What Is Channel Manager?

A channel manager is a technology solution for accommodation providers such as B&Bs, hotels, motels etc that will eventually help the way they sell rooms online.

This technology is a solution to a problem that plagues many hoteliers in today’s online marketplace. With travellers continuing with online method to book travel, B&B operators need to react to and manage this trend with a channel manager. It’s the only way to efficiently and effectively stay on top of incoming online reservations.

While promoting hotel rooms through various online channels – such as online travel agents and your own website – the task of constantly updating and adjusting your listings feels like a nightmare, and a channel manager can help solve the problem.

channel manager had been developed in the recent years to improvise the hotel’s booking and boost its online presence. A hotel Channel Manager is a software which updates the rates and inventory of a hotel directly to major OTAs and pools reservations accordingly, making it comfortable for the hotel to offer its rooms online, and avoiding overbooking and rate parity problems.

How does a channel manager work?

A hotel channel manager software provides a unique platform to properties for managing and handling their distribution across various platforms. Whenever bookings are recorded from any one channel, it would automatically update the latest rates and bookings on all the channels.

To be more specific, the major functions of the channel manager include updating the hotel details such as rate plans, rates and availability on different linked platforms.

Thus, to fetch bookings, channel manager uses two ways: One-way connectivity in which the channel manager pushes only the rates and inventory on various channels, but do not fetch bookings from the platform. Two-way connectivity, in which OTAs fetches the bookings, along with pushing rates and inventory.

Besides handling inventory and rate plans, a channel manager benefits hotels in many other ways.

What are the benefits of a hotel channel manager?

The channel manager simplifies the entire hotel management and is a true benefit to hotels. It helps various operations of hotel, such as:

Precise inventory and rate distribution:

Without channel manager, you have to manually log into the extranets of various OTAs to which your hotel are connected. For doing this, you have to be very quick and accurate. A hotel channel manager reomves all these problems. It handles the rates and inventory updates on real time basis.

Tackling underbooking or overbooking:

While bookings take place at every fraction of time on the OTAs, you may receive a booking from other channels as well. If you're not quick, you may get frequent overbookings, which can harm your reputation and revenue. The channel manager can update the inventory and rates in the smallest fraction of time, therefore there are very less chances of overbooking.

Maintain rate parity:

When you list your property on different distribution channels, it is mandatory for hotels to maintain rate parity across various channels. Regardless of the different commission you pay to different OTAs, you need to provide the same rate for the same room across all channels. Channel manager makes sure that any changes you make in your rates are universally updated across all platforms in real-time, leaving no room for with rate disparity issues. Eventually, you can maintain rate parity very easily.

Widen hotel’s reach:

It is evident that connecting on various OTA’s works best in any season. With channel manager in place, hotels can sell their rooms on as many channels as they want. This will open doors to more revenue and bookings. By connecting to local as well as regional OTAs, you can distribute your availability to a wider audience and even hotel global distribution systems. This will ultimately help you expand your reach remarkably.

Saving time and effort:

With a channel manager in place, a lot of manual efforts and time invested can be saved. The entire hotel channel manager is handled smoothly by the software; and all you need to do is sit back and relax.

What are the features of a channel manager?

A channel manager consist a wide range of features built to offer you a unique distribution process.

OTA connections:

The number of OTA connections is one of the key features of channel manager. With a stable two-way connectivity and connectivity with regional OTAs that are specific to your target audience, it works effectively with good results.

Single dashboard to maintain all your distribution channels:

Regardless of the number of channels you are connected, the OTA management system can handle the corresponding operations smoothly without any lags.

Real-time inventory and rate distribution:

Despite different distribution channels, channel manager keeps your availability and rates in sync. Few channel managers also enable hotels to pull bookings from social media sites.

Competitor rate evaluation:

The channel manager can bring your competitors rates right in the system with channel manager tool. Thus, it gets the real-time rates of your competitors directly in the hotel distribution system. Consequently, It helps you figure out the best pricing plan for your hotel.

How does a hotel channel manager improve your business?

Increases online bookings:

Most of the hotels restrict themselves to limited channels, to avoid double bookings or overbookings. Eventually, they may lose potential booking chances. With channel manager, you can list all your inventories and register bookings from as many channels as you want. Thus, you will never lose any potential booking opportunity.

Increases your income per room:

The channel manager for hotels has the feature of configuring different rates as per the different occupancy levels, which is also referred as Yield Management. You can define different occupancy slabs and set different rates for each slab, accrodingly. As the occupancy increases, there will be a percentage or amount increase in the basic room rates of a hotel. Thus, all you have to do is track the demand and supply.

Helps you study and improve your performance:

The channel manager can provide you a detailed summary of your business performance. Thus, you can track the better-performing channels, non-performing ones, total bookings, and many other details. By reading these metrics, you can make changes in your OTA connections and make important decisions.

What is the role of a hotel channel manager?

While hotels are listed on different channels to sell their inventory and register bookings, a channel manager shows live rates and availability on all the channels simultaneously. After receiving a booking, it automatically updates your room availability and rates on the other sites.

Channel manager’s OTA connectivity

Many OTAs consider few selected channel managers as their preferred partner, based on a wide range of parameters. Few of them are zero downtime, stable connectivity, and fewer errors.

How to select the right channel manager for your property?

There are various channel manager software present in the market. For selecting the right channel, the most important parameters are your requirements and your property type. At first, start listing down your requirements and then research about the vendors offering channel manager. Select at least 3 to 5 channels that fit your requirement. After a free trials, choose the one that suits you the best.

Channel manager mobile app

In today’s modern era, most operations of daily life can be performed from your smartphone. Similarly, you can also take control over your online channel manager through your mobile.

Channel manager software integrations

Promoting your hotels on multiple online channels is a major problem. An advanced channel manager can help you to solve this issue to a great extent. It allows you to sell all your rooms on all your connected channels simultaneously.

Is a channel manager worth the cost?

To guarantee a smooth operation of the channel manager system, the investment in the required technology is a must. With manual channel manager, you may face many problems like rate disparity, underbooking and overbooking. To avoid this, it is worth to invest and grow your business.

Who can use a channel manager?

Hotels that provide accommodation services and are listed on various travel sites can use a channel manager to simplify their inventory distribution.