The Global Distribution Systems (GDS) have long been the main tool for travel agents bookings in the world. Today these systems do much more than supply content rates and hotel inventory to thousands of On-line Travel websites (OTA).

The GDS systems are a huge network of thousands of computers set up originally by companies like Sabre, WorldSpan. Amadeus, Galileo and Pegasus. They provided Computer Based Reservations (CRS) services to all travel agents long before the Internet. These systems are essential for Travel Agents and are used by more than 600,000 travel agents worldwide.

When you visit a Travel Agent you will see consultants working at their PC's finding and booking flights, hotels, resorts, car rental and much more.  All from the one computer screen.

Distribution systems (GDS) continue to be the backbone for travel agents, in-house corporate travel departments, and many of the Internet distribution systems like Travelocity. They deliver rates and availability information for travel covering air, hotel, car rentals and many other travel products. The information is delivered to the travel agent, so that it appears on their desktop computer using special software to search, display rates and book.

In the past, GDS Hotel information was originally all input by hand and done manually in many cases.  The process was very tedious, had long delays and had lots of errors. This does not happen today.

To avoid delays and errors, many large hotels with  their technology providers now integrate the GDS information with their own reservations and property management solutions. This was called seamless integration. 2 way seamless refers to the systems that can manage GDS rates from the hotel CRS or PMS. One way integration simply means the hotel system can view the GDS sales but not manage the data.

Next Generation capability was built by the GDS to allow compatible systems to input the data directly into the GDS´s.  Next Generation provides accommodation providers with real-time rates and availability that is 100% identical to the information used by a hotel company's own reservations staff. The information is more quickly available and more accurate resulting in increased confidence and usability by agents. With NEXT generation Seamless, agents are more inclined to sell more using the GDS rather than book via telephone to assure their clients the lowest rates. Galileo Inside Shopper, Worldspan Integrated Hotel Source, Sabre Direct Connect Shop, the respective GDS' Next Generation Seamless products, were implemented in recent years.