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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 includes ten ways smart technology is reshaping the hotel industry. Smart energy management, predictive maintenance, smart guest experience, big data protection, smart reserved parking, remote check in and check out, mobile room keys, smart room service, smart marketing practices, and online reputation management technology are all highlighted in this article.

This article is about 10 ways that smart technology can help and reshape the hotel industry that would be beneficial in the long run.

This article explains 10 ways of smart technology in the hospitality industry. 1- Smart Energy 2- Predictive Maintenance 3 - Smart Guest Experiences 4 - Big Data and Big Data Protection 5 - Smart Reserved Parking 6 - Remote Check-in/Check-out 7 - Mobile Room Keys 8 - Smart RoomService 9 - Smart Marketing Practices 10 - Online Reputation Management Technology We all know most of these, but Smart reserved parking caught my attention because I've only seen this once where hotels now have smart sensors and hotel apps that allow to reserve parking spots in advance and it reduces labor since there's not really a valet person assigned. It proves guests a smoother experience from the moment they pull in.

Computer reservations have become the primary means of disseminating air travel information to the airline-sales distribution system. These systems have greatly impacted competition within the airline industry. Sophisticated automation is changing the method by which reservations are requested and accepted. Never before have airline reservations come from so many varied directions. The lack of capital barrier to entry, the mobility of financial and physical capital and a well established information and distribution system seem to preclude any carrier from maintaining unreasonable rates and services without inviting a timely competitive response

October 2002 - The travel marketplace is a global arena where millions of buyers (travel agents and the public) and sellers (hotels, airlines, car rental companies, etc.) work together to exchange travel services. This is a good article talking about four major GDS System companies in the world nowadays. When we do some research in GDS area, it is better for us to know some information about these four companies. They are Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan. The author said that Aadeus is Number 1 inlocations worldwide compared to other three companies, Galileo International is a cautions follower when it comes to technology when compared to other GDS companies. Sabre's competitive strenghs are market position, global reach, stable product line, diversification of revenue streams and intellectual capital. And Worldspan has successfully developed the strategies and solutions to ensure the company's long-tern success. After read this article, I think I have the big picture of what GDS System is. The author gave us the strength of different systems. I know what are these GDS companies doing right now in the world. And what is the best is that the author used some accurate data to support the point. So in my point of view, I don't only understand the knowledge related to GDS System, but also learn the way to write my paper, that is using lots of numbers.

GDS is started on the airline industry. And with it development, the airline company recognized that the GDS is becoming more and more important and necessary. And in my opinion, the GDS can not only focus on the airline. It can be on the internet. That is means they should built some sub-company around the world and it will help to form a kind of net that can cover all over the world. So that it is reduce the pressure of airline and increase the short distance distribution. it will be more efficiency for the guest and less human labor.

More and more customers rely on global distribution system to buy hospitality products in present time. This article introduces four major type global distribution systems, Ama dues, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan. There are also some smaller GDS existed in the world. Amadeus is the youngest of the four GDS companies. Galileo International is a diversified, global technology leader. Galileo's competitive strengths include well-balanced and global presence, relationships with diverse groups of travel vendors, technologically advanced information systems and a stable product line. Sabre's competitive strengths include market position, global reach, stable product line, diversification of revenue streams, and intellectual capital. Worldspan provides worldwide electronic distribution of travel information, Internet products and connectivity, and e-commerce capabilities for travel agencies, travel service providers, and corporations.

GDS systems began in the 1960s with the airline industry in order to track, schedule, check availability and pricing for flights. The first two GDS's that were created was SABRE which was owned by American airlines and Apollo owned by United. GDS provides a perfect marketplace for the travel industry, helping them increase revenue and online marketing exposure. According to researchers travelers that book packages which include hotel, airfare and special events tend to stay longer at destinations and spend large amounts of money. Large and small businesses that sign up for GDS systems to be accessed in their property may receive a small amount of online reservations. Smaller properties can expect 10-20 reservations per month, larger properties may receive as many as 5-10 per day. One of the factors which reflect on the amount of reservation your property may receive consists of your location, unique amenities and services which may appeal to travelers. I have worked in the industry for over 2 years and numerous times I have had to handle reservations made by expedia, travelocity and other third party reservations and room types are not guaranteed. Guest usually arrive to the hotel stating how they have requested double beds and unfortunately on a night where the hotel is sold out the guest has to be told that their request can not be meet because with third party companies room types are not guaranteed. Guest are constantly upset and expect to be compensated in some sort of way, although they are paying approximately $200 dollars on a room that is going for $400. In my opinion GDS are great for saving money and providing the hotel with occupied rooms, but can really cause an inconvenience for those guest that are not able to receive what they requested.

Great article mentioning the detail of GDS cost; an initial one-time sign up fee, a recurring annual maintenance fee, 10% per GDS reservation to the travel agency or travel website that provided the customer reservation. To make consumers book their trip or room through your own website, make sure you have a well designed website, easy to use navigation.

When working in a hotel, the majority of the reservations that come in are done through online booking but what about the reservations made over the phone? Are they still booked as a result of online marketing efforts?  This article from Virtual Strategy Magazine is discusses a brand new data interface developed by NAVIS, the leader in reservation sales systems in North America. NAVIS teamed up with RDP (Resort Data Processing) to create an interface that allows clients to measure how much online and offline revenue is generated from online marketing. Currently, NAVIS is the only company able to offer this service to its clients. The ability of NAVIS to provide this information gives clients the opportunity to decide on where exactly there marketing money needs to be spent and where it needs to be spent less. Having access to all of this new data and information regarding source of revenue will ultimately make a company more successful in the future. 

The Oracle Hospitality Opera Room Reservation System will allow hotels with other Property Management Systems in place, to use their service through SmartHotel. The Room Reservation System will basically let the property have a complete overview of the inventory of the hotel, making it easier to maximize bookings, create a powerful database, and increase revenue.

This article helps us to better understand the information systems being utilized, why they are important and what difficulties they bring about. In the Hospitality Industry, customer service is put at the top of the list of must haves. With customer service comes knowing information about your customer and without Information Technology services put in place, these expectations will never be met. Having a computer based IT is crucial because it allows the employees to work more proficiently which in turn creates a better experience for the guest. Multiple hospitality leaders have been applying fully Internet based technological systems within their organizations. IHG group has implemented an easy to use system so it is simple for every position within the hotel. For a company like IHG with over 500 hotels, it was imperative they eliminated the manual system to provide better quality control. Because of this system they can get better quality products at lower costs. Although this new system is much more user friendly, the overall cost involved is still not confirmed but this system is still predicted to have positive impacts long term. For example at Marriott Hotels, they use a company website, POS Micros, Property Management System and Central reservation system just to name a few. On top of stellar service and quick/ easy information submissions, guests are looking to have the best technology at their disposal to use. Things like computers with full internet access, printers and fax machines to make sure they can still be functional while displaced. An advanced system called MARSHA is being used as a reservation system and stores the rewards system information for Marriot guests. Micros-Opera is a popular property based system provider and has become common within the hotel industry. Vendors usually use this since it gives them the ability to connect to other vendor's applications. MICROS 9700 HMS is the most popularly used point of sale system. There are some

This article describes the following four ways that an online reservation system helps a hotel: (1) it saves time and reduces costs; (2) it helps to automate the booking process; (3) it reduces errors that might occur without such a system; and (4) it helps to increase customer satisfaction. In sum, this type of system is very beneficial for a hotel.

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, published in 2015, covers a study performed in Turkey to analyze factors in hotels that lead management to prefer desktop-based PMS over cloud-based PMS or vice versa. The study uses qualitative research to determine the reasons for the usage of PMS and the advantages and disadvantage of either system. The study found that, among others, significant factors that contribute to the form of PMS implemented by mangement may include the size of the property, reservation channels, and prior level of IT experience.

Property management systems (PMS) were originally only for front desk needs like booking reservations, checking guest in and out, charging accounts, and managing room assignments. The newer PMS systems have enhanced the check in and check out process, maintenance and housekeeping management, and accounts receivable management. The check in and check out process has been enhanced by the newer cloud based PMS systems by giving the front desk the ability to provide service anywhere and anytime. It is more accessible and can update room statuses in real time. As housekeeping cleans rooms the room statuses are updated through their mobile cleaning device into the PMS system. Also, the PMS system allows the front desk to communicate with the maintenance and housekeeping staff for last minute guest request and complaints. The cloud based PMS system also allows the front desk to have access to revenue management. This way the front desk can have access to accounts receivable and update it as payments come in from previous guest. This enables faster and more accurate billing for guest. As technology advances it is important for the hospitality industry to stay updated so that guest and employees needs are met. Keeping up with the technological trends allows companies to remain competitive.

This article tell us what is PMS and what benefits it can brings to the hotels operation. Automating daily operations and administrative tasks is an important part of achieving customer satisfaction as it helps provide reliable and quality service time after time. A hotel is a complex system that encompasses the activities of many departments, and every operation must be tracked

More than a "platform that enabled a hotel or group of hotels to manage front-office capabilities", modern PMS is "a critical business operations system that enables hoteliers to deliver a seamless guest experience" by integrating many other systems. PMS offers many kinds of benefits to hoteliers, including improving housekeeping services and revenue management. The deployment of PMS is also a consideration. While most PMS systems were on-premise, there do have cloud-based ones that reduces cost in an innovative way. It also helps in enhancing customer lifetime value and increase RevPAR and ADR.

The PMS can do many things for the hotel, like web reservation, revenue management, front desk management, back office work, housekeeping, preparing invoices and bills, making report, multi currency and language. It involved all parts of the operation of the hotel. It is very useful. 

Property management systems should be chosen after a lot of deliberation and research. With many property management systems in the market, it is important that you are not cheated or you don't hastily buy something that doesn't work for you. A quick check on 10 features that you should be looking for in a web based property management system are listed below: 1. Web Reservation: One of the most important things to look for in a web based property management system is its web reservation features. Having a good hotel with great facilities is no longer enough. Letting people know about it is crucial for the success of the business. A hotel management software is the right tool for this purpose nowadays. When you are looking into a PMS, check that its web reservation system is easy to use, not time consuming and is flexible. 2. Revenue Management: Getting your finances sorted is essential so that even in the most testing times, you finances and revenue are well managed. A PMS that has a good revenue management system will see that you can control your rates efficiently and provide easy yet detailed reports of the same to any authorized person as and when required. 3. Front Desk Management: Sorting out the checking in and checking out process, facilitating the guests with whatever they need, and linking the same details with all the concerned departments are some of the things that a front desk console should be doing for you. Check that your hotel management software can efficiently take care of these. 4. Back Office Work: One of the most boring yet very essential departments is the back office. All expenses are doubled checked here; all means of revenue calculated and audited, statistics are prepared as are ledgers. A property management system should be having a console that can look into these things easily and without much human effort. 5. Housekeeping: Hotel management software can be a great help when it comes to taking care of rooms. Fro

A property management system is software used to automate the operations of a hotel. It is the hub of a property's operations processing reservations, check-ins and check-outs. It keeps track of how many rooms you have left to sell and at what rate. It handles front office accounting, marketing as well as interfacing to other systems such as phone, reservations, restaurant and pay-per-view movies. Web PMS offers all the features of a traditional PMS-including integrated accounting, GDS connectivity and multiple interfaces-as well as advantages unique to Cloud-based systems, such as remote accessibility, integrated Web and mobile reservations and automatic data back-up. It will be a better choice in the future.

This article talks about one kind of spa reservation system which connects travel agents and spa. This specific reservation system helps travel agents to get easy to find a particular spa treatment for their clients within a navigate system instead of searching thousands hotel, spa websites or other publications. It shows the convenience and efficacy for time management. Also, this spa reservations system clearly shows the commission details which travel agents should get it back from the hotel or spa by booking spa treatments for their clients. For the agents themselves, they can also track and monitory the commissions via a personal account any time.

Summary Personally, I think this kind of spa reservation system is a very good idea both for travel agents and spa. Fierce competitions and commissions reduce are both potential hazard to a travel agent and even makes it down. It helps travel agent to open up a new field of business and earn money under the competitions. Also by monitoring the commissions the agents can make sure that once they get clients to the spa treatment, they will get a certain commissions back. It's like kind of visible incentives for doing business for a long time. Making longtime relationships. For the spa, this system keeps the revenue and occupancy even in the low period by offering spa treatment to customers. It may works better by adhere with spa package, promotion or activities. It avoids making the spa therapists nothing to do just wait and bring customers back. But it may not works in the peak seasons due to the capacities in spa always limited.

This spa reservation system is very efficient, especially nowadays. It is good that is shows the commission details, and also the booking spa treatments. People want to be updated, especially when it comes to something that they are interested in going, like the spa.

This Global Distribution System "Sabre" was selected by Hotel Okura to provide revenue through the forms of sales, account management, customer care and technology with a team of professionals who are all fluent in Japanese.Sabre is used by more then 12,000 properties around the world.JAL Hotels who is under the control of Hotel Okura experienced an impressive 18 percent increase in revenue after their initial migration to Sabre in 2009.This proves that GDS are still a huge factor of the online reservation industry.

The Passkey's GroupMAX ME is a big progress during the housing management service area. It major effect is promoting the efficiency of management in meeting, convention or event. It makes the meeting management become more professional. LA Tourism managers can organize the conventions and meetings that were more safe, consistent and portable by using GroupMAX ME on their hand. The technology could make participants easily and efficiently find hotel reservations in office. And meeting professionals could be easy to track inventory online. GroupMAX ME could help meeting professionals to avoid an excess of reservation fee because it could directly connect hotel property management system or central reservation system.

The Passkey's GroupMAX ME is a big progress during the housing management service area. It major effect is promoting the efficiency of management in meeting, convention or event. It makes the meeting management become more professional. LA Tourism managers can organize the conventions and meetings that were more safe, consistent and portable by using GroupMAX ME on their hand. The technology could make participants easily and efficiently find hotel reservations in office. And meeting professionals could be easy to track inventory online. GroupMAX ME could help meeting professionals to avoid an excess of reservation fee because it could directly connect hotel property management system or central reservation system.

Through this article, I learn that the Smart Hotel Software is very useful. It can help you manage the reservations, deposits, check ins, check outs, guest folios, payments, sales, housekeeping, maintenance and yield management, with a strong interface to many popular accounting systems. This software is suitable for independent and boutique hotels, resorts, motels, villas, apartments, hostels, and chartered yachts. For me, I think this software has 3 advantages. First, it will improve the customer service by having guest history at their fingertips, remember guest preferences and improve your guest experience. Second, it can increase the revenue by effectively managing reservations, rooms and rates with powerful Yield Management tools. Third, it will save costs by tying it all together.  Integrated systems: Website Bookings, Central Reservation Systems, Call Accounting Systems, In-room services, Back Office Accounting and more! Nowadays, some software becomes more and more popular in the hospitality industry. I think the manager need choose and use some good software to their hotels. It can make the employees work more efficiently and attract more customers.