Demystifying GDS Advertising

Transcription

1 Demystifying GDS Advertising by Leo Rotshteyn, Director of Revenue Account Management December, 2015 In today s complex hotel room distribution landscape, GDS remains the single largest source for hotel bookings globally. Despite the popular belief that travel agent bookings through the GDS are in a steady decline, recent global data released by TravelClick projects 2015 to be a record year for GDS bookings. TravelClick is projecting 62 million bookings through GDS in 2015, up from 61 million in 2014 and 42 million during the depths of the recession in It is important to understand, however, that GDS companies are not merchants, and cannot stimulate demand for hotel rooms. Hotels wishing to expand awareness and increase revenues through the GDS need to engage in targeted GDS advertising to achieve the desired goal. There are numerous advertising options offered by each GDS, with greatly varied pricing. This article reviews some of the most popular and effective options available to hotels. There are four major GDS companies: Sabre, Apollo/Galileo, Amadeus and Worldspan. Hotel production reports may identify GDS by their little-known codes, rather than a name, so it is important to know these codes: Sabre: AA Apollo/Galileo: UA, 1G, 1V Amadeus: 1A Worldspan: 1P, TW NOTE: You can find your hotel s production (and related figures such as ADR, LOS) from each GDS on tab 4 of your Preferred Hotels & Resorts production workbook. SABRE Sabre Sign-In Advertising Sabre Sign-In Messaging is a cost-effective option that enables hotels to effectively promote their product with customized advertising messages. The messages are displayed to travel consultants when they sign in. Messages can be text or graphical. With this advertising option you can: Target messages to a specific region or country, or broadcast worldwide;

2 Customize campaigns with text only or extend your brand visually with images; and Achieve click-through rates of up to six times higher than industry average according to Sabre s measures. Sabre PromoSpots PromoSpots offers, relevant to the current travel transaction, appear on Sabre Connected travel agents availability screens. Messages may change based on agency and customer criteria and the specific availability screen requested. Messages could be text or graphical. With this option you can: Target your offer only to agents booking air to your destination market or shopping for hotels near your home airport code; Limit display of time-sensitive offers by targeting travel dates; Target by agent s location such as country or region; and Target specific agency codes (PCC or IATA). PromoSpot Graphical PromoSpot (Example of Sabre PromoSpots)

3 APOLLO/GALILEO, WORLDSPAN Travelport, the parent company of Apollo, Galileo, and Worldspan GDS systems, offers a variety of proven and cost-effective advertising options such as featured property, sign-on messages, online itinerary advertising, Travelport headlines messaging, and electronic direct mail. With these advertising options, you can promote your hotel via: Priority Placement: Offered through Travelport Featured Property, this is a powerful point-of-sale tool that provides the visual advantage of positioning your hotel property at or near the top of travel agent search screens. Sign-On Messages: These messages expose and promote your hotel to more travel agents with targeted ads on their reservation terminals. Offered through Galileo Front Page News and Worldspan PrimeSine, these are globally accessed news and information advertising messaging sources that welcome travel agents each day as they sign into their GDS.. Ads are delivered directly to travel agents every time they sign into to their booking systems, effectively keeping your hotel top-of-mind. You can designate your ads globally, regionally, or by country to market your hotel even more specifically. Online Itinerary Advertising: Allows you to promote your brand or announce special offers directly to a defined set of targeted, ticketed travel consumers through the Travelport ViewTrip online itinerary website. Targeted Availability Messaging: Offered through Travelport Headlines, this tool provides highly targeted promotional messaging that influences travel agents and creates instant awareness at the point-of-sale as travel agents search availability. Your messages can be targeted to specific location searches and delivered during exact dates and time periods. The travel agent can also click on your message to read details about your hotel or your promotion. Electronic Direct Mail: Can introduce a new product or present your brand to travel agents with a customizable message that includes your preferred, promotional imagery and details about your product or service. AMADEUS Amadeus Instant Marketing Amadeus Instant Marketing (AIM) is a portfolio of four distinct and powerful ways to target the travel agent with cost-effective messages presented to them while they are researching and shopping in the Amadeus GDS. With these advertising choices, you can promote your hotel via: Display Messages: Destination-specific, point-of-sale advertising messages Weather Messages: City-specific advertising on travel agent weather display screens

4 Broadcast Messages: Your advertising messages are displayed in the travel agents' urgent queue, where they receive information they find vital as they perform their day-to-day jobs Sign-In Messages: Your hotel s message displays every time a travel agents signs on to the Amadeus GDS and chooses a new work area DID YOU KNOW? Additional advertising options are available through the big four consortium/tmc companies (AMEX, BCD, CWT, HRG), targeting their specific agencies through their own customized GDS GUI (Graphic User Interface) screens as well as through OBT (Online Booking Tools) used by many corporations for corporate travel. Your Preferred Hotels & Resorts account manager can provide you with more details on these programs. HOW ABOUT SOME FREE ADVERTISING? If you are a SynXis CRS user, your hotel has the ability to broadcast free marketing and booking response messages seamlessly to several GDS systems. These messages are easily managed through SynXis. Path: Setup-channels-gds-marketing messages

5 Displays AFTER the agent confirms the sell Agent sells the desired room type Confirmation returned from CRS with Vapor Text recap Booking response message appears below confirmation Other possible uses: Facility notifications Cross sell messages QUESTIONS? Please visit or contact your Preferred Hotels & Resorts representative Source: McCracken, Sean. "Booking Trends: Don't Ignore Impact of GDSes." Hotel News Now, 3 Sept Web. 6 Dec