Use Your Hotel PMS to Compete Globally
Connecting guests with hotels used to be all about catchy advertising campaigns and splashy marketing promotions. In today’s competitive, mobile-drive hospitality marketplace, hotels need to ensure that their online presence helps drive bookings, both locally and on an international scale. If travelers can’t find a property online, they will promptly book with a more digital savvy competitor. That’s why a key component of any hotel digital marketing strategy should be access to a global distribution system (GDS).
A GDS provides key hotel rate and room information to leading online travel agents (OTAs), such as Expedia, Travelocity, Booking.com, etc. Hotels of all sizes are impacted by the growing trend toward guests booking via OTAs rather than direct. Their ability to engage with OTAs is what can set a property apart from its competitors. Consider this… OTAs now represent 38% of the global online market and 13% of the total market. In addition, OTAs have the advantage of engaging business and leisure travelers globally through all stages of the travel experience, irrespective of language or time zone barriers. Their 24/7 accessibility fuels their global appeal, making access to the right GDS essential for hotels who wish to remain competitive and attract new guests.
While the idea of achieving global distribution may sound overwhelming, there are tools available to make this a simple process for hoteliers. Rather than trying to independently navigate the global distribution system, select a PMS that does the job for you. Hotels who use the SkyTouch Hotel OS for their property management needs receive a built-in GDS feature that enables seamless connectivity to international OTAs and leading online and traditional booking engines. Automatic integration with Pegasus, SynXis and other key CRS interfaces further help expand a property’s reach and reservation capabilities. A full-featured cloud PMS should coordinate the entire process on the hotel’s behalf, allowing users to remain focused on serving guests while they gain visibility online.
In today’s digitally charged environment, it is quite evident that a hotel property management system (PMS) should be viewed as much more than an item to help hoteliers monitor daily operations. GDS capability is a perfect example of how the cloud PMS can serve as a vital tool to help hotel operators streamline processes, drive revenue, and increase their international visibility and reach.
Is your property still trying to navigate the GDS system? Contact SkyTouch or Click here for the latest news on how the SkyTouch Hotel OS is helping hoteliers increase their reservation and industry distribution capabilities in order to compete globally.
