http://www.provab.com - A global distribution system (GDS) is a database capable of storing and updating enormous information on the supply of a wide range of tourism products worldwide. GDSs enable the travel agents to access, in real-time, availability, features and prices of flight tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises, ferry reservations, trains and other services. With a Global distribution system integrated to their website, travel agencies can allow their customers to search and book travel products and services and issue tickets too. Looking for a Travel Portal – Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html Global Distribution System Travel agencies are greatly aided by GDS systems because they are enabled to offer their customers rates, inventory, discounts, rooms, and descriptions on a real-time basis. In other words, global distribution systems are intermediaries between travel product suppliers –and travel retailers who sell tickets to the final consumer. Main features of GDS: • Report availability and prices of travel products • Reserve user requests. • Sale and ticketing • Track sales (extend customer’s stay, change of flights, etc). • Facilitates control management for travel agencies). Evolution of GDS The prototype of GDS in the travel industry can be seen in the 1950s as the traditional legacy business model which inter-operated between airline vendors. Computer reservation systems (CRS), at the initial stage, was used by the airline companies as an automated booking system, but later, travel agents were given access. Around 1980, CRS enabled travel agents to connect to various travel providers in a single system. At this stage, in addition to flights, hotels and car rentals were included. CRS acquired much strength by late 80s being so helpful to both suppliers and distributors. In the 90s, computerized reservation systems of airlines were transformed to global distribution systems (GDS). So we see that GDS has developed from airline alliances and ended up becoming independent business units with product internationalization and introduction of new products, especially hotel rooms, which is why Amadeus and Galileo software are used for all the top travel agencies worldwide. GDS integration for travel agencies and suppliers of travel products Travel agencies must have full access to a global distribution system GDS. To get connected to a GDS, travel agencies need a contract. This will enable the travel agents to provide an astonishing amount of travel product rates and information to their customers, at the lowest possible rates. An experienced travel technology company can integrate any GDS to the computer reservation system or website of a travel agency. It’s critical also for the properties to be on a GDS. Travelers now go to travel portals to find travel products. So hotels, car rentals, etc, have to be there to get Internet visibility and, thus, more reservations. A GDS allows real-time access to inventory system of a hotel with the current prices, discounts, room types, facilities like Wi-Fi and different aspects of interest to the potential customer. Owners can hire a good travel technology company to get access to the GDS of their choice. A property can be connected only in one GDS provider. If the property owner wants to change the provider, he can cancel the existing provider and activate another with a switch letter. How much does it cost? To integrate GDS to your system, you’ll have to pay a one-time setup cost and pay a monthly charge of a minimum amount per reservation. Major GDS systems Amadeus was started in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and SAS in order to create a European GDS, by fusing their CRSs. In 1989, seven more airlines joined Amadeus and began to allow travel agents to book flights through neutral screens. It is now the largest leisure package distributor in the world. Through Amadeus GDS integration, a travel agent can offer travel products from 430 airlines in 195 countries, 32 car rental companies in 37,918 locations, 20 cruise lines and 300,000 hotel properties. More than 100,000 travel agencies are connected with Amadeus GDS. Sabre, a joint venture by American Airlines and IBM, was started in 1960. In 1970, Sabre system began to be installed in travel agencies. Now 55,000 travel agencies use Sabre GDS to book products from 400 airlines, 88,000 hotels, 24 car rental brands, and 13 cruise lines.
Galileo and Worldspan are the other two major GDSs. There are also third party consolidators like Sahara, Infini (Japan), Axess (Japan), Tapas (Korea), Fantasia (South Pacific), and Abacus (Asia/Pacific) that cater to particular regions or countries. The big consolidators also include such as Expedia, Orbitz (Merchant program registration needed), Hotels.com, Travelocity, AAA, Hotwire, Priceline and TravelWeb. The future of GDS As a tool of of content aggregation, GDS is here to stay and be more powerful. Novel technological solutions in middleware continue to appear. Global distribution systems have a long way to go.
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http://www.provab.com - As reports suggest, more and more travellers, especially the youngsters, tend to book their flights and hotels through their smartphones. In a report published some time back “Tap into mobile: managed travel in the digital economy, an investigation into the impact of mobile in the managed travel space.” It predicts travel bookings through mobile will greatly increase in the next ten years. Travel agencies will use latest mobile technology to deal with their travelers. By 2017, mobile booking will increase to 32%. For Travel Portal Design – Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html Benefits of mobile are hassle-free, fast and efficient running of travel business, more productivity and profits and travellers’ wellbeing. Travel agencies want travel technology companies to supply a one-stop-shop app which cater to all their needs as well as of their customers. Travel portal companies in India who supply mobile websites and customized mobile apps to travel managing companies in different parts of the world like Singapore, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Nairobi, Copenhagen, Dhaka and Brussels. Now they include travel alert features, besides flight status updates and itinerary information. Indian travel software suppliers emphasize on productivity and compliance to laws in respective countries when they design and develop apps and websites for travel agencies in European countries such as Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and Britain. When travel companies in Toronto, San Antonio, Playa del Carmen, Honolulu, Niagara Falls, San Juan, Ottawa, Whistler and so on offshore their travel software development to India. Indian mobile software companies, take special care to provide simple and efficient way of doing travel business and productivity.
iPhone and Android devices are almost in every hand and people are browsing the information more than ever. So travel agencies are seeking the services of mobile app development companies to build them a best in class tool. Online travel software offers search and booking facilities of flights, hotels, transfers, sightseeing, cars, cruises and holiday packages. Ticketing systems powers real-time booking of travel deals. Mobile apps use the same web services, which are used by travel software and bring the desired information for the end user. Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html A travel software is a web based system to store & retrieve travel related contents including flights, hotels, transfers, sightseeing and other services. Mobile apps are connected to the same database and access the web services from the GDS & APIs directly. The data may come from the ticketing system's database or it may come from the Global Distribution Systems, hotel APIs providers or third party suppliers. Ticketing system may process the transactions related to flights, accommodations, transfers, cars, cruise and other travel related services. There are three kinds of travel software systems, which are most widely used today.
A travel software, while issuing any ticket connects to primary flights / hotels / cars data to find real time availability and pricing. Once the availability is confirmed, users can proceed to make payment to confirm the booking. This whole process is automated and end users get the booking confirmation / PNR or voucher in no-time after making the payment. Amadeus and Galileo software, backed by the GDS systems are some of the top used travel software. Below are distinct advantages of travel ticketing system.
Same advantages are extended through the mobile apps, which does not only help in making the booking process easier but also help in brand recall. http://www.provab.com - When you are searching for travel agency software, tour operator software or travel ecommerce solutions, one of the most important points to consider is the features associated with it. The level of customization capability that the software possess also plays an important factor, while deciding on the software. One more major factor is the level of support that you would receive when you face technical difficulties, after the software has been launched. For Travel Agency Software – Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html Choosing a travel agency software or a travel portal software could be a challenging task, unless you concentrate on the below mentioned key points. Make a note of the features that you want The software should align with your business requirement Have a look at the demo of the software that you are planning to purchase Search for a software that could be customized After development support is very essential The software should be scalable Price should fit your budget 1. Make a note of the features that you want in the software Making a list of the features that you are looking for in the software would help you in knowing your needs. Make a note of the key features and the special requirement that you expect from the software. One of the most common examples that I can site for you is the involvement of advanced mark-up module or the log of the user behavior analysis or an open source technology for your system. Your requirement may include easy access like one click quotation, voucher access from any point, automatic cancellation of booking and raising a system alert automatically. You may wish to have customized features like multiple payment gateway, multi-language framework, pricing model that is flexible and a more controlled back office features. 2. The software should align with your business requirement The software that you purchase should have the capability of meeting your business requirement. This could be ascertained by conducting a market research and designing a business system that meets your requirements. The requirements vary as your business may be spread in one region or it may be spread across the world. The travel agency that you operate might be small with limited number of staffs or it may be a large organization with many employees. There may be a requirement to provide special access to certain employees and there may be requirement for different log ins. Your concept about your business operation should be very clear and accordingly the software should fit into your business requirement. 3. Have a look at the demo of the software that you are planning to purchase An online presentation may showcase all the features, but it is advisable to ask for demo. Demo helps in understanding the system, along with handling it more efficiently. It is better not to have a system that you don't have knowledge about and are not able to use. It is essential to know about the system and how to effectively use it and getting a demo will provide you the opportunity of asking the question related to the operational features of the system. 4. Search for a software that could be customized Customization is a feature that would allow you to add desired feature to the software when required. The travel software doesn't come with all the features. Customization would help you in adding and deleting the features at the required time. 5. After development support is very essential The level of support that the software development company would offer is crucial to the smooth running of the system. When you are stuck, it is the support people who would help you to come out of the situation. You should opt for a software that has 24/7 support team, who would be at their tow to help with any kind of problem that arise with the software. 6. The software should be scalable By being scalable the software would have enough room for expansion. When the software is scalable, it would have sufficient room for adjustment of your growing business and there would be no chance of the business getting halt due to the operation functions. This kind of software system would enable your business to grow without any kind of limitation associated with it. This is for your system facing less hassle during the course of expansion of your business and maintaining a steady growth. 7. Price should fit your budget It is not essential that costly software would provide the best solution and it is also not essential that free software would save cost. Though your budget is limited, investing in better software is recommended. Getting software should be considered as a long term investment. There is always a comparison between features, functionality and piece of mind and price. If you invest in an effective software system, it would be capable of saving money in the future and also lot of frustration. 8. Mobile compatibility A key feature knowing the fact that 30% of the travel booking is coming from mobile devices. Regarding Author: Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel software development and marketing strategy implementation. Booking your hotel through online hotel reservation software is easy. The availability of multiple accommodations for each destination, gives end users enough flexibility to choose a right hotel at right cost. Each accommodation option provides a varied range of pricing, facility, quality and availability, using which end users can select and pick a desired option. For B2B Travel Portal & OTA Setup – Get a Project Quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html Top hotel consolidators Expedia, GTA Travel, Hotelbeds, DOTW, Agoda, Hotelspro, WCT, Travco, Tourico, Bonotel, Travelocity, Jac Travels, Miki and others have designed and developed APIs for hotel inventory to share the hotel inventory to global travel agent. The web services of hotel APIs not only sharing the availability but also the room types, pricing as well. The main aim associated with the hotel APIs is travel agents, both small and medium-sized travel agents offer their clients the best of the deals at any corner of the globe. Hotel booking systems equipped with Hotel APIs, makes all the information regarding hotel selection available at the finger tip of the customers, and it is also real time information. API stands for application programming interface. In simple terms hotel API integration provides a legitimate access for one company to get access to the product of the other companies. A travel management company or a travel portal can get access to a huge variety of hotel inventory through hotel APIs integration. Hotel APIs acts as web service with the option of online functionality for searching and booking of the hotels across the world. Hotel API web service provides a broader spectrum to the online hotel booking services. The travel management companies or the travel agencies get the privilege of providing its users with the option of choosing their accommodation as per their need at a particular destination, thus giving a wider enhancement to the business of the travel agencies. The benefits of the top hotel APIs for the travel agencies are as follows:
Features associated with the top hotel APIs are:
The leading hotel APIs include Expedia, GTA API, Hotelbed XML, Hotelspro XML, Tourico API, DOTW API, Travco API, Tourico XML, Expedia API, WCT API, Bonotel XML and booking.com. API based hotel reservation system is a hit at the present as it is accompanied with benefits like 24/7 availability, enhanced client satisfaction, automated system, immediate confirmation, time saving and brings improvement in sales. Have you ever thought about the benefits associated with buying online booking B2B software or a travel distribution platform? What are the benefits that you and your partner will be able to fetch from the online booking B2B software? Have you ever thought about the functionalities of travel software or what is travel distribution platform? This write-up is an answer to all the questions that arise in your mind in regards to the online booking B2B software and the benefits associated with it. To install travel inventory distribution platform – Get a Project Quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html B2B travel software is the system that allows partners or travel agents to book items from the system that is used by the travel agency or tour operator. B2B online booking system helps the partners to have a look at all the products and documents directly along with enabling them to make reservation from the system. It is very essential to know the reasons for online booking B2B software being one of the best and the benefits for the same have been mentioned below. Travel partners provided with the information required for purchasing - One of the biggest advantages is making your entry into the travel services system visible to the travel agents. The look of the travel agent system will be absolutely similar to yours. The only difference would be that you as an administrator with have more options. The next question could be the features that the travel agents would be able to view in the system. Services - The services that are a part of the system is gathered and centralized and the travel agents will be able to find them during the course of making reservation. Along with the list f the services, the travel agents will also be able to view the description (service image, service info), selling price, the location, suppliers for the services and the number of units available. These are the information required for creating a new reservation. Pricing and Availability - Along with the service list, your travel partner also has access to the pricing and price list for each and every service and the features that forms a part of the service. The pricelist viewable to your partner includes the price of the basic service along with the price of the additional services, supplements, reduction and discounts. After a service is made available through addition of allotment, enabling the partner to book the service directly and enter the payment for it. In case there is no addition of allotment, the partner can click on “Send Enquiry” option. In case you as an administrator disable booking for specific dates, partners will not be able to make any booking during the particular period. Promotion Special Offers - The promotion could be viewed on the B2B login side as well. You also have the facility of entering the special offers in the system, enabling your travel partners to use them. This helps in generating demand and increasing sales. Different pricing level for the market or partners - In case you prefer to have different pricing level for different partners, it could be defined in the back office by using the option different market. For example, if you are targeting three different markets like European market, Asian market and American market, you have the facility of adjusting the prices by the addition of different commission to the market. Each partner will be able to get the price depending on the market they are assigned to. This will enable the travel agents to get the price predefined for them. This acts as a great marketing tool when it comes to assisting, increasing and rewarding partner sales. Entering Reservation and Reservation Management - The travel interface is designed to enable the travel partner make a reservation directly, when they have availability to information like product, price, and information about special price, promotion, services, availability and similar information. The overview of all the reservations accomplished by the system is also available. This means that the system will allow the administration and the travel partner to track the reservation and manage them effectively. Making all the Documents available - The system will provide the travel partners with all the documents, enabling them to make the same available for the customers. There is a very well support system for the mutual communication between the tour operator and tourist agency and its partners. When a partner makes a reservation, the document provided is dependent on the action taken by them. When a request is sent and offer and itinerary follows automatically. When a booking is accomplished, there is an automated process of sending the invoice. This process could be customized depending on the need of the travel agencies requirement. Along will this the partners will get an overview of all the documents created and are connected to the reservation system, which could be forwarded to be printed for the customers. This is one of the key features of travel distribution platform.
Online booking B2B enhances the communication process - This is a benefit that both the sides can enjoy. One partner checks with the suppliers, makes a confirmation for the reservation and send documents while the other one is sending new reservations. This process eliminates the need of communicating over the phone and saves time and money. This is also a way of attracting customers, finding new customers, creating new marketing campaigns and making better sales. Providing better control over the whole process - This means everything is under the same roof. Partners get an overview of the reservations and the documents that they have made. The whole process is centralized, eliminating the risk of making possible mistakes. Travel distribution platform has become a backbone of travel agencies, who are using online travel portals. Travel technology has come a long way over the last decade. Traditional methods of travel planning and booking are almost vanished in thin air. Today, travelers use technology to great extent to plan the travel, book the travel deals there by making travel process easier. Young travelers are the generation born towards the end of the last millennium and grew in the arena of wireless internet, smart-phones, considered as gen Y. The ratio of this generation using the travel technology is high, when compared to people with 40+ age. With smartphone and mobile internet in hand, travelers are searching all the travel deals on the responsive travel websites and mobile compatible travel software. Survey shows that major part of online travel booking now comes through hand held devices. Travel technology has evolved, not only as online booking and itinerary processing system, but it has become a way to plan the whole travel starting from flight booking, hotel booking, car booking, reminder for important documents, creating a common travel group and sharing the images / videos. The whole travel process and post travel activities are now all connected through the travel technology. Travelers are checking the travel websites for everything, it may be weather, fight / train / bus timing update or any value added information. Mobile has become a tool for checking and sharing on the go. The mobile phone with the travel mobile app, has become an online travel agency. Searching, booking, sharing – everything is available right at finger tips. Travel technology companies have taken a great part in this growth story. These companies have developed some great travel products in last few years. Travel website development and travel apps are much in demand. All the leading travel agencies are partnering with top travel technology company to deliver a product, which can actually create a wave in travel domain. Next two years, it will be interesting to see as to how the travel domain grows. Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. In the present date of online sales, where physically existing travel agent shops / kiosks are losing importance and a new trend of bookings through online travel portals & airline reservation systems, is developing very fast. This has created huge opportunity for travel technology companies to build great online reservation systems (airline reservation system, hotel reservation system, & holiday packages reservation system) with top GDS systems / Global Distribution Systems. Apart from cutting edge technology, the user engagement model, displaying the vest pricing and offers are key points for any reservation system to succeed. Airline reservation system, commonly known as ARS, is generally considered to be the user side system for any airline or GDS. It consists of the exchange of data through the GDS system, which consolidates the worldwide airline data and share through unique web services API. This is an effective and efficient way of consolidating the global airlines availability and pricing, which is combined together with best GUI interface and published for end users on any airline reservation system (GDS based).
In online travel services marketing & sales, airline reservation system is a part of comprehensive travel reservation system, which consist-off hotel reservation system, transfer system and sightseeing module. GDS system, which is known as global distribution system is the interface between a travel reservation system and the end airlines, because it consolidates the data including the availability and pricing. The end buyers can check the availability and do the booking, which in turn is forwarded to airlines console through GDS. Advanced airline reservation systems offer the features like oneway, roundtrip, multi-destinations all together. Thus also providing the end users the better deals / offers on every booking, they do. Most of the reservation systems are also offering the dynamic packages like airline + hotel, hotel + cars, hotels + holidays packages, clubbing the packages together. This helps the buyers to plan the travel in a better way. Amadeus, Galileo / Travelport, Sabre and Abacus are among the top GDS systems available today. GDS consolidates the data for airlines, hotels, cars, packages and cruises. This consolidated data, is then shared to end travel reservation software / travel portals through their proprietary web services APIs. Author: Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. With summer is on, people are planning for travel & vacations. Travel agencies are also pushing the operations to meet the demands. As the competition is high, its important to connect to right clients, either using a great travel agency software, supported by a good CRM team. Following are a few tips to increase the sales. As most of sales are through online travel agency software, use a travel software which connects to social media. Most of the clients read the reviews before they make the purchase.
Find the real interests of your potential customers and highlight them. Encourage them to send and update the reviews / comments on your travel website, which is anyways accessed by several potential clients. Going to places is always trending in the social media. Travellers when dissatisfied or angry at a restaurant, hotel, or a flight immediately inform the world through social media. Sometimes they appreciate good service. Interact with them, win their trust, and transform them to your loyal customers. Create a separate travel blog to accommodate the end user contents. With pictures, videos, questions or statuses you can get followers and likes. Social media will tell you where to improve. Social media is big tool to boost sale. A buzzing travel portal will always convert more sales. Offers are an all-time favourite for customers. Declare discounts and freebies frequently. Sell hotel booking, flight booking and activities together. Travel packages attract even reluctant customers. Publish everything using the CMS of your travel portal software and share it to clients. Use SMS sending software to sell ‘last-minute’ flight tickets at great discounts, when there are unexpected cancellations in flights or when tickets are not sold out enough. Who will not desire to get highly discounted last-minute deals to their dream destinations on their mobiles. You can also use your mobile app for this. You can keep your customers updated on new destinations etc. Your travel software must remind them about travel insurance, special baggage regulations or about the delay of their flight. Users will always appreciate taking care of these small things. You can concentrate on a certain demographic area, a type of travel, a destination and make a travel niche. Your travel software will play a significant role in keeping in contact with these special people even when they are on the move. Regarding Author: Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. 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. 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. |
AuthorPROVAB TECHNOSOFT is an award winning travel technology company , delivering B2B / B2C travel software, travel CRM, accounting software, car rental software and mobility solutions to global travel & hospitality companies. ArchivesCategories
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