When is a hotel a non-Hotel? When it is a non-GDS one, says Jon West, managing director for HRS UK and Ireland...
The current buzz word flooding the world of the travel booker is, as far as I am concerned, an ugly one: “Non-GDS hotels.” I hear and see it everywhere, in the papers, talked about at shows, mentioned by clients and touted by other industry colleagues.
In my opinion, this term is little more than marketing speak “creep”, setting out to obfuscate the issue for the travel booker; “blinding them with science” – so to speak.
Because, when it boils down to it “non-GDS hotels” just means “hotels” – plain and simple. Technically one could argue that it specifies independent hotels (as GDS hotel content tends to be major international and national chains), but really, from a booker’s point of view, it is a bed, in a hotel room.
All this talk of “GDS” and “non-GDS” hotel stock makes it sound as if there is something new on the market; as if suddenly a world of independent hotel bookings has been opened up to the business traveller.
Simply not true.
At HRS we have been offering this for nearly 40 years (and online for 15). We offer more than 250,000 hotels – including nearly all of those offered by GDSs and an additional 170,000 independents – and we have built this bank of stock without ever having a GDS hotel feed. And we are not the only ones offering this blend of rooms, there are other key players doing the same as us, if not quite as well.
The world of the travel booker is complicated already; their travel budgets have been slashed, RevPARs (revenue per available room) are hardening, and business trips are on the up. Frankly, it is tough enough out there without having to learn new jargon.
What we, the providers, must offer should be as simple as what the travel booker demands: a bed, in a room, in the right location, at the right price. Chain or independent is unimportant and, quite frankly, GDS or non-GDS is (to coin a phrase) a non-issue.
There are plenty of providers doing this, well – very well – already. There is no need to reinvent the wheel or complicate the issue.
It is time to focus on what we do best, putting business travellers in hotels.