What is Travelport GDS?
Travelport GDS is a global distribution system vendor that connects travel service providers (hotels, airlines, car hire companies) with travel agents who book these services on behalf of their clients.
Travelport is one of the industry’s most renowned GDS companies, along with other examples such as Sabre and Amadeus.
What does Travelport GDS do?
It’s perhaps most accurate to say that it’s a company that owns and runs three separate GDS platforms – Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan – which it acquired at various points throughout its history. These platforms still exist as separate entities but are overseen by Travelport.
In this guide we’ll look at Travelport through the lens of a hotel looking to learn more about GDSs, how they work, and how hotels can capitalise on the distribution opportunity via connections such as SiteMinder.
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Why hotels should be aware of Travelport GDS
Travelport offers a couple of unique differentiators that can make it valuable for hotels looking to take advantage of the opportunities presented by a GDS.
Latest initiatives and financial milestones
Travelport has made significant investments in innovation and technical infrastructure. This demonstrates the company’s commitment to staying at the leading edge of a very competitive GDS market, ensuring a secure, robust and future-ready platform.
Advancements in modern retailing and New Distribution Capability (NDC) solutions
NDC is a technology standard that modernises how travel products and services are distributed and purchased. It lets you interact with travel agents through a richer, more dynamic interface, and allows for personalised offers, real-time inventory updates, and greater flexibility in packaging up your hotel services.
Gain access to every major GDS network with SiteMinder With the help of SiteMinder, you can connect your hotel to all the industry’s major GDS vendors – Travelport, Sabre and Amadeus – to generate more visibility, bookings and revenue than ever before.
Travelport GDS frequently asked questions
New to Travelport GDS? Let’s answer some quick-fire questions to give you a sense of what this GDS company is all about.
Who owns Travelport GDS?
In 2019 ownership of Travelport went from public to private, when it was acquired by Siris Capital Group and Evergreen Coast Capital for $4.4 billion.
What is the history of Travelport GDS?
Travelport GDS’s history began in 2001, when the company was formed by Cendant Corporation after it acquired Galileo GDS and CheapTickets. A wealth of acquisitions followed in the subsequent years, most notably Worldspan in 2007.
After an IPO in 2014, Travelport became a publicly traded company, but as mentioned above, it returned to private hands in 2019.
What is the market share of Travelport GDS?
Travelport’s GDS market share sits at around 22%, after Amadeus at 40% (the market leader in Europe) and Sabre at 35% (the leader in the US and Asia).
Who uses Travelport GDS software?
Through its three GDS platforms, Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan, Travelport is used by a diverse range of travel agents to access and book services from providers such as hotels or airlines.. Galileo is more hotel-centric, while Worldspan and Apollo have historically focused more on airlines.
What does Travelport GDS do for hotels?
As a leading GDS vendor, Travelport operates a large online network by which hotels can be found and booked by global travel agencies. The GDS can be a game-changing channel for hotel groups and chains that are looking to compete globally and expand their reach.
What makes Travelport stand out? Travelport GDS connects with a vast network of 68,000 travel agencies across the globe, equating to over 250,000 individual agents. This extensive reach can significantly increase your hotel’s visibility in international markets.
Advanced personalisation and retailing tools
With its modern retailing and NDC capabilities, Travelport makes it easy for your hotel to offer personalised room rates, promotions and bundled packages. This allows you to more precisely target specific travel segments, such as luxury, corporate or group travellers.
Seamless integration with distribution channels
Travelport’s platform is available to connect to by the industry’s leading distributors and property management systems. This ensures real-time updates on room availability, pricing and bookings across all channels, helping hotels maximise revenue and minimise double bookings.
How Travelport GDS works with a hotel’s tech stack
A lot of hotels are hesitant to add yet another distribution channel on top of what might already be a large pile.
But adding the GDS to your strategy isn’t any extra work if you’re already investing in a cutting-edge tech stack. For instance, a platform like SiteMinder, with a superior channel manager and seamless PMS integrations, much of the maintenance and admin can be automated. You can update pricing and availability across all your channels in a few clicks, and new bookings are automatically loaded into the relevant systems.
SiteMinder GDS seamlessly connects all major GDSs – not just Travelport, but Sabre and Amadeus too – into your tech stack, allowing information to flow freely between all your platforms and tools, opening up endless opportunities for automation.