The Knowledge > Buyer perspective
Why buyers should GET INVOLVED WITH THE GDS
Buyer Margaret Birse of Serco lays out the arguments why the buyer community should be concerned over GDS changes
THE subject of GDS changes is one that really keeps me up at night. I think many travel buyers think that GDS fees and the changes that are happening are not something they should worry about. My view is that this is far from the case. I’m sure most of you will have
Margaret Birse DIRECTOR, GLOBAL TRAVEL SERVICES, SERCO Canadian born Margaret Birse was relocated by Serco to the United Kingdom in 2002 in the role of global travel director. Margaret has over 30 years of experience in the travel industry, primarily in senior roles within business travel management. Margaret founded the North American travel solution and was instrumental in developing the rest of the travel and events solutions globally. Margaret has a proven track record in offering innovative travel solutions while taking into account her clients’ travel policies.
read this spring about the falling out of a major airline and a GDS over fare distribution. Or even before that when the same airline removed content from an internet travel company only to be met with retaliation in the form of removal of their content from another! The various battles have continued
since and, as I said above, my first instinct from a buyer’s perspective is to leave it to the TMCs, airlines and GDS community to sort themselves out. I actually think this is a very naïve approach and my view is that the buying community needs to be involved in this as, let’s face it, however the dust settles on this one, the bottom line is if a new cost is incurred then this cost will either be passed on to us directly or it will be hidden somewhere else. Those of you who manage travel
will understand that there are a few key components to managing this successfully. • Policy: a good travel policy will deliver savings and ensure clarity for travellers and bookers; • People: we must always know where our people are; • Deals: good use of management information will deliver savings;
“I know that many of us share a frustration with distribution channels and how they affect our travellers and bookers”
• Booking channels: offline or online. The GDSs house the information needed to allow bookings to be made against our policies and programmes and whichever one you or your TMC uses – while far from perfect – provides a centralisation warehouse
of travel activity. So what happens if the GDS are not the way forward? What
alternative choices will we have? And, as stated above, let’s not kid ourselves about what it will cost us. Charges will inevitably have to be passed on and my worry is that they won’t always be passed on with the clarity it needs. My background in travel means
that I have a better understanding of this than some. This, coupled with a very open and frank relationship with our TMC, means I feel I will be kept informed about all of this and will have the information I need to continue making the right choices. My concern is that this is not the
case for some and that decisions will be made without the involve- ment of the buying community. I know that many of us share
a frustration with distribution channels and how they affect our travellers and bookers. I’m sure most if not all of you have travellers and bookers going onto any number of websites to book travel that is often outside of policy and certainly outside of anything that ensures we can properly track them and support them in the event of an emergency situation or travel disruptions. This is surprising but still very much a factor and the recent volcanic ash activity reminded us yet again that we need to be prepared at all times. Strangely, many of our travellers and bookers seem to suffer from short term memory loss on this one! I think change is good and I’m excited about what the future could look like for the travel industry. But in my view we, as buyers, must be involved and informed or we will be forced into choices later on that will mean either unplanned costs for our organisations or, worse yet, we will be forced to live with the choices made by others with their vested interests at heart. At the end of the day it is our corporate money that buy these goods and services so we should have the clarity and transparency we need to make good choices.
JARGON BUSTER ➔ ACRONYMS: sadly you just can't get away
from them in the dynamic world of business travel. So to help you out we've listed some of the most commonly used ones below, just so you don't get your Hotel Booking Agent confused with the Hawaii Baptist Academy.
ACFO ACTE ADR APIS ATOC
Association of Car Fleet Operators
Association of Corporate Travel Executives average daily room rate
Advanced Passenger Information System Association of Train Operating Companies
BAPCO British Association of Professional Conference Organisers
BAR BTA BTC
CDW CRM CRO CRS CSR DDR ETES FFP
GDS
best available rate business travel agent business travel centre collision damage waiver
customer relationship management central reservation office central reservation system corporate social responsibility daily delegate rate end-to-end solution
frequent flyer programme global distribution system
GTMC Guild of Travel Management Companies HBA
hotel booking agent
HBAA IATA ITM KPI LRA MI
MIA MPI
Hotel Bookings Agents Association International Air Transport Association Institute of Travel & Meetings key performance indicators last room availability
management information Meetings Industry Association Meetings Professionals International
OTM online travel management PNR RFP ROI SBT SLA SME TEM TMC
passenger name records request for proposal return on investment self-booking tools
service level agreement
small and/or medium-sized business/es travel and expense management travel management company
8 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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