The tourism sector is global and connects actors from all over the world; administrations, private companies, citizens and tourists. In order to manage their interconnectivity, there are a multitude of tools available, including the popular GDS codes. In this guide, we will concisely analyse their functions and the usefulness of their use for companies.
A Global Distribution System, or GDS, is a sophisticated network of travel agencies specialising in the sale and booking of tourism services that displays in real time the stock status of packages and products of the main players in the industry, allowing travel agents to book packages and tourism products for their clients in real time, automatically updating their stock information for the rest of the network.
What are GDS Chain codes in the hospitality sector?
When you register a company in a GDS, you get an identification code composed of the chain code and the property code.
On the one hand, the chain code identifies the hotel chain or business group to which the entity belongs.
On the other hand, the property code identifies the company in sigular.
How can I obtain a GDS code?
To obtain a GDS code, you must first join a Global Distribution System. If your company's activity is tourism, such as a hotel or car rental, you must register as a service provider. Once registered in a GDS, the entity obtains a two-letter code that will identify it in the system.
What are the advantages for the company?
GDS Chain codes help to reinforce the brand image and positioning in the different distribution channels, strengthening access to the community of portals and tour operators and thus the overall booking potential of a company.
Once you get your own GDS code, it is essential to make it known to as many distributors as possible in order to gain visibility and positioning, as the OTAs that have their own GDS system will often show your entity as a priority over others that do not have it.
In Biosphere we take into account and value the potential and importance of these channels for tourism companies that align their management with sustainability to improve their visibility, so through our Biosphere Sustainable platform, we allow entities to disseminate their GDS codes to facilitate the communication of their sustainable efforts in the most popular portals and search engines among Internet users.
As we want to provide all the information to make it as intuitive as possible, in our platform you can put the codes for the following GDS:
As our Biosphere standard is recognised by the GSTC, we have agreements with the main OTAs, portals and search engines, such as Google, Booking, Agoda, TUI and EasyJe, among others. In order for us to share your sustainability achievements as Biosphere Certified and for this information to be automatically updated in your profiles on all these portals, you will need to indicate your GDS codes in the "Tour Operators" section of our platform. In this way, your good practices will be communicated in this great network of sustainability that is being created all over the world with the eco-labels and badges that more and more portals and OTAS are creating to offer the most responsible options to travellers.
More and more OTAs and search engines are particularly interested in differentiating and positioning companies that have a GDS code and actively demonstrate their efforts and good practices in sustainability. If you still don't have a certification or distinctive recognition of your sustainable efforts, don't wait any longer and start now to manage and value your business sustainability!
We hope you have found this tutorial article useful in helping you understand what GDSs and their codes are.
