What is the meaning / definition of GDS Marketing in the hospitality industry?
We speak about GDS Marketing when a hotel is using a GDS system. It is considered to be one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways of reaching the travel agency audience to create awareness that will inform, position, and ultimately promote the hotel.
Furthermore it refers to the Marketing carried out on the GDS System. As the system features different characteristics from traditional sales systems, the marketing strategies have to be developed accordingly.
Hereafter some of the strategies:
- Optimisation of content.ย The GDS has a database with the description of the hotel, list of features and facilities, location, points of interests etc. – a so called HOD (Hotel Details). Since travel agents and OTAs mainly sell hotels based on the information provided in that database it is essential that this description is correct and factual (facts not slogans).
- Images.ย It is possible to upload hotel images to one single portal dedicated to the distribution of all GDS (Leonardo). The images should be representative to the hotel, of good quality and presented in a structured way.
- Rates and booking conditions.ย The rates are taken directly from the technological platform. Conditions must be clear and comprehensible.
- Marketing Messages.ย Those messages appear to the agent during the booking process. It is crucial that these are optimised to improve the promotion of the hotel.
- Advertising on GDS.ย There are various types of targeted advertising to promote the hotel on GDS. Examples are: Sign-On Marketing, Point of Sale Marketing, Graphic Promo Spot, Priority Placement, E-Newsletters.
- Selection of partner Consortia.ย To optimise sales the hotel can select Consortia it will operate with and define the rates and conditions.
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