Hotel distribution in 2026: The GDS runs the business trip
The business traveler came back to the GDS this year. She books through software now, and your GDS rate sits on her screen next to Booking.com's.
by Markus Busch
In January, the trend lists for 2026 put the action in new places: AI search, super-apps, messaging, new OTA models. The GDS, where travel agents and corporate booking tools find hotels, wasn't among the shifts we listed.
Of the three channels in this series, it was the one that moved. Sabre, the only GDS operator that publishes its hotel volumes, booked about 12 million hotel reservations in the second quarter, 8% more than a year earlier. Its chief executive, Kurt Ekert, told investors in August that corporate travel was outperforming leisure on his network, the reverse of last year. The business traveler came back, and she came back through the GDS.
She just doesn't book the way most hoteliers picture it. Hardly anyone types her reservation into a terminal anymore. She books in her company's travel tool, or her agent books for her in the agency's software. And that software shows her more than the GDS.
Corporate is 45% of Sabre's volume, and it beat leisure
On the same call, Ekert put corporate travel at about 45% of Sabre's distribution volume, against 25 to 30% for the industry as a whole. Sabre's hotel bookings rose 5% in the first quarter, to about 11 million, and 8% in the second. More flights are bringing a hotel with them: Ekert said about 35% of Sabre's air bookings now include a hotel, up from just over 30% earlier in the year. Amadeus, the largest GDS operator, does not publish its hotel booking volumes, so Sabre's figures are the only count on the record.
The agents report the same year from their desks. Between April and June, Takedown Research surveyed 756 travel agents across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific for Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. Two in three agencies said their business travel had increased. 43% said they use the GDS more than two years ago, against 24% who use it less. That was the highest share for any booking channel the survey asked about.
Most GDS bookings now arrive through software
Amadeus puts about 15% of GDS bookings on a terminal, the screen most hoteliers imagine when they hear the word. The rest arrive through connections. Travelport says such connections carried 63% of its transactions this year, up from 43% in 2022, a figure that covers flights as well as hotels.
A connection doesn't mean nobody is booking. An agent still books, from the software her agency installed. A traveler books herself, in the tool her company's travel policy runs on. As we wrote in September, the agent didn't leave. Her screen changed.
The trip changed too. In the same survey, agents put trips that combine business with leisure days at 30% of their bookings. The weekend added to the conference, the partner who flies in on Thursday to join her: they are booked on the same screen as the meeting.
Your GDS rate sits next to Booking.com's
Booking.com is on that screen too. Navan, a corporate booking tool, said in March that its hotel catalog combines Sabre and Amadeus with Booking.com, Expedia and MakeMyTrip, as well as direct connections to some chains. SAP Concur's own documentation lists hotel content from HRS, Amex and BCD alongside the three GDSs.
The GDS operators sell the same mix. Amadeus's own hotel booking platform lists more than 2 million properties. More than 120,000 of them carry rates loaded through the GDS. The rest come from bed banks and other suppliers, at those suppliers' prices.
So when a traveler searches her company's tool for your city, your negotiated rate and your public GDS rate can sit on the same list as Booking.com's price for the same room. We reported in March how the tools decide which version of a hotel to show.
The agents in the spring survey said what helps on that list. Almost nine in ten regularly read the hotel description in the GDS before they book, so a description that is complete and current is part of the offer.
Two agencies run most of it, and they keep adding software
Most of that corporate business runs through two travel management companies. When the UK competition regulator reviewed American Express Global Business Travel's purchase of CWT, which closed in September 2025, it found that Amex GBT and BCD Travel lead the market by a wide margin.
Both spent 2026 building. BCD now checks every room booked through its channels for a lower rate at the same hotel, and rebooks it when it finds one. It has also announced a link to Emburse's expense data, so its clients will see the rest of the hotel bill. Amex GBT put its booking agent inside Claude in July, so travelers can book their business trips in a chat.
The limits
Sabre is one GDS operator, and its figures are its own. Amadeus and Travelport do not publish hotel volumes. The agent survey reports what agents say, not bookings counted, and the three companies that paid for it sell advertising to hotels on the GDS. The content counts come from each platform's own pages, and the mix behind them changes by country and by client.
The one rate that is still yours
Of the three channels in this series, the GDS is the one where the rate on the booking is still the one you loaded. On Google, the price beside your name can be a reseller's. On Booking.com, the last word on what the guest pays is Booking.com's. On the corporate screen, your GDS rate now sits next to Booking.com's price for the same room, and 63% of agents say they book away from a hotel whose rates don't match.
Read also: Hotel distribution in 2026: The OTAs still sell your rooms
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