Consternation over the relationship between online travel agencies and hotels has garnered a lot of ink in industry articles over the past several years—that’s understandable.
However, one very viable leisure channel has either been overlooked, or is not well understood by many hoteliers. For decades, travel agents worldwide have relied upon their global distribution system of choice to book hotels, and there are some very good reasons for that. As revenue-per-available-room growth is anticipated to slow in 2018, hoteliers looking for an edge will be well-advised to refocus their attention on this channel.
Is the GDS really a viable source of leisure revenue?
TravelClick has been collecting transactional data from four major GDSes—Sabre, Amadeus, plus Travelport’s Galileo and Worldspan—over the past twenty-odd years. What might be surprising to some is that GDS hotel transactional volume trends have been increasing during this time. In fact, 2017 projections point to 20 million more hotel booking transactions annually than in 2010. 20 million transactions! That’s nothing to sneeze at.
More importantly, for properties that rely on the leisure travel segment, “25 million (or nearly 37%) of current annual transactional volume can be attributed to leisure-oriented hotel stays based on booked rate plan codes,” according to John Hach, senior industry analyst at TravelClick.
Why do some leisure travelers use travel agents?
It is safe to say that human motivation is multifaceted. However, most travelers are looking for choice, control and assurance that the decision they make is the right fit for their particular taste and circumstances, while ensuring that the value they receive for any travel purchase is fair.
It also helps to know that they can rely on someone who is knowledgeable about their destination and the various service providers available where they are going. And it doesn’t hurt to have an advocate if (or when) something goes awry during the trip.
