Managing a hotel across several sales channels can quickly become a complicated task.
Booking, Expedia, website, other online agencies…
Each one can have different rates, availability and bookings.
This is where the Channel Manager comes in.
What does a Channel Manager do?
A Channel Manager is a tool that lets you manage the availability and rates of different distribution channels from a single system.
When we receive a booking on one of them, availability is automatically updated on the others.
This considerably reduces manual work.
A simple example
Imagine a hotel with one last room available.
That room appears on Booking, Expedia and the website.
A guest books on Booking.
Without a Channel Manager, the hotel would have to log in manually to the other channels and close availability.
If it takes too long, another booking could come in.
This is what we know as overbooking.
With a Channel Manager, availability can be updated automatically.
What advantages does it bring?
Among its main benefits we find:
- automatic availability updates;
- rate synchronisation;
- reduced risk of overbooking;
- less manual work;
- the ability to work with more channels;
- faster implementation of changes.
It also makes it much easier to put a Revenue Management strategy into practice.
Revenue Management and Channel Manager
Imagine we detect an increase in demand and want to raise our rates.
If we work with five sales channels without a Channel Manager, we will have to update each one independently.
This takes time and increases the risk of mistakes.
With a centralised system, the change can be distributed much more quickly.
Does every hotel need one?
Not necessarily.
A very small property that sells practically all its availability directly and works with a single channel could manage its inventory manually.
However, as the number of rooms and channels grows, the Channel Manager usually becomes much more important.
Some PMS already include these functions
There are currently hotel management systems that include Channel Manager functionality or direct integrations with different channels.
That is why, before hiring an additional tool, it is worth checking what our PMS includes.
The goal is not to accumulate technology.
It is to have the tools that genuinely make operations easier and help the hotel sell better.