what is gds

A Global Distribution System (GDS) is a computerized network system owned or operated by a company that enables transactions between travel industry service providers, mainly airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and travel agencies. The GDS mainly uses real-time inventory from the service providers, such as the number of hotel rooms available, number of flight seats available, or number of cars available, to link services, rates, and bookings consolidating products and services across all three travel sectors: airline reservations, hotel reservations, and car rentals. Travel agencies traditionally relied on GDS for services, products, and rates to provide travel-related services to the end consumers. GDS is different from a computer reservation system, which is a reservation system used by the service providers. The primary customers of GDS are travel agents (both online and office-based) who make reservations on various reservation systems.