentivize its travelers to book directly through their website and not go through any other channel. Lufthansa has had success with their strategy. The CEO stated the fee had a net-zero impact on their business, but there was a rise increase in sales through their direct channel.

The article discusses the definition of GDS and how important it is in the travel industry. As stated, the three main GDS systems involve Travelport, Amadeus, and Sabre with Travelport generating billions of dollars in travel sales. Upon explaining how important GDS is in the hotel and airline industry, it also explains its importance to travel agents as it points out reasons for why it has a bright future in the hospitality industry.

The Article talks about how important is the GDS in the travel industry. where some agents can access to scheduling and inventory for your hotels. it talks about three important GDS Systems like the Travelport, Amadeus and Sabre.

This article describes GDS as a network/platform that enables travel agencies and their clients to access travel data, shop for and compare reservations options and book travel. Agents can access scheduling and inventory of hotels, airlines, car rentals, and (some) railway and bus reservations - in real time. GDS links all those services across the three primary travel reservation sectors (airline, hotel, and ground transportation, i.e., car rentals), and activities. GDSs are very important to travel agents and they will continue to be used and will continue to evolve.

As the world comes back from the pandemic, hotels are looking for other experiences to entice guests to stay with them, and providing it through new avenues of technology. Hotel flags are working with groups such as Amadeus for a new experience with their reservation system while exploring other avenues for a competitive advantage.

Amadeus has a new full-suite of programs aimed at helping hospitality companies use data for projections and customer retention. Aimbridge, which is a large management company, has adopted this full suite. This product and adoption highlights how hospitality companies realize the importance of fully-integrated but also useful data capture and translation for increasing revenue and repeat customer business.

Sabre, one of the three largest Global Distribution System signs a long-term agreement with United Airlines. This agreement would allow customers to provide ancillary products and services to customers through the Sabre market place. With United airlines and Sabre joining forces they will use the latest technology allowing both companies to provide more personalize products and services to customers. Sabre will market United Airline ancillary products including air fares and economy plus seats to passengers that buy products and services from Sabre in a way that would differentiate United Airlines products from that of its competitors. Other Global Distribution systems such as Amadeus and Travelport are presently making it a standard policy, mandating airlines to provide ancillary products and services to GDS. American airline one of the major airline who for a long time was reluctant to market its ancillary products through GDS is now one of the many airlines that are presently jumping aboard the GDS wagon. The airlines are beginning to see the benefit of expanding their brand globally through GDS and reaping substantial revenue beyond the sale of air fares.

In this article, Michele McDonald describes how the IATA Organization which represents thousands of travel agents across the world and GDS Companies are butting head over merchandising capabilities with GDS systems. Travel Agents are starting to feel the impact of technology with GDS systems. The IATA organization describes today's GDS screen much like a screen from the 1970's. The IATA members' main concern is the capability of the system; Brewer a member of the advisory board of Everbread, an air fare shopping company explains how airlines and consumers are becoming more sophisticated with technology and with the outdated GDS's systems consumer trends are being hindered. The major GDS's companies do not agree with the IATA organization, they feel that their systems are adequately able to perform the role. Should GDS's companies switch to more web-based systems allowing travel agents to perform their roles more efficiently? This is probably a question that Sabre, Amadeus, and other companies should keep in mind as technology continues to advance. I also feel that both the airlines and GDS's companies should partner with the workforce; the travel agents who are the frontline to determine what things should be updated if needed.

Global Distribution System (GDS) & Alternative Distribution System (ADS) GDS & ADS Today's Global Distribution System (GDS) is comprised of 4 major GDS channels: Sabre Amadeus Worldspan Galileo The latter two, as of 2006, have been aggregated under the TravelPort banner. There are also a number of smaller, regionalized GDS connections including Abacus and Patheo. Included with GDS connectivity are hundreds of Alternative Distribution System channels that are effectively "hybrid distribution" mechanisms in that they provide web-based visibility to 3rd party merchants while "pulling inventory" from the GDS. These include household names such as Travelocity and Expedia and not-so-well-known sites such as e-Bookers and Opodo. A single "switch," Pegasus, provides overall system connectivity (Wizcom was acquired by Pegasus in July, 2004) and the industry is now seeing a proliferation of "direct-connects" to by-pass switch transaction and pass-through fees to mitigate acquisition costs. Connectivity to, and marketing within, the GDS is vital to the success of any hotel and resort given that 17-21% of worldwide bookings are made by travel agents through this channel. To have access to the GDS, your operation must belong to a Central Reservations Service (though you could try to create a proprietary CRS) and that is where the Hospitality Performance Group distribution program can bring value to your operation. We work closely with a number of CRS providers and can match you with one that is appropriate to the distribution needs of your property. Approximately 80,000 travel agents globally use the GDS. Hotel and resort "book-ability" has been an element of the GDS since the 80's (see the HPG history timeline) and given the vast selection provided to agents, GDS marketing can prove extremely productive--particularly in an extremely competitive market or when your operation's feeder markets are global. Working with our GDS marketi

This article talked about the GDS and ADS. It said there are four major GDS channels: Sabre, Amadeus, Worldspan, Galileo. Besides, there are also small channels like Abacus and Patheo. Then, the article introduced that Included with GDS connectivity are hundreds of Alternative Distribution System channels that are effectively "hybrid distribution" mechanisms in that they provide web-based visibility to 3rd party merchants while "pulling inventory" from the GDS. Then, according to the article, the GDS is vital to the success of any hotel and resort given that 17-21% of worldwide bookings are made by travel agents through this channel. It said that about 80,000 travel agents globally use the GDS So we can say the GDS's is very useful for travel agency business. It has very long history since Hotel and resort "book-ability" has been an element of the GDS since the 80's (see the HPG history timeline) and given the vast selection provided to agents. In the end, the article promoted a new system called HPG.

This news introduces that China is going to have GDS for tourism industry in October. This is a big progress in China's tourism industry. With the rapid development of China's tourism industry, GDS will play an important role in tourists' daily life. Since China is a big market for this industry, the establishment of GDS in China is a sign of GDS becoming more and more popular in worldwide.

"TravelCLICK, Inc. the leading provider of emarketing solutions for the hotel industry. This results are from a three year old survey that demonstrates travel agents continue to increase their reliance on Global Distribution Systems (GDS) promotions for hotel bookings. Conducted for TravelCLICK by Phoenix Marketing International, the online, biannual survey included 500 travel agents from 30 countries, representing the four major GDS systems-Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, and Worldspan. The study finds that 41 percent of travel agents worldwide are using their GDS platform more often than in the past, while 30 percent are using the GDS shopping displays more often. When asked about their awareness of GDS promotional messages, 55 percent of travel agents recalled seeing promotional messages in the past three months. Of this group, 52 percent made a booking at a hotel shown in the promotional message they saw, while 68 percent requested more information by looking at the click-through screen attached to the promotional message, and more than 70 percent looked inside the GDS systems for more information. "

The Amadeus computer system crashed on Monday, Jan 30, 2012 leaving thousands of airline passengers without the opportunity to check-in online, reserve their seats, or buy airplane tickets. For more than 3 hours, customers were very upset and unsatisfied for the delay that this situation caused by having the airline crew members manually put their information instead of usually scanning the ticket or passport.

Luckily this didn't happen during a busy time as the article stated. I can only imagine the bedlam had this happened during say the holiday season such as Christmas or a day following a major event like the Olympics or something similar. What I'd be interested t see is if all staff can react to and handle this as well as the staff of the airlines involved. I guess its a good example of having a back up plan in the instance of network issues such as this. Can't say our staff at work would be able to function as well in the instance of similar downtime.

Sabre Technology, based in Southlake, an affluent suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, recently acquired neighboring technology company Genares. Genares now provides GDS connections to Sabre, in addition to other major players, including Apollo, Worldspan, and Amadeus. Genares provides CRS, hotel marketing, and revenue management solutions, particularly to independently-owned hotels and chains, with a network that is over 2,300 strong. This will provide Sabre some control of the market as new competitor Booking.com, owned by The Priceline Group, enters the B2B arena with its recent acquisitions of Seattle-based hotel digital marketing startup Buuteeq and Barcelona-based Hotel Ninjas. Genares became a part of Sabre Hospitality Solutions, a subsidiary of Sabre Technology, which generated $711.7 million of the $3.04 billion in revenue that Sabre made in 2013. The acquisition of Genares will give Sabre more avenues to access independent and boutique hotels. It is worth noting that Sabre Hospitality Solutions already controlled "approximately 27% share of third-party hospitality CRS hotel rooms distributed through [their] GDS," making it the largest third-party provider in this space last year.

I found this article interesting as it talks about why the GDS is important and also gives some insight to how the booking process has changed over the decades. For instance, thanks to the internet we can book a flight within minutes while comfortably sitting on our cough. The article however states, what I did not know, was that back in the 50's, it took an airline reservationist 1.5 to 3 hours to book a single airline flight for the customer. At the end, the article also states that GDS most probably will not be going anywhere any time soon and still be around, at least for some time, and keep on evolving.

The article describes the importance of GDS to the travel industry. The article describes GDS as "a network/platform that enables travel agencies and their clients to access to travel data, shop for and compare reservations options and book travel." The system is used globally as it helps in generating travel sales in billions of dollars. Travel agents use the system access scheduling and inventory of hotels, car rentals, airlines and bus tickets all in real time. The system achieves this by linking the travel reservation sectors of car rentals, hotels and airlines. The major GDSs in the world are Sabre, Amadeus, Worldspan, Apollo, and Galileo. The authors argue that GDS is important to travel agents as it helps the agents to make reservations in real time for their clients and can complete bookings for their clients within a short time. The end of the article proposes that GDS may become obsolete by 2020 due to technological advances. However, the authors argue that the system will evolve with the technological changes and will not fall into disuse anytime soon.

GDS I feel will always have an impact in the travel industry because it is what it was built for since the beginning. Yes, we advance with apps and direct booking but people will always use travel agencies and GDS I believe will always be the primary source for booking for travel agents because it is what makes them comfortable.

Judging by its title, this may not seem like a breakthrough article. However, there are some important points worth discussing. The article indicates that some GDS companies, traditionally serving the airline industry, are now venturing into hotel property management systems. Since SABRE and Amadeus no longer want to depend exclusively on airline service, they are investing heavily in PMS technology. Furthermore, since the new trend is the implementation of cloud based PMS's, they are focusing their resources exclusively on cloud technology because it gives hotels more flexibility on services and integrations. The article suggests that while Oracle might still be a leader in this field, way ahead of its competitors, industry dynamics change so fast that SABRE and Amadeus will eventually become fierce competitors. Oracle is still the most used tool in this market and most hotel employees have received Oracle training at some point. Nevertheless, although that's an advantage for Oracle when it comes to savings in training cost, innovations on cloud based technology can provide more opportunities not available on conventional system servers.Therefore, this move by major GDS providers can prove a wise investment. Finally, another significant development in this article is the fact that SABRE will eventually add alternative lodging to its inventory such as Airbnb or corporate serviced apartments. This, in my opinion, will be an absolute game changer.

This is an article about the 3 main GDS in the world and how GDS helps Travel agencies to grow more using an OTA model. It explains the importance of the GDS in the travel industry as well as the possible future for it.

This article discusses the functions of Global Distribution Systems, along with examples of these systems in todays industry. This article stated that GDS's "facilitate transactions between travel service providers and travel agent." This is backed up by the fact that GDS's allow travel agents to gather and store information in real time, essentially improving efficiency and customer service.

Some argue that the GDS is a fair system. It it does enable travel agents and clients to access travel data, make price comparisons, access special rates and book travel. The big 3 Travelport, Amaadeus, and Sabre do generate billions of dollars of global travel sales for travel providers. The fact is though that the current system is old, dating back to the 60's, has serious flaws, and can be hacked. It is also biased as travel agents bookings are swayed by the airlines they have preferred agreements with, which can skew the equation away from the traveler's best interests. Having 3 Big players with a virtual travel monopoly is not an ideal situation. Carriers are fighting back and airlines are changing strategy. Tension between airlines and the GDS caused by disputes has European airlines exploring models outside the GDS. To make the changes successful they cannot be restricted by outdated systems, old technology or financial burdens.

It discusses the high fees of the GDS and the fact that their system needs to be upgraded. Also, the challenges airlines face with paying those fees and ways the airlines are making additional revenue without having to pay fees to the GDS.

Due to the high fees some airlines were or are paying to the GDS companies, they are re-thinking their strategy to get more revenue out of the passengers, in order to mitigate the lost of revenue for not being anymore in an open GDS market like Amadeus. Amadeus knows they are the big gorilla in the market with a 44% of the share, compared to Sabre or Travelport, the other two leaders in the GDS market.

In their attempt to cease the use of "middlemen", British Airways and Iberia will attempt something so bold that not many other airlines have done. The airline plans to add surcharges to the tickets consumers purchase through GDS's in hopes that they will book directly through them. Although many predict that they will fail, they originally got the idea from the airline Lufthansa, which implemented this approach back in the summer of 2015 and have not seen a loss in revenue since. Sabre did try to sue the airline for this however the case remains in limbo.

GDS systems