July 2001 - With millions of leisure hotel bookings lost each year because of the lack of an industry distribution system, it�s time to bring the leisure sector into the 21st Century, says MIC�s chief executive Heath Kane.

Make no mistake - distribution is the key issue facing the leisure accommodation industry. While the corporate sector boasts seamless GDS systems, hotels lack effective booking technology to enable them to maximise their success in the vital leisure marketplace. I believe the time has come for the leisure sector to use new technology and create an industry-wide distribution system that will serve every part of the supply chain for years to come.

Today leisure distribution is based a complicated structure with its many players - hotels, wholesalers, tour operators, agents and other b2b participants - reliant on e-mails, faxes and phones to make, amend and confirm bookings. The cumbersome system is prone to mistakes - and in turn lost bookings � and also results in artificially long release periods. This means participants cannot offer late bookings and millions of pounds are lost each year as rooms go unfilled. Hotel rooms are a perishable product: If you don�t sell them today, you can�t sell them tomorrow.

Furthermore, this archaic process gives a bad impression of the industry to customers used to the click-and-book culture of travel dotcoms and other competitors. Today, hotels can no longer afford to alienate customers by making them wait days for confirmations.
 

TDS delivers access to the CRSs of all major hotel chains through interfaces with the international hospitality industry�s leading switch providers Pegasus Solutions, Inc. and WizCom. Our connectivity with their switches enables the world�s biggest hotel chains to distribute seamlessly through our system. Hotels without a CRS can access TDS via a PC-based application.

Another key benefit of e-systems such as TDS is that they offer access to real-time inventory from the ultimate supplier - in this case the hotel - enabling parties to share the same information instantaneously and then buy and sell quickly through a marketplace application. This allows hotels to offer genuine last-minute availability and so enjoy improved occupancy rates � and full cash registers.

While the technology already exists, a truly global distribution system for the lucrative leisure accommodation marketplace will only succeed if all participants in the supply chain agree to participate. At present, many hotels and suppliers are developing individual ad-hoc distribution solutions � in my view mistakenly. One-to-one connectivity is not only too expensive, it is maintenance intensive and only serves to make the supply chain even more complicated than before. I believe the industry must put up a united front and develop a joint strategy for creating a global distribution system that is now long overdue.