Computer reservation system or a central reservation system (CRS) is a web-based

software used by travel agencies and travel management companies to retrieve

and conduct transactions related to air travel, hotels, car rental, or other activities.
It was originally designed to be used by airlines but was later extended to be used
by travel agencies and Global Distribution Systems (GDS) to book and sell tickets
for multiple airlines.
The main objective of CRS was to make a one-stop service shop and eliminate
physical and geographical distances between mediators and consumers. With
universal coverage, these distribution systems provide information for airlines,
hotels, car rental companies, travel agencies, corporations and more.
If you want to focus only on a specific travel-related service like offering air tickets,
a CRS will be useful. If you want to tap into multiple services, using a CRS is not
advisable.
The term CRS is not much used as it has become part of a bigger system known as
the Passenger Service System (PSS) which comprises of CRS, an airline inventory
system and the departure control system (DCS).