NB: This is a guest article by Jon West, managing director for reservation service HRS in the UK and Ireland.
When is a hotel not a hotel? A simple question, to which the answer would normally be: "When it isn't a hotel." But welcome to marketing speak and obfuscation in travel.
The latest buzz word pinging its way around the hospitality industry is not only meaningless but it seems to be me to be deliberately misleading and confusing.
This is how it is often portrayed: "non-GDS hotels" as in our new service is offering "non-GDS hotel content".
Bit of a rant here, but this term is little more than marketing speak, creeping in to 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.
But, quite honestly, no matter how much you try and dress it up, this is simply not true.
Travellers – leisure and business – have been able to search for, read about, compare and book a huge range of hotels from mega-chains to B&Bs for a really long time now.
Even more remarkably, they have been able to chose a hotel, with an available room, in the most convenient location at the best price for years.
At HRS we have been doing this for nearly 40 years, while Expedia launched in 1996, Pegasus has been making web bookings since 1986. As I say: a really long time.
The world of the corporate travel booker is complicated enough already; their travel budgets have been slashed, revPars are hardening, business trips are on the up.
Frankly, it is tough enough out there without having to learn new jargon and work out what kind of hotel they need.
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.
NB: This is a guest article by Jon West, managing director for reservation service HRS in the UK and Ireland.