Global
Distribution System
/ GDS
System
is computerized and centralized web service that provide travel
related transactions covering airline reservation, hotel reservation,
cruise reservation and car rentals. In brief, central reservation
systems that book and process the PNR for global airlines are known
as Global
Distribution Systems
/ GDS Systems.
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Originally,
GDS systems were set up for airline reservations but later its
extended to process hotels, cars, cruise and holiday packages. GDS
system makes it convenient for users to purchase tickets from
different airlines or providers thereby forming the backbone of
internet based travel booking services. GDS
system
reaches out to more than 300,000 plus IATA registered travel agents
powered by four major GDS networks like Sabre, Amadeus, Worldspan and
Galileo. Thus the GDS systems today, are used by travel agents and
online customers all over the world to book flights, hotels, rentals
and other travel related services. The key point here is that any GDS
system will not hold the inventory, but the inventory is held on
vendor’s reservation system itself as GDS has real-time access to
the vendor’s database.
GDS
can also be understood as a network operated by a company that
enables automated transactions between booking agents and vendors so
as to provide travel related services to end consumers. A GDS system
usually links rates, services, bookings consolidating products and
services across the major travel sectors like hotel reservations, car
rentals, airline reservations and other activities.
GDS
system’s primary customers are mainly travel agents, who are either
following OTA model or using a web based software to connect to GDS.
To
understand, how global distribution system works, take for example
the case of Amadeus GDS. Amadeus is used globally by over 90,000
travel agency locations and over 32,000 airline sales offices for
distribution and selling of travel services. This service processes
more than 480 million transactions per day, which is huge and over 3
million total bookings per day. GDS along with Online Distribution
Data or ODD in the form of connectivity modules allow hotels to
connect with Travel agents and online customers.
GDS
are owned and operated as joint ventures by major airlines, hotel
groups, companies and car rentals. Sometimes they are also called as
automated reservation system or ARS or computerized reservation
system or CRS.
Modern
GDS
system
typically allow users to take advantage of
booking hotel rooms, rental
cars,
airline tickets, as well as for other activities like outdoor tours.
They also provide access to railway and bus reservations in some
segments of markets, although these are not always integrated with
the main system.
For
many years, GDS had a dominating position and role in the travel
sector. To avoid high GDS fees airlines have started to distribute
flights directly from their websites through web services or APIs,
thus bypassing GDS to a large extent, another way of bypassing is by
facilitating direct connections to the travel agencies.
Author:
Author
is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel
portal development projects.
