How the GDS work

The 500,000 Travel Agencies that use the GDS will have established a contract with one of them, either: SABRE, AMADEUS or TRAVELPORT (Galileo/Apollo or Worldspan).

By connecting to the system they can perform searches with a selection of specific parameters, in particular:

• location or Airport code (e.g. BER, TXL, LHR, LGW)
• Chain code (OK for Alesia Distribution, MC for Marriott, DS for Design Hotels)
• name of the hotel
• type of hotel
• points of interest
• features, services offered by the hotel
  

The screen appears as follows:

Many Travel Agencies, especially on an international level, are part of a Consortium (Consortia). The main consortia are:

Consorzio	Mercato
ABC	Global
American Express	Global
BCD	Global
BSI	UK / Europe
CarlsonWagonlit	Global
CCRA	USA
DER	Germany / Europe
E-Hotel	Germany / Europe
FCM	Global
Hogg Robinson (HRG)	UK / Europe
ITP	UK / Europe
JTB	UK / Europe
Radius	USA
Thor	USA
Travelocity Business	USA

The Consortia usually request negotiated rates from the hotels. The agencies that belong to a consortium make bookings requesting both the negotiated rates and the BAR (Best Available Rate).