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The Sabre Eco-Certified Hotel Program builds upon Travelocity's Green Hotel Directory, launched in 2009, and extends the program company-wide to recognize hotels that are certified as sustainable according to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council's guidelines. Travelocity is still the only major online travel company that helps users find green hotels with an eco-friendly tag.The program addresses travelers' growing desire for environmentally responsible accommodations and includes more than 4,700 hotels certified by globally-recognized certification programs. The 4,700+ hotels participating in the program will be clearly distinguished in Sabre's Global Distribution System (GDS) and reflected in other Sabre platforms. Sabre is keenly focused on the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the travel industry and we are committed to providing our customers with products and services that help them promote these same long-term values throughout their businesses." In addition, Sabre's resolve that standards are important for the travel industry directed an industry-leading path for standards with the introduction of carbon calculation and reporting tools for airlines, hotels, and car rental companies.

This article talks of the advantages of having a PMS system for business owners. How the system can help to make the business owners or managers life easier through making real time reports and checks on the facility

This is actually an article touting the benefits of "unplugging" from our 24/7 wired world. The National Park System is notorious for its horrible cell and WiFi coverage. However, with the exception of its use as a safety net, I concur with the author's points. We visit wide open spaces as an escape from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. Our smartphones still function quite well as cameras even without a signal. At the end of a day of hiking, when we return to our hotels or homes, our phones automatically upload and archive our adventures. In contrast to the rental car, airline and hotel end of our industry, the escapist mindset that we go into vacations with, may actually benefit from a lack of networks in some cases. A visit to a high-end resort (a la Club Med) many times comes with the "benefit" of no phone or TV in the room. If you're going on vacation, then BE on vacation. Use the technology to archive and share the fun, but don't let it interrupt an unforgettable experience.

The article explains the history of GDS, and how GDS doesn't hold any inventory, but they are held on the vendor's reservation system so if a travel agent approaches Air India for reservation, the GDS can route the travel agent to Air India's computer reservation system in real time. Of course any travel agency should invest in the GDS as GDS can provide the best holiday package to guests at the lowest rate, for a package which includes air, hotel, and car rental. The article also illustrates how important GDS was to the airline industry and how the booking process has changed in the past decade, as we can now book within minutes in the comfort of our home. Before it would take an employee over an hour just to book a single flight for a customer.

This article summarizes why we wont be seeing a decline of GDS use in the travel industry anytime soon. As stated in the article "nothing beats a GDS model for booking seats on planes". The article suggests that a good GDS agent can ultimately work more efficiently than someone working with a GUI. Another major positive to using GDS is accessibility. A firm can book both corporate and leisure travel from anywhere, as long as internet access is available. In one study 62% of agents said that air content was the biggest draw of a GDS. One agent said that when booking air the GDS system Amadeus gives her a selection of choices in a fraction of the time it takes her clients to see them online. Clearly, GDS systems such as Amadeus and Sabre are saving agents and customers time and money while booking. Another upside to using GDS is that it allows agents to see routes, departures and arrival times which are important because many clients have preferable airports when they travel. The article also says how GDS is more commonly used for air and car rentals instead of hotels. It also gives a look into why Airlines werent a fan of GDS usage. For example, GDS were changing revenue models for airlines because GDSs paid travel agents and it seemed that they were buying loyalty with money from airline fees.

This article touches on events and the process Event Coordinators use to keep track of money. Things like dinners, galas, auctions and fundraisers are examples of events that involve a transfer of money. The "Direct benefit to donors" are the actual costs of the items and services given to guests for their attendance. There are 3 options given to report these benefits. Option 1 - Present the Costs of Direct Benefits to Donors as a line item. Option 2 - Present Special Event Gross Revenues in the revenue section of the Statement. Option 3 - Present the contribution portion as contribution revenue and the exchange portion (fair value received by donor) as special events revenue. To properly report activities each transaction needs to be recorded for revenue purposes. Tracking the number of attendees, ticket prices, and value of the event is important to make sure funds are being allocated correctly. If lump sum donations are made or sponsorships are involved, that revenue needs to be reported as well. On top of this, costs need to be calculated too, event space rental, food, table cloths… in order to come up with a final profit number. Sometimes donated auction items are used to incur a 100% profit for the organization.

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.

The article discussed the significance of hotels using the Global Distribution System and how the GDS helps promote and influence bookings.The GDS is basically the main source of booking reservations for a travel agent. The GDS shows all rates and inventory for hotels, airlines, and rental car centers. According to the article, GDS is used mainly by international travel agents, but it is used my travel agents all over the globe. When looking at the GDS, travel agents ted to focus mainly on the rate information it is advertising, usually the BAR rate is what travel agents are aiming to get for their clients. The GDS is relied on heavily by travel agents to offer the best rate to their client, which in return will help them gain more clientele. The more accurate and visually appealing the GDS is, the more the agents are willing to use it.

Everything in life and business today is about how you can make big bigger, fast faster and everything more personalized. This article is giving suggestion about how GDS may evolve in the future to make it more personalized to the buying customer as well as making it more GDS more secure. GDS are starting to price compare with competing sites and businesses are offering incentive of not having service fees if you book directly through them. Where is this leading the GDS systems? Perhaps into the Blockchian technology, where a customer can purchase a token and essentially cash it in when they exchange it for the service being done. This is allowing for more secure transactions of moneys. GDS will never go out of business, but there is always a way someone is looking to make it better, Blockchains may be something of the future trend.

This article introduces GDS, OTA and Meta in a short space. GDS stands for Global Distribution System, GDS is a rather costly selling channel that mainly allows the sale of rooms in larger quantities to bigger companies. Small independent hotels usually do not need GDS. OTA stands for Online Travel Agency. meta stands for Metasearch Engines. For small hotels, the cost of GDS is high and it is generally difficult to adopt. OTA and meta are two methods worth considering.

This article highlights how GDS systems like Sabre are constantly adapting and evolving into new market segments. By the hour room rentals have been on the rise over the past few years whether it be for a private meeting space for small groups or a place for someone to get some some quick rest or maybe just a place to bath and change their clothes. As this segment grows GDS systems can be integral into showcasing their availability and legitimacy.

Artificial Intelligence is not widely used for booking travel with multiple complexities such as a hotel, car rental and activities however this is becoming more of a possibility with the advancements of Natural Language Processing (NPL). Over the past year there has been major advancements with NPL due to the pandemic and when combining NPL technology with other AI such as chatbots or voice assistants, these systems become more powerful and will be able to assist in planning more complex travel. These systems can also help a travel agent with more complex bookings by gathering the information needed such as date, locations and points of interest.

I chose this article because I believe it is a perfect example of how to make the most out of the technology revolution! Blockbuster did not see the opportunity fast enough and so Netflix put them completely out of business. There are advantages and disadvantages to the "wait and see" approach but I think in this case, Blockbuster missed out on a huge opportunity and they didn't look into the future as they should have. As technology is constantly evolving, the only way to keep up is to stay current.

The article describes how hotels have been late in adopting the cross-selling and up-selling trip extras that airlines have been so successful with over the last decade or so. It also summarizes the results of research done by Phocuswright with iSeatz which found that the majority of business travelers surveyed are interested in purchasing additional on-site extras and off-site extras. The research also found that the hotels that were surveyed cite reasons such as a lack of technology and stretched resources at hotel level as barriers to implementation.

The author fails to recognize that the e-commerce platforms developed by the airlines over the past decade have been focused on selling unbundled extras, whereas until recently the hotel e-commerce platforms have been very focused on offering the customer bundled packages and only had limited capability for up-selling and cross-selling.

This article goes in depth into GDS. It explains the concept of the GDS is and how eaxctly it works. It also gives examples of some major GDSs. It talks about the benefits of using GDS in hotels.

The global distribution system in the hospitality industry is beyond vital in the act of keeping the ball rolling. GDS provides live products and offers to travelers across the globe. Whats really amazing about GDS is that live availability and rates are transferred through a channel manager directly to online booking sites. This allows guests to acquire the best rates the soonest as opposed to waiting to call a hotel or resort to see what they have and at what price.

This article shows us everything we need to know about Hotel GDS. It includes GDS in the hotel industry, GDS work way in travel, seven major GDS systems, the way to access leading GDSs with GDS software, GDS conditions of use, benefits of connecting hotel to the GDS, and how to use the GDS to capture cruise travel bookings at hotel.

The article describes the origins of green hotel and hospitality movement, provides the experts' opinions on green movement within the industry and predicts the possible future actions of the hotels in the after COVID-19 times. Financial aspects of the implementation of environment friendly actions are also discussed.