GDS preferred placements
corporate pricing

Context

The GDS remains an important platform to promote your hotel to the corporate travel market globally, despite the growth of third-party online travel agencies (OTAs). More than 600,000 travel agents in EMEA plug into the GDS every day on behalf of companies to book hotels.

GDS preferred placements are a paid GDS advertising option that positions your property at the top of the screen on city lists and availability displays, helping to create more booking opportunities and drive greater brand awareness.

What are the most popular Global Distribution Systems?

The major global distribution systems for travel reservations include:

  • Amadeus is the world’s largest GDS, accounting for about 40% of GDS transactions, and it’s especially popular in Europe.
  • Sabre is the second-largest GDS, whilst a global platform its portfolio in North American travel agents users is larger than its competitors which makes it the best choice when you want to promote your property to the US market.
  • Travelport GDS owns systems called Galileo, Worldspan, and Apollo. Travelport has a well established position in the travel industry, with an approximately 21 percent market share in the travel distribution segment, according to Moody’s.

What is changing

Following an analysis conducted in 2021, we identified opportunities to help our RHG hotels in EMEA achieve savings of up to 15% on their GDS preferred placement investments. This cost efficiency can be unlocked through centralised contracting of preferred placements.

In order to help RHG hotels benefit from these cost efficiencies and savings, the RHG Corporate Office has signed an agreement with the three main GDS systems (Amadeus, Sabre, Travel Port) to centralize our contracting process for proffered placement.

How it works

  • In previous years, each individual hotel was contracting preferred placements directly from GDS partners, on the basis of an individual hotel agreement. As of April 2022, in order to help you achieve savings, contracting and invoicing will be facilitated through the RHG Corporate Office.
  • A Master Agreement was signed by the RHG Corporate Office with the three GDS partners stipulating that all EMEA hotels will benefit from these new negotiated benefits when signing up to preferred placements.
  • Hotels will have the flexibility to decide if they want to opt-in for preferred placements with any of the GDS partners, or not. But if they do, they will enjoy access to the new discounted rates and benefits. Please continue to scroll for information about the opt-in process.
  • After the opt-in process has been finalised, hotel invoicing for this service will be intermediated through the RHG Corporate Office.
  • Monthly reporting will be shared by GDS partners directly with the individual hotels, using the address hotels have provided in the opt-in form for this purpose.
  • To learn about the discounts and benefits that each of the three GDS partners is offering to RHG hotels in EMEA, please continue to scroll and read.

How to opt-in:

Please find below a dedicated section for each of the GDS partners where you will find:

  • The list of hotels for which preferred placements are recommended
  • The commercial offer, detailing the benefits that each partner offers as part of this new contracting model
  • The opt-in form which hotels must fill in to sign up to preferred placement with the respective partner. The deadline to sign-up and submit the opt-in form is March 14 2022.

How to opt-in

For details on the discounted prices and benefits available to you through our corporate agreement or to opt-in, please contact:

If you wish to discuss with a colleague at the corporate office about the corporate agreements please contact: daniela.dumitrescu@radissonhotels.com or tatiana.calvo@radissonhotels.com

For more details on the benefits offered by each GDS partner, next steps for hotels that have signed up, and opt-in process after March 31, please consult this FAQ document.

Note: GDS partner utilise dynamic pricing. This means that the information provided on this page in regards to hotel rates might suffer small changes by the start date of the contract.
Note: If you’re wondering how to choose a GDS, you’ll want to consider a few variables, including the system’s presence in the markets where your guests come from.
About Amadeus Instant Preference
RHG Corporate Agreement Benefits
Recommended Hotels List & Pricing
Opt-in form
About Preferred Placement
RHG Corporate Agreement Benefits
Recommended Hotels List & Pricing
Travelport reports
Opt-in form
FAQ
About Sabre Spotlight
RHG Corporate Agreement Benefits
Recommended Hotels List & Pricing
Opt-in form

Your questions answered

1. What are the benefits of these changes for my hotel?

Hotels will be able to access discounted rates and additional benefits which are not available for individually signed hotel agreements. 

 

2. Where can I find information about preferred placements pricing for my hotel?

Please check the “How to opt-in” section above. Here you will find:

  1. The list of hotels for which preferred placements are recommended and pricing. The list of recommendations has been made by GDS partners based on room nights production in 2019, city production, market recovery pace, and conversion rate of a featured property vs non-featured property 
  2. The negotiated corporate pricing, detailing the benefits each partner offers 
  3. The OPT-IN FORM that hotels must submit to sign-up to preferred placement with the respective partner. The deadline to sign-up is March 14, 2022.

     

3. What is the duration of the preferred placements I am signing up for?

Subscriptions will start on the 1st of April, 2022, and will end on March 31, 2023.

As of 2023 and onwards, the OPT-IN process will be organised annually, maintaining as anniversary date for all EMEA hotels the date of April 1st.

 

4. What is the deadline to sign-up?

The deadline to sign-up and submit the opt-in form is March 14, 2022.

 

5. What happens after I sign up?

  • All preferred placements will go live on April 1st, 2022
  • Following this date, hotels will receive an invoice from RHG Corporate Office for the value of the placements they signed up for
  • On a monthly basis, hotels will receive a performance report from the GDS systems they signed up for. This report will be sent to the email address you provided in the opt-in form.

 

6. What do I have to do if I want to opt-in later in the year?

Late opt-in requests, must be submitted as follows:

 

Please note that for governance reasons, we will always maintain as anniversary date for renewing subscriptions the date of April 1st. Therefore, all late opt-in requests will start at your requested date but will end on March 31, 2023.