A Central Reservation System (CRS) is a computerized database and distribution center for hospitality providers to manage their inventory, rates, and availability in a central system. It serves as the single source of truth for hotel chains and management groups, aggregating data from individual properties and sending it, in real-time, to various sales channels, GDSs, OTAs, and the direct booking engine.
The main role of a central reservation system (CRS) is to decouple the selling of rooms from the physical location of the hotel. While the hotel staff focuses on operations, the CRS is about distribution. Instead of having to manually update availability and pricing for each property, it enables revenue managers to manage price and availability for hundreds of hotels from a single interface.
The CRS facilitates the ARI (Availability, Rates, and Inventory) flow. It draws actual availability from the property, runs complex rate rules and pricing strategies, and then pushes this sellable inventory out to the world.
A modern central reservation system (CRS) is at the heart of the hotel technology stack, forming the link between the supply side and the demand side:
Confusion often exists between these two systems, but their role in the essence is distinct:
Yes. While originally developed for hotel chains to centralize data, independent hotels are now using cloud-based CRSs to access global distribution channels (like the GDS) that would otherwise be inaccessible to a standalone property.
A central reservation system (CRS) is the software used by the hotel for managing its own data. The GDS is the network of travel agents around the world that is used to access that data. The CRS “talks” to the GDS.
Yes. Modern CRSs have advanced revenue management rules. They can automatically adjust rates on all channels based on occupancy levels, demand forecasts, or competitor pricing.
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