Why Smart Distribution Matters
Selling more rooms to increase occupancy and revenue is the ultimate aim of every hotelier—regardless of size, star category, offerings, or location. In today’s tech-driven hospitality industry, this becomes possible only when you have an efficient online distribution system in place.
In this blog, we explore two of the most essential hospitality technology solutions: the Hotel Channel Manager and the Global Distribution System (GDS)—and how they work together to help you maximize room sales and profitability. Ultimately, this duo forms a cornerstone of your hotel revenue management strategy.
Let’s begin by understanding each component.
What is a Channel Manager Software?
A Hotel Channel Manager is a powerful technology tool that lets you control your room availability, pricing, and bookings across multiple sales platforms from a single dashboard. These platforms include:
- OTAs (Online Travel Agencies)
- GDS networks
- Direct booking engines
- Travel agents and tour operators
- Social media booking integrations
The most important benefit? Real-time synchronization. Every time a booking is made, modified, or canceled on one channel, your channel manager updates all connected platforms instantly.
Benefits of Using a Channel Manager:
- Real-time updates of rates and availability across all channels
- Sell more via OTA integrations
- Avoid overbooking and double-bookings
- Maintain price parity across platforms
- Analyze performance of individual distribution channels
- Improve online visibility and guest reach
- Save time, reduce manual errors
What is a GDS?
A Global Distribution System (GDS) is a networked platform that connects your hotel to a global community of travel agents and corporate bookers. These agents use the GDS to search for, compare, and book hotels based on their clients’ preferences.
Think of GDS as a massive B2B booking engine. Instead of selling one room at a time to individual travelers like OTAs, GDS networks often bring corporate and bulk bookings from travel management companies, airlines, and event planners.
Major GDS Platforms:
- Amadeus
- Sabre
- Travelport
Benefits of GDS for Your Hotel:
- Access to thousands of global travel agents
- Higher corporate/B2B bookings
- Tap into new international markets
- Boost sales with fewer marketing efforts
- Maintain occupancy during low seasons
How GDS and Channel Manager Work Together
We already know that the Channel Manager and Hotel PMS integration is vital for building a robust distribution strategy. Why? Because the channel manager extracts your hotel’s live rates and room availability from your PMS and distributes it across OTAs, your website, and GDS platforms—all at once.
Let’s consider a real-world example.
Scenario:
You operate a 50-room hotel near an international airport—perfectly positioned to attract business travelers.
- OTA 1 books 5 rooms → Channel Manager updates room count across all OTAs and GDS: now 45 rooms left
- You increase your weekend rates → Channel Manager syncs new rates instantly to all platforms including GDS
- 2 corporate cancellations occur → Room availability across all channels increases back to 47
This tight synchronization eliminates manual work, avoids overbookings, and ensures real-time updates—especially important when dealing with fast-paced B2B reservations on GDS platforms.
Why You Need Both for Growth
Using either a Channel Manager or GDS in isolation limits your distribution potential. But when used together, they:
- Expand your global reach (via OTAs and GDS)
- Maximize occupancy by tapping into different guest segments (leisure and business)
- Help enforce pricing strategy and room parity
- Enable centralized control, visibility, and performance tracking
This combination is essential for independent hotels, airport properties, business hotels and resorts that want optimized distribution and higher direct and indirect bookings.
AxisRooms Makes Channel + GDS Integration Effortless
Unlike basic systems, AxisRooms offers native GDS connectivity built right into its Channel Manager. This means your property can be simultaneously visible on top OTAs and GDS platforms—without toggling between multiple dashboards.
Key Feature Spotlight: Unified Inventory Distribution
With AxisRooms, you can:
- Sync inventory and rates across OTAs, your website, and GDS in real-time
- Instantly reflect availability after bookings or cancellations
- Automatically update pricing for all channels with a single change
- Prevent overbooking with reliable syncs
This is particularly useful for hotels targeting both retail and corporate markets. Your front desk doesn’t need to manually block or open inventory for GDS requests—AxisRooms automates it all.
By leveraging Channel Manager + GDS integration with AxisRooms, hoteliers can implement efficient, scalable, and intelligent revenue strategies across all their channels.
Final Thoughts: A Strategic Pairing for Modern Hotels
To compete in today’s digitally saturated hotel industry, having a presence on a few OTAs is no longer enough. You need a smart, multi-channel approach that includes:
- Seamless OTA integrations
- Corporate visibility via GDS
- Unified inventory and rate distribution
- Intelligent tech like a Channel Manager that keeps everything connected
So if you're serious about growing your hotel’s reach, revenue, and reputation—invest in tools that are built to work together, not apart.
Ready to expand your distribution and boost bookings?
Explore how AxisRooms Channel Manager with GDS integration can transform your hotel sales strategy.
