A GDS is a worldwide conduit between travel bookers and suppliers

 A GDS is a worldwide conduit between travel bookers and suppliers, such as hotels and other accommodation providers. It communicates live product, price and availability data to travel agents and online booking engines, and allows for automated transactions.

The GDS is often used to tap into the corporate travel market because it has the ability to present hotels, flights, and car rentals in one simple interface which is convenient. Many companies organising trips for their staff will use the GDS as their preferred booking method.

The history of global distribution systems dates back to the 1960s when a more sophisticated method was needed to keep track of flight schedules, availability, and prices.

As early as the 1970s GDSs were some of the first companies in the world to facilitate business to business (B2B) electronic commerce (now more commonly known as ecommerce). Airlines realised that by automating the reservation process for travel agents, they could make the travel agents more productive and essentially turn them into an extension of the airline’s salesforce.

Four of the major legacy GDSs are:

• Amadeus
• Galileo
• Sabre
• Worldspan

Hoteliers are always looking at ways to increase their reach to attract more customers, increase revenue, and make a profit. It seems a global distribution system (GDS) is a valuable channel to achieve this. A GDS passes on hotel inventory and rates to travel agents and travel sites that request it and also accepts reservations.

How does the GDS work in travel?

The tangled web of databases has become even more of a labyrinth following the explosion of online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com, Expedia and Wotif. Hotels and other travel entities can use technology solutions to capitalise on this trend, tapping into all GDSs, including the likes of Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, and Worldspan by Travelport.

Live rates and availability are sent from a hotel’s property management system (PMS) directly to the GDS and online booking websites via a channel manager. As soon as a reservation is made on the GDS or an online booking website, the channel manager instantly reduces inventory across all channels, including the hotel’s own website, and automatically delivers the reservation details back into the PMS or central reservation system (CRS).

Each GDS has its own set of connection fees and requirements to sign up if you do this independently, rather than through a technology solution.

What are the major GDS systems?

There are several major global distribution systems that house and process the majority of data from hotels, airlines, and other distributors. These include Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo, Worldspan, Apollo, and Pegasus.

However there are many technology providers that help hotels tap into these GDSs and by extension the thousands of travel agents and travellers across the world.

Amadeus GDS

Amadeus has been operating for over 30 years, building critical solutions to help airlines, hotels, railways, travel agencies, tour operators and more to run their business and improve the travel experience.

Amadeus has the biggest global footprint of any of the GDSs, with a potential reach to millions of guests. The company operates in over 190 markets and employs over 17,000 people.

Sabre GDS

Sabre is a leading technology and data-driven solutions provider helping airlines, hotels and travel agencies grow their businesses and transform the traveller experience.

Sabre is seen as a pioneer for online travel agencies, corporate booking tools, revenue management, and web and mobile itinerary tools, to name a few.

Sabre Travel Network is its global business-to-business travel marketplace and consists primarily of the GDS and a broad set of solutions that integrate with the GDS.

This marketplace is used by travel suppliers including 400 airlines, 175,000 hotels, 200 tour operators, 50 rail carriers, 40 car rental outlets and 17 cruise lines.

Galileo GDS

Galileo traces its roots back to 1971 when United Airlines created its first computerised central reservation system. Due to the high market penetration of the Sabre and Apollo systems, owned by American Airlines and United Airlines, respectively, Worldspan and Galileo were created by other airline groups in an attempt to gain market share in the computer reservation system market.

The Galileo system was moved from Denver, Colorado, to the Worldspan data centre in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2008, following the merger of Travelport and Worldspan (although they now share the same data centre, they continue to be run as separate systems).

Worldspan GDS

Worldspan is a Travelport platform, and is the technology leader in web-based travel eCommerce, offering solutions for all facets of travel business online. As a leading GDS, Worldspan provides travel distribution, technologies and services for thousands of travel companies worldwide, including travel agencies, corporations, travel suppliers and travel websites.

Worldspan transforms global travel distribution and transaction processing with industry-first fares, pricing, shopping and booking technologies, and a portfolio of interactive shopping tools that enable travel companies to reduce costs, increase productivity and build revenues.

Apollo GDS

As a leading GDS, Apollo provides travel distribution, technologies and services for thousands of travel companies worldwide, including travel agencies, corporations, travel suppliers and travel web sites.

The Apollo reservation system was used by United Airlines until 2012, when it switched to SHARES, a system used by its former Continental Airlines subsidiary. Apollo is still used by Galileo International (now part of Travelport GDS) travel agency customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan.

Abacus GDS

Abacus was founded in 1988 and became a leading provider of travel solutions and services in the Asia Pacific region.

The company is headquartered in Singapore and owned by Sabre Holdings, after Sabre acquired a full stake off 11 Asian airlines who were holding a majority share.

Abacus serves more than 100,000 travel agents across the Asia-Pacific region’s 59 markets and has both global and uniquely local relationships with airlines and hotels, including the leading portfolio of low-cost content and Chinese airline content.

Pegasus GDS

Pegasus strives to remove friction and create simplicity amidst an otherwise complicated environment. Pegasus Solutions pioneered the hospitality reservations industry.

The company is a market leader in the electronic processing, management, distribution, sales and marketing of hotel inventory, rates and content across different sales channels to include direct bookings via hotels’ branded websites, voice, travel agents (GDS), OTAs and metasearch partners.