Internet Bookings Continue to Outpace GDS, Report Says

TravelCLICK on Friday released its quarterly benchmark report of booking trends which revealed that 40 percent of hotel reservations for major brands during the third quarter of 2006 were booked online, an increase of 24.8 percent over the same period last year. According to the report, brand web sites accounted for 81.2 percent of hotels centrally booked Internet reservations, while phone reservations saw a slight decline of 2.8 percent since third quarter 2005. This is the second quarter that Internet reservations surpassed bookings made through global distribution systems and travel agent-focused global distribution systems, the report noted.