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23.000 employees spread over 3 major GDS...
If they would merge, their total transaction value would rank 3td on the Fortune 500 list.
GDS connectivity means an exposure to nearly half a million travel agents.
If you are completely new to this marketing tool, you can read this Introduction to the GDS-IDS for starters in PDF: 
YOU WORK, NOT THE GDS
It happens all the time. A hotel invests heavily in GDS connectivity... and 6 months later the hotels calls its GDS representative to say: It doesn't work.
This is a very, very common situation that has its roots in simply not understanding what GDS connectivity is.
GDS connection is a marketing tool. Just like a hammer, or a dashboard of a Mercedes is a tool. If you buy a car, even a luxurious one... that will not help you if you do not know how to drive.
WHAT ARE "THE GDS"?
GDS stands for Global Distribution Systems.
Originally they were created by the airline industry, as a tool for travel agents to make flight reservations.
Gradually also hotel, cruise or car rental reservations were added. This origin is the reason why still today your Geo-Codes are so important at the time of connecting to the GDS; basically they send a customer as they would send an airplane... to a geographic location.
The 3 major GDS, and honestly the only ones being worth the while, are SABRE, AMADEUS, & TRAVELPORT (previously Galileo Make sure that your GDS representative connects you to all 4 GDS, not just one!
FOLLOW THE TRAINING!
Your GDS representative will provide you with
a training. Take it seriously! Half of your success depends on you understanding that training.
If you did not understand everything, ask for a new training. And then a new one. And a new one. Your representative will not mind at all.
Because if you are succesful on the GDS, that is only good for the representative too.
OPTIMIZE YOUR SETTINGS
As in the search engines, also listings on GDS and IDS have become very competitive.
If you are located in a big city as for example Madrid, you still compete with literally hundreds of hotels.
The more hotels... the more competition, even on here.
Hence the reason why it is often far better to look for a good representative, than merely a cheap one. Alternatively, make sure you yourself keep a sharp eye on your settings, and go for excellent, at every step, from the room descriptions to your rate plans. |
Hotels that work very well on the GDS, have a few things in common:
- Very central location
- Or located close to an Int. airport
- A star rating of 3 to 5
- A minimum of 30 rooms
- Suitable for the corporate market.
Does your hotel score on at least 3 out of 5?
You might want to consider to go ahead.
"IDS POTENTIAL"?
In general, hotels with potential are:
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Located in a typical "City Trip" city
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Located near to a popular airport catering to
many low cost carriers
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Mass tourist beach locations such as Cancun, Algarve, Antalya, Costa's.
Do you have both IDS and GDS potential? A test of one year can be worth the while. (6 months is too short to get a good feel).
WHAT ARE "THE ADS"?
ADS stands for "Alternative Distribution Systems" which is an older expression, dating from the time when the Internet was still seen as alternative.
Nowadays we use the expression IDS.
A REPRESENTATIVE?
A GDS-IDS representative or representing company, is a company that lists your hotel on all GDS and all IDS.
So instead of working with a long list of seperate contracts and systems, you work with one only. A very good representative is worth gold, especially today when most hotels opt for very cheap solutions.
(DIS)ADVANTAGES
A disadvantage of working through a representative company is:
That any system, be it a GDS or IDS system, will most probably show your hotel at a lower position than with a direct contract.
On the other hand, the advantage of a representative is that your hotel is listed and all information managed everywhere... in one go. So instead of having to update availability etc system after system after system... you have one single control centre.
A second advantage: If your representative is good, he will also become your marketing and revenue manager.
If he is very good, that not only saves you a lot of time, but also optimizes your potential on all systems.
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The perfect hotel website
For a hotel, its most profitable marketing tool is still its direct website.
What makes a good hotel website and how do you know if you have one?
> Read more
CREATE RATE PLANS
Make sure you always have a minimum of 3 rate plans.
For example: Best Available Rate, Standard Rate, Corporate Rate.
This allows you to quickly open and close any specific rate, and perform revenue management throughout.
WHAT ARE "THE IDS"?
IDS stands for Internet Distribution Systems, which simply refers to the Internet Portals that offer hotel reservations.
So while being on the GDS means that your hotel can be booked at a travel agency, a travel agent with a walk-in office and an IATA number, being on the IDS means that your hotel is viewable on internet portals, such as Booking.com, Expedia.com, Travelnow.com, Travelocity.com, and the hundreds of other, smaller or regional internet portals, as Alitalia, Horse21, and so on.
Even while there are literally tens of thousands of IDS, most of them are extremely small or only catering to a small local market.
The convention has it that there are 1200 average ones and 30 very big ones - the Big Ones being of the order of Expedia, Travelocity, Travelnow, Hotel.de, Yahoo Travel and MSN.
GDS+IDS+WEBSITE
The most complete GDS-IDS package?
That is offered by the Swiss company GlobRes.
It exists of full GDS-IDS connectivity, with WBE, and all channels managed through one CRS.
Even the hotel website is included and for free in the package.
Their Hotel Website Portfolio is created by us and contains a basic level of SEO.
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