GDS - Global Distribution System
GDS (Global Distribution System) and Pegasus Online Data Distribution (ODD) continue to be important booking channels especially for major city hotels catering to business travelers. Travel Agent sales offices and their websites continue to use GDS for hotel bookings for searching corporate negotiated rates and consortia. Since 2000 leisure bookings have been decreasing on GDS with emergence of OTA websites like Agoda, Expedia and many more.
Today; GDS systems continues to supply diverse travel content including hotels availability to thousands of on-line Travel websites (OTA) and they continue to generate millions of bookings daily for many travel services. The GDS systems are a huge network of computers set up originally by companies like Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre. These systems remain essential for Travel Agents.
GDS Quick Q & A
Click here to go to more detailed FAQ and processes.
1. What is GDS?
GDS is abbreviation for Global Distribution System and is an online system which delivers rates, inventory, discounts, rooms, and descriptions to the many systems supported by GDS.
2. What channels aresupported by GDS?
The GDS system includes high traffic portal travel sites or channels including Travelocity, AAA, Hotwire, Priceline, TravelWeb and Yahoo Most importantly all travel agent systems are included, such as Sabre, Pegasus, Galileo, Worldspan, and Amadeus just to name a few of the familiar ones.
3. How much does it cost?
Our rates our highly competitive and include one-time setup cost, an annual fee, a fee per reservation payable to the GDS service provider and TA commission payable to the TA booking source..
4. Can my property be listed more than once on each GDS / that is can I have multiple listings?
Each GDS does not allow multiple lists. Your property can only show one listing
5. What is the process of implementation?
A signed contract must be completed, signed and returned, before any implementation can be started. Once the contracts are received we will assign a support manager who will liaise with your team assigned for the project.
6. How long does it take to be bookable?
The entire process should take between 4 weeks from when we have all the required information. With OTA websites powered by GDS it can take weeks or months depending on their schedules updating their database interface with the GDS provider.
7. Why is it important to be on the GDS?
So that travel agents worldwide will see and their travel webs sites are usually the first places guests will go to search for their next vacation. The more visible you are on the internet the more reservations you will acquire.
8. Why is it important to pay the TA commission?
If you don’t pay; Travel Agents will not sell your property since this is their commission. Not to be confused with the fees Hotels pay to their GDS service providers.
Click here for information on HOW TO USE YOUR GDS PROPERTY CODES