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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.

This article is a good one that demonstrates how GDS are now more often used than times before. The article states that the 2011 Global Travel Agent GDS study demonstrates how important GDS platform and shopping Displays are to the travel agents. They stated the 84 percent of those who took the survey stated that they are using the GDS just as much or even more than they did in the pass and 35 % of these stated that they were using it more than they did in the pass. The article explained how these numbers have greatly increased since 2009 where only 26% agents admitted that they used the GDS systems more than before. This study is 2011 reaffirmed Travel Click's projection, which was that GDS hotel bookings would surpass %50 million in the year 2011. This was far more than that of 2010. The article goes on to explain how the GDS will improve the booking and services of the industry all around. Furthermore, the article went on to explain a worldwide survey conducted for agents who were among the largest GDS in the world and some 495 responses were collected. The survey was conducted by Phoenix Marketing International, which is and independent marketing research firm Travel agents were indicated that promotional messages were effective and prompt during bookings and 66% of these agents request additional information about it. While, 68% of these agents looked into the GDS for more information. After this survey was complete the agents who were aware of promotional messages, 46% of them made North American bookings within 3 months as a result of the promotional messaging and 44% made non- North American bookings. The survey itself shows that promotional messages were and excellent way to get the agents interested. In the article it is quoted how the promotional messages acts in a chain reaction to reach the agent and then the customer, which allows sales all over the world.

GDS provides a perfect virtual marketplace for travel inventory sellers such as hotels, airlines, and car rental systems to showcase their wares to a global Internet travel audience. The GDS is a natural outlet for hotels, resorts, and even smaller inns that want to increase revenue and online marketing exposure. As the GDS channel produces one of the highest average daily rates of any booking channel, there is a huge opportunity for hoteliers to influence travel agents through the GDS at the point-of-sale.

Yes, GDS is of great importance for tourism development. It provides such a huge market of tourism information for customers, airlines, hotels, travel agents and any parts included in the tourism. Someone said that GDS will end travel agent, however, in my opinion; they have their own advantages and will supplement each other in the future.

The article talks about the use of GDS and its importance in the current Hospitality World. It shows a study which refers GDS as the most important booking tool for travel agents, citing record numbers in booking in 2017

Based on the reading GDS assist and has raise the profit margin for hotel across the board. Hotels are more profitable due to this feature .

This article identified some factors that happening in the market which drives a trend for increased bookings through non-GDS hotels. Business travel buyers are increasingly looking at newer opportunities to cut travel costs. Business travel slowdown imminent, The Global Business Travel Association forecasts that the business travel growth is expected to slow in 2012. And business-travel growth will outpace anticipated GDP growth, despite uncertainties in the economy. Rate negotiation process is getting increasingly tougher With a declining market demand, hotels try hard to remain profitable, and have toughened the rate negotiations with buyers. Many are exploring alternative strategies to generate savings from their hotel programs. Some buyers are considering alternative negotiating strategies to derive savings. Due to the demand for wider range of rates to aid policy compliance, corporates are looking for a better value proposition in using hotel aggregators. Hotel aggregation offers key value proposition The latest versions of HotelHub indicate that hotel aggregation offers a major advantage in corporate hotel reservation process. GDS firms and non-GDS are realizing the gap, and aggregation makes Travel Managers save lot of time and cost in servicing booking requests. This article identified some factors that happening in the market which drives a trend for increased bookings through non-GDS hotels. Business travel buyers are increasingly looking at newer opportunities to cut travel costs. Business travel slowdown imminent, The Global Business Travel Association forecasts that the business travel growth is expected to slow in 2012. And business-travel growth will outpace anticipated GDP growth, despite uncertainties in the economy. Rate negotiation process is getting increasingly tougher With a declining market demand, hotels try hard to remain profitable, and have toughened the rate negotiations with buyers. Many are exploring alternative strategies to gener

The article discusses the pros and cons of the GDS. It also addresses the role it plays for helping smaller businesses in standing out to a large group of potential customers. Furthermore, the GDS has gone through many changes since the 1970's, but it is still thriving and overcoming new obstacles today.

This pretty much what we have discussed in class along with the history of  the way hospitality companies have grown so much since the 60s. 

This article describes the development of the GDS, and also introduce its role as a non-air hospitality services marketing channel. The authors introduce the evolution of GDS, and show some points about how hospitality marketing through GDS.

This article goes into depth with the development of the primary electronic distribution channel. Surprisingly, as early as the 1960's travelers and travel agents where booking reservations via letter, telex, or telephone. Most of the reservations for airlines, hotels, and car rentals were conducted via telephone. Because of such an increase in demand of the service, airlines installed computer terminals to reduce cost and increase bookings for the airlines. Airlines believed it would be cost efficient to install such system instead of hiring extra staff. The airlines also predicted that travel agents would reserve more with the airlines that supplied the GDS terminal, which in fact turned out to be true. After, the travel agents became heavily comfortable with the system, they noticed that it could also accommodate to bookings for hotels, car rentals, and travel services. The potential of the travel distribution was obvious and many non-air travel companies became major participants within the system.

Don't sleep on the GDS systems. The are making their mark and proving to be an important asset in the process of making a booking. Whether it is a hotel, car, cruise, or airline reservation, the GDS systems got you covered. Being that nowadays, travel agent would use this system for their non-tech savvy clients, bookings are expected to be at a record high this year. In a report generated by TravelClick, out of the $12 billion dollars generated in the second quarter alone, GDS systems accounted for a little over 16% of that total; the highest percentage came from direct bookings, of course. So at least we can count on the use of these GDSes to help turn a profit within our industry. 

Highlights: -Reach Market Segments Globally -The GDS can help hotel managers uncover new market segments to promote their products. -More revenue -Growth opportunities -more agents are realizing that this is the best way to easily connect with hotel properties from around the world. -Instant updates -The agents have access to live rates and availability, and they can easily book rooms for their clients. -Grow The Lucrative Corporate Segment -GDS is an important mix of larger properties' distribution channels. -Saves time and will lead to greater exposure

This article talks about the advantages of hospitality companies involving in Global Distribution Systems (GDS). One of the obvious advantages is that the GDS will be able to help hospitality companies reach their market segments globally, which will lead to more revenue and growth opportunities. The GDS also gives travel agents instant updates, as they will have access to live rates and availabilities. As so, it will increase satisfaction of their clients. Furthermore, the GDS will help travel agencies and travelers save time, as the GDS tends to "bundle everything together." The GDS will likely be more useful for non-seasonal travelers, as booking everything a la carte might be a hassle for them.

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

1/5 of travel businesses make more than 50% of their revenue from sales outside the GDS booking system, and as they do this, payment transactions are more unreliable and vulnerable opening bigger risks to the customers

Travel Agents are now faced with the situation where they have to utilize all channels to stay afloat. The market has gotten so competitive with more airlines going the direct booking route. Travel Agents now have to be flexible though they face the risk of multiple accounting systems. This could potentially increase the cost of doing business and they may have to input information in multiple system which of course per article may lead to mistakes. GDS may need to look at their approach and some of the fees charged if this trend continues.

This article is about IATA's (International Air Transport Association) New Distribution Capability (NDC) that will give Airlines GDS systems more flexibility in delivering fares and inventory. Right now, the top 4 GDS systems used by major carriers are Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, and Worldspan. The airline I work for uses Sabre with a QIK overlay and, based on personal experience, the implementation of NDC is long overdue. It will make it especially easier during irregular operations (cancellations, delays, misconnections) when we need fast and accurate access to other airlines inventory. Since most airline passengers travel only once every few years, the NDC will also emphasize the role of travel agents. They will be provided with enhanced tools to access more accurate inventory, better routing, fares, and packages that may be unnoticeable to non-frequent travelers when they book directly on the airline's website or OTA's. Furthermore, it will allow airlines and travel agents to collect data about passenger's preferences in order to provide future tailored business or leisure packages.

Mark Starkov, President & CEO at HEBS Global provides advice as to how to understand and optimize several tools hotels use for bookings. We live in a world where mobile connectivity is on the rise with no fall in sight. More and more people are spending more time and money on and through these devices, and it is something that our travel and hospitality industries are booming from. In 2014, nearly 40% of web visitors and page views were credited to non-desktop computers. In terms of hotels, these devices can also account for over 20% of bookings and 17% of sleeping room nights. Between 2013 and 2014, hotel revenue generated via tablets more than doubled and booked over 77% more room nights than non-"pure" devices. These stats alone should have all hoteliers seeing opportunity. The world of e-commerce is allowing hoteliers and other travel companies to open up many revenue streams. Between DGS, OTAs, and CRM, we are able to reach a much wider audience and bring in an exponentially larger amount of business. These tools do not work for free, as there are often commissions or subscription fees these companies are compensated for. As valuable as these third-party tools are, it is equally important to invest in your direct-booking outlet. Booking direct business keeps the most money in your pocket. Not only will you get optimum rates, you will also save on commissions, referral fees, etc. Just imagine not having to pay a third-party commission of 10% of a $100,000 dollar piece of business. That's 10 thousand saved. Sometimes, when large corporate events are booked, there can be two referral services involved, resulting in 15% commission payout. In terms of direct vs. third-party business, a hotel could not survive on only one.

RateGain is a company that offers services that allow hospitality establishments to retain a "seamless" distribution with central reservations systems, global distribution systems, and property management systems. RateGain claims to enhance growth and offer support for revenue management decisions. Utilizing a central reservations system, a global distribution system, and the property management system, from a hotel standpoint, seems like you are gaining a ton of additional business and additional rooms sold. But what happens when the hotel sells out, and the inventory continues to flow in, overselling the hotel, upsetting the guests and creating an angry mob in front of the front desk, blaming the hotel for the issue instead of the lack of seamless communication between all of these systems providing this revenue? That is where a service such as RateGain comes in handy. This article focuses on the issues that have been identified regarding electronic distribution, including updating multiple system with rates and availability, manual entries, lack of synchronization between the systems, non-delivery complications with reservations and information, and lack of information provided by the source channel. Rate Gain notes these challenges and focuses on ways to improve and bridge the gaps between the services, to provide a seamless revenue gaining opportunity for an establishment. The article continues to explain how their RG Bridge implementation enhances these systems and eliminates these issues utilizing two way connectivity and allowing the hotel employee to work with channels to generate demand. It also states that they customize each connection to live up to the expectations and needs of the hotel, so that nothing will be lost or not understood. This service is a great investment for a company that continues to have these communication issues with their systems. Sometimes with the lack of communication between the global distribution system, the pr

This article talks about where the internet has brought us in the business world and where it is taking us. There are other articles included to support the idea that hospitality businesses need the internet inorder to successfully reach out to and market toward customers. Along with the idea that if a business does not have an online presence,that, is an untapped stream of revenue. As well as the combined business efforts that go into delivering a flawless product to its customers via the web. There were two case studies that took place in order to understand the role e-commerce has played and will potentially play in the hospitality industry.