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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.

This article discusses what travel agents think about the enhanced ability of both corporate and leisure based travel agencies to sell airline ancillaries because of improved Global Distribution Systems' technologies. Ancillaries are products and services that airlines sell to gain additional revenue on top of your ticket price. Ancillaries have become increasingly popular in the airline industry because of the sky rocketing price of jet fuel. To keep ticket prices down airlines are "unbundling" items from the overall experience. This presents them with an opportunity to turn a profit by charging fees for bags (carry on, checked, additional), on board food and drink, credit card purchases, headphones. It seems like everything you encounter from when you arrive at the airport to when you disembark the plane has a fee. This phenomenon is especially present in Low cost carriers such as Spirit, Air Tran, Jet Blue, etc. However there are consumers who disagree with this additional costs as is apparent in Southwest's continuous marketing campaign. I'm sure everyone has seen the commercials with Southwest representatives 'flagging' down unnecessary fees in order to promote their 'bags fly free' campaign. Anyhow the reason I am explaining ancillary revenue is because travel agents are now starting to sell more ancillary products such as hotel accommodations, travel insurance, rental cars because of GDS technologies. They can track the sale of fees through EMD (Electronic miscellaneous Documents) which is the current industry standard. In the article some agents state that the EMDs are hard to understand and use. I believe until the EMDs become "seamless and easy to use" there will exist some hesitation to sell airline ancillaries. However on the other hand the article states that Travelport is working towards a simple and uniform platform called Travelport Universal API/Desktop. Once this comeplete perhaps more agents will feel comfortable selling ancillaries. This is a goo

I still remember when most airlines used to include breakfast or dinner for their passengers including alcoholic beverages well that doesn't happen any more. I believe when Travelport Universal Desktop becomes available it would become more clear to travel agencies the transaction process and for the consumers what products and services they are ofering.

I too miss the days of free sodas and peanuts. "Sigh-" sometimes its the little things in life that bring the most joy. I agree I think the new Travelport Universal Desktop will be a valuable tool if utilized correctly.

In this article we discuss the issues that airlines are having with the GDS system. They give an example of someone attempting to purchase a ticket through an airline website, and then through a travel agency. The direct airline method was only cheaper, if the guest provided information to a direct bank account. The cost for airlines to sell is a bit less than 10%, and they are sold mostly through indirect channels, like travel agencies. The main reason this can happen, is the integrated GDS system. A GDS system is a data facility that shares inventory information for various airlines to different 3rd party channels. The issue with this, is that the total in fees for the use of the GDS system was around $7billion, which is twice the amount of net profit they are receiving. People state that the airline system cannot survive without the GDS, but is that statement really true? Airlines like Air Asia or Ryanair have really attempted to focus on selling tickets directly, and really expand on their profit. How can this be achieved? Well, airlines are making the booking process easier for guests to manage, which gives them more of a reason to book through there. Also, they are offering greater loyalty rewards for directly booking through the site. Different incentives need to be created to attract guests to book directly. Lastly, they would like to create another distribution system, to put GDS out of business. This new system will work to allow guests to handle meal and baggage fees. Concepts that the GDS cannot handle. With that said, will this new system reduce costs for airlines? I guess they will have to wait and see.

The role of GDSs in the travel industry has a major impact on revenue, competition, and reservations. In this article, Sabre, one of the largest known GDSs was sued by US Airways for failing to provide a fair contract to the airline. The lawyers from US Airways claimed that Sabre threatened to "cut off the airlines from a network of thousands of travel agents worldwide who depend on inventory that the tech giant provides via desktop software". The jury concluded that Sabre indeed violated antitrust law. Sabre, apparently, charged US Airways increased fees though their cost per transaction decreased because of the advances in technology. According to the article, Sabre argued that the fees were justified relative to the cost that an airline would incur to distribute its fares by other methods. This helped the agents have access to a plethora of information regarding price comparison. In my opinion, this is just a messy situation. However, it goes to show how important and how much of an impact that GDSs have on airline companies. They determine what consumers or agents readily see on the site. They determine how much of a presence a company has. The GDSs provide company information to a worldwide network that markets to consumers. Having a GDS system hold back or increase fees has proved to be detrimental. Ethical issues have come into play. The fact cannot be ignored that the technology being used by Sabre is helping lower cost for transactions. This decrease in cost should have resulted in a decrease in fees for the airlines. Nevertheless, the key to this article is that GDSs have the power (though Sabre did illegally) to determine which avenue a company goes through in regards to apparent competition and markets. The advancement of GDSs is resulting in lower cost transactions and giving agents and consumers "more bang for their buck". So it is important that the relationship between GDSs and airline companies remain ethical in all ways, especially dealing with

During the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, restaurants have been searching for ways to make profit now that many of them have been closed, or are operating on 25% or less. DoorDash, the leader in online ordering platforms, is determined to assist these failing independent restaurants the best they can. To help, they have established the DoorDash Storefront, which is a

This article goes about discussing the issues around full service hotels and fees for WiFi internet connection. Travel Professionals do have changes throughout the years in the hotel and tourism industry, but some are really serious that is affecting the rating of customer satisfaction in hotels. According to experts, they do present a theory that something must be done in order to increase revenue and also hotel's ratings; no all hotel managements agree with such theory. Therefore, they are still pushing for continuing the fees and strive for customer satisfaction all at the same time. In essence, the hotel industry is constantly adapting to new and more changes everyday, as technology also changes and have new innovations.

This article discusses the unknown impact on the structure of the fees of debit card transactions that is more commonly used in restaurants as a form of payment. The impact of the Durbin Amendment has not made an significant role in whether restaurants or hotels will feel the need to invest in anti-fraud technology. Even though most restaurants are in need of this type of technology. I wonder what the impact this would make on the restaurants if they were to invest in such a technology would it make it easier to track fraudulent charges made, and combat them. What do restaurants do in cases when fraudulent activity has taken place? How do they account for it on their inventory side? On the sales end the transaction will be decline by the vendor of the card but the options left for restaurants are to "eat the cost". How is this handled?

Over the few years, travel agents are using booking through Global distribution systems. Hotels however are having to pay a 20% booking fee when people book through GDS. Travel agents are also now using Airbnb, and alternative booking, because they aren't seeing any commissions on them. GDS is a large computer network that represents a single point of entry to travel agents and meta search sites. GDS are heavily used in the business and corporate travel accounts. GDS corporate business typically delivers more revenue for hotels because business travelers usually eat and drink in the hotel, rather than travel outside the hotel and spend money. Travel agents use commissionable and non-commissionable booking that, where commissionable bookings must add typically 8-10% agency commission on top of the GDS fees. GDS can be a good source of incremental bookings and increase margins.

Over the few years, travel agents are using booking through Global distribution systems. Hotels however are having to pay a 20% booking fee when people book through GDS. Travel agents are also now using Airbnb, and alternative booking, because they aren't seeing any commissions on them. GDS is a large computer network that represents a single point of entry to travel agents and meta search sites. GDS are heavily used in the business and corporate travel accounts. GDS corporate business typically delivers more revenue for hotels because business travelers usually eat and drink in the hotel, rather than travel outside the hotel and spend money. Travel agents use commissionable and non-commissionable booking that, where commissionable bookings must add typically 8-10% agency commission on top of the GDS fees. GDS can be a good source of incremental bookings and increase margins.

A GDS system is a massive advantage for a hotel because it will increase demand which directly increases revenue. A GDS system can be even more beneficial if the hotel is targeting corporate travelers. However, a GDS system is not without its drawbacks. While there are options, it is not uncommon for a hotel to pay an initial fee and agency fee.

This article gives a solid big picture overview of what GDS is and why is there a need to use a GDS. Also, it tells who are the three major players and what are the associated costs of using a GDS.

This article signifies the use and importance of Global Distribution System (GDS) in hotels. GDS is a network that travel agencies are provided with information to help hotels book more. Hotels that target corporate travelers have an advantage using the GDS system. Businesses still turn to travel agents rather than booking directly. The GDS system will give a wide range customer base, more booking and more.

"The way travelers communicate on the road has changed dramatically over the years, and these changes become evident when analyzing the revenue earned by U.S. hotels from their guests for use of telecommunication devices and services. In lodging industry parlance, "telecommunications revenue" includes monies received from the guest use of hotel room phones, fax machines, and internet connections."

This year, travelers are on track to pay U.S. hotels an estimated $1.95 billion in fees and surcharges - an amount that includes unpopular Internet charges. With this in mind, Hotel Check-In asked Robert Mandelbaum, the Atlanta-based director of information services for PKF Hospitality Research, to tell us about the state of the industry's telecommunications revenue stream - a stream that includes Internet fees.

Over the years, with technological and telecommunication advances the way we communication while on the road or on vacation has changed. I remember going on vacation as a child and being able to call my grandma from our hotel room once a day because we didn't want to spend too much money on calling back home or getting a voicemail from family members calling while we weren't in the hotel room. Over the years, this has changed dramatically. Now I can go on vacation and call, text, send emails, pictures, and videos to all my contacts with the use of my cell phone or with the use of my laptop in a WiFi area. This article gives insight on the revenue provided by telecommunications as told by Robert Mandelbaum a director of information services. He tells us that internet fees help with the growth of telecom revenue, as use of in room phones has decreased. This is just one way that the changes in technology have affected the industry. In this case, telecommunication advances have had a negative effect on the revenue in telecommunications but its only a matter of time until something new comes around and attempts to restore profit production. 

A human resource information system (HRIS) is a software used for managing employee information while aiming to increase their engagement and productivity. Overall, an HRIS system is made up of the following components: a database, financials, time & attendance, recruitment, and training/development. The tools available in these allow for automated processes, data storage, handling of payroll, benefits, employee recognition programs, track work absences and tardiness, manage job applications, referrals, and interview requests, assist scheduling, employee communication, performance tracking, and goal setting. The costs involved when adopting a HRIS include software, setup, consulting, and support fees.

This article talks about the different types, components, benefits, and costs of a human resource information system. The two categories of HRIS are human capital management (HCM) and while the components include financial, time and attendance, recruitment and onboarding, employee management, company database, and training and development. The benefits include increased automation of human resource, employee self-service, centralized employee communication, and more important insights.

The first products distributed by GDS was hotel lodging reservation system, such as different types of rooms, description and price categories with the airline system. GDS has been increased on the travel market, such as number of flights. Travel Agencies (TA) also use GDS to offer complimentary products, such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation tickets, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne,That means, GDS has become more important distribution channel for nay product through TA. Also TA had more opportunity of more products their own system and GDS system from increase number of booking volume with lower operating costs. It was the first and major goals of GDS being used in the hospitality industry. Even though hopitality ingustry use GDS system, there are few problems, such as show only simple structure. For example, there are 4 different kinds od room and 3 categories od comfort, it means they have 12 different kinds of combination. Because of the GDS database structure, only there 12 combination could be displayed. It took a while to fit all the multiple types of comport rates, rooms and services in GDS standard database structure. Instead of choosing GDS system, they cans choose other alternative system with develop several computerized system to make a database structure closer to product specification. Nowadays, GDS using all of the hospitality industry from reservation hotel rooms to car rentals and Travel Agencies. Through GDS as globally, people are able to to book different kinds of hotel rooms in different destination all around the world, tours, airline seats, cruises and eeve limousines.

Looking at these numbers it becomes very clear how important GDS are to the hospitality industry, more rooms booked means increased revenues and more jobs for hospitality professionals. I am sure that this technology will evolve and transform so it is important to stay current and understand how to get the most out of it.

What's global distribution system? This question is kind of cliché in our group, but this article gives a very good introduction about GDS and it's quite easy to understand comparing to many other articles introducing GDS. This article tells us: How GDS develops from being used only in airline industry to being generally adopted in hospitality industry; What is the working idea behind the GDS; Four major GDS including Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan; Advantages provided by GDS.

The article's main point ties into the third question on this week's discussion: is there a need for the GDS today? Hoteliers have recently been focusing on the OTA sales channel, which leads them to ignore their high-value, corporate guests, and guests who like to use traditional travel agents. The main reason for this is because hoteliers do not want to pay the fees associated with GDS's; however, they are still paying commission fees to OTAs. On average, hotels pay a 20% fee to a GDS when a room is booked, which is typically less than what is paid in commissions to the top OTAs. So why do they still use OTAs and pay the fees? Because they work, and GDS's work also. By eliminating a tried and true method such as the GDS, you are shooting yourself in the foot by getting rid of an effective channel that was bringing in revenue. The author argues that a GDS is still useful in creating more visibility and increased revenues from bulk bookings, travel agents, and especially from corporate and luxury travelers. Corporate and luxury travelers are less concerned about price and typically pay higher rates. They also spend more on ancillary charges in the hotel, which leads to recouping some of that money spent on fees. Given this perspective, I would agree with the points made in the article and how the GDS is still a viable system to be used today. It is especially important to gain exposure to corporate travelers, which is a big market that you don't want to leave untapped.

When it comes to deciding whether you should switch to cloud computing or remain with on-premises PMS, it all depends on your company. Many people fail to see the hidden costs associated with on-premise PMS such as hardware costs, IT staff to manage the infrastructure and expenses coming from 3rd party software integrations. Although on-premises PMS can be more customizable for companies, cloud-based systems are dominating. They reduce costs, are highly accessible in real time, fees are consistent, and are highly secured.

In 2009 the GDS usage declined from 98% to 79%. ALthough there has not been a demand to use this technology, there has been a demand in the first quarter in 2012. There has been an increase because of corporate business demand. GDS is being used to transfer room inventory to global distribution partners as well as travel agents and OTA's. Hotels using the GDS technology offer a percentage to a client instead of a fixed rate. This happens as long as companies have access to the hotel's system everyday. According to Robert Cole, The GDS system is notgoing anywhere because of its unique solutitons to hotels and travelers. It makes it easier for everyone.

This article is about how global distribution systems are still in demand even though they were said to be dying out. Industry leaders thought that with the development of online travel agencies, GDS's would soon be out of business. This isn't the case though. Well it is proven that member travel agencies have been using GDS's less this could be linked to the economy. The people who are purchasing travel through online travel agencies are still using the GDS every day. Business travel is also up in the past 10 years and also an increase in business travelers extending their stays for leisure. With that leisure and corporate traveler are help keeping GDS's alive. But GDS's would be even more profitable if they lowered their transaction fees.

The GDS has decreased steadily over the past decade, but recent studies have shown that there has been a small increase. The increase is thought to be due to corporate travel.  Many hotels are trying to increase the use of the GDS through dynamic pricing models. This model offers a percentage off the hotels best available rate depending on what the demand is. The GDS provides many benefits like facilitating the online search process, offering immediate access to information without using a marketing budget, and high sense of security. The only downfall is that the distribution costs are too high, because transaction fees usually are around $5. 

This article discusses the relationship between airlines and GDS corporations.  Airlines are going a different route to drive customers to book direct by tacking on additional fees to consumers for using the booking sources.  This came as a surprise to the GDS corporations and they have since been trying to work together with certain airlines to have the fee waived for using their site ie: expedia.  With so many add on options when booking flights, such as baggage, seat upgrades, and in flight entertainment, many GDS companies are working with airlines to offer bulk packaging on their sites as well to provide a bump in revenue for both industries.  If both industries continue to maintain a good working relationship the future will be bright for them. 

This article focuses on new hotel apps, focusing on Recharge, that let you rent upscale hotel rooms by the minute/hour. As the article states, this is not a new concept and has been offered in the pass usually at motels. This app looks to change the demographic of those looking to rent hotels for a small amount of time. The app is already active in popular cities around the world, they aim to only work with 3-5 star hotels. I downloaded the app and thought the pricing was a little concerning, but it goes back to the demographic the app is targeting. Recharge aims to appeal to travelers with long layovers, business people looking for a quiet spot in between meeting, sight seers that may need a nap, and even mothers looking for a safe place t publicly breastfeed. Their pricing is right in line with their target demographic as the cheapest price is usually around $30 per hour, and there is always a service fee; the author of the article talks about staying in a hotel for 15 minutes and paying $65 dollars. Personally the pricing is a huge setback, but business wise it makes sense. You are covering the cost of housekeeping having to go in and reset the room, and front desk reprogramming the keys/ handling check in and check out. While I think the system could create a bit of a challenge for hotels in terms of making if something is ready and clean or not, it is another opportunity to increase revenues. This app especially during the slow season for hotels, could help them fill their less desired rooms, if only for an hour. It is similar to a restaurant way of thinking "How many times can we flip this table (room) in peak hours". I may not use the app, but if I was traveling with friends and splitting the cost, I would definitely take the opportunity to pay a few bucks to nap in a 5 star resort.

This article demonstrates the way how relationship between the airlines (United) and the technology companies which serve as middlemen is build. According to the estimations, the airlines pay to the gds's about $18 per round trip ticket reservation, which results in 7 billion in fees that are payed to the gds's annually. The air companies consider these fees unfair in regard of the gds' performance. To compensate for these payments as well as to promote direct bookings, the airlines (namely, Lufthansa) have added a surcharge for any external bookings. GDS's, however, fight back and start litigations against Lufthansa. The decision on this case will either stop such a practice, or force other airlines to follow LH and add surcharges for gds's too. Another problem that airlines experience with GDS's is the presentation of non-standard products that the airlines offer. For example, it took the GDS's several years to correctly display the Ecomy Skycouch by Air New Zealand (buy 3 seats at the price of 2 to sleep across all of them during the long-haul flight). United is going to introduce its Basic Economy Seats with no carry-on luggage and no qualifying miles. However, they are not sure that the GDS' s will be able to display this product to the customers in a proper way so that they could fully understand what they are buying. The reason for that is that GDS's are mainly reluctant to invest in technologies that are focused on product differentation. In this regard, it becomes more difficult to compare fares since different set of services is included in different products. Thus, the customers might be mislead. Moreover, there are antitrust issues with the gds's. The airlines claim that Sabre has a stranlehold on the US domestic market. Such position allows it to ultimatum the airlines and voluntary decide on search display order. The airlines expect the GDS's to be more prone to partnership ralations. This would imply the fair compensation for what they add to the

This article takes you through why your restaurant may want to switch to a Cloud-Based POS. There are many positive attributes associated with making the switch, such as; data accessibility, cheaper operating costs, easier upgrades, less frequent downtimes, increased security, and adaptability. If you are a growing business, the Cloud would grow with you.

Cloud based POS systems can be apprehensive at first, but we are always satisfied once we are able to se the technology work to keep the business safe, effiecient and also more profitable. Cloud based POS systems are speedy and saves a lot of time which frees up staff to do other things in the establishment.

This article discussed the benefits of switching from a localized POS system to a cloud-based restaurant POS. The article touched on how cloud-based systems provide real-time data and how that instant data could provide a management team real-time solutions. You can save so much time and money by identifying issues before they even arrive. I found it very interesting that with cloud-based systems you have the "ability to add on a mobile POS unit that provides a number of benefits." With this option, your servers do not have to run back and forth to a POS station. They simply have the option in the palm of their hands. It also decreases the time spent waiting for a check or credit card to return to the table. This not only increases guest satisfaction, but helps with table turnover. The article also touched on how cloud-based POS systems are "better enabled to grow with you." They are super adaptable and the article mentioned that restaurants can update their menu whenever, launch new loyalty programs, and help with more precise inventory tracking. This article also touched on setup, increased security, staff accountability, and the ability to make better business decisions due to the cloud software being able to provide extensive business insights. Finally, the article touched on POS cost and how " upfront costs are kept to a minimum and monthly subscription fees are lower." It also ended with a case study about Homegrown Hospitality Group and their switch from Aloha to Upserve Cloud-based POS. It was very interesting and I'd recommend everyone read the brief two paragraphs about how the switch changed their business trajectory.

Global Distribution systems ensure that the travel industry gets accurate information and keeps track of data and information. The GDS is a single system that reaches out to very large groups and gives them access to prices and availability of rooms. The GDS comes at a price, for every booking they take a certain percentage of that rate. The best known global distribution systems are Amadeus GDS, Sabre GDS, and Travelport GDS. All of these systems are different but most of the travel bookings are done through them. I believe the GDS is a great way to to attract potential travelers and it makes it easy because everything is on one system.

This article is a good introduction to the concept' of GDS. It is brief, informative and written in plain language, making it easy to understand. The definitions are clear, and the major points i.e. The "big three" GDS' are effectively covered.

This article discusses the pros of hotels utilizing GDS systems and describes the 3 most prominent global distribution systems. Some benefits include a larger consumer outreach, and helpful information access for travel agents. The "Big Three" global distribution systems are Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport.