- What is a Channel Manager?
- Does your hotel need a channel manager?
- How does a hotel channel manager work?
- Benefits of Channel Manager Software
- Training, Support, and Implementation
- Channel Manager Features
- How does channel manager improve hotel business?
- Hotel channel manager’s role
- Choosing the Best Channel Manager for Your Hotel
- Channel manager’s OTA connectivity
- Deep Integrations with Pricing Rules
- Is the channel manager worth the cost?
- Ideal pricing of channel manager
- Who can use a channel manager?
- FAQs – help section like why it is important, How can I get a demo of it?, How can I compare channel managers?, What other software in integration with SM is useful?, Which different property types does a channel manager cater to?, also we can have a section for them to drop CM related specific queries with email and contact
81% of travelers want premium digital customer service from hotel brands worldwide, which clarifies that hotel businesses need to adapt to the digital transformation to enhance the overall customer experience.
But adapting to a digital environment is not a straightforward task. One of the major issues hotel brands face with their digital transformation is the lack of a hotel channel management system to manage and keep up with their online booking and rates.
With the presence of multiple online travel agencies (OTAs) and other channels, cases of double bookings and overbooking can be seen now and then.
To avoid customers having a bad customer experience while interacting with your hotel brand, you need to have complete central control over your bookings, hotel rates over your digital presence on all OTAs and your website.
That’s where a dedicated channel manager software comes in. If implemented in your hotel ecosystem, a channel manager software can:
- Manage all your bookings across the digital landscape
- Help to get real updates about the online processes
- Provide analytics reports to make well-informed decisions
- Adjust your pricing
Our guide on channel manager will help you dive deep into the nitty-gritty aspects of a channel manager and how a channel management system can help you achieve your business outcomes with finesse.
From highlighting the benefits to how channel manager works, you’ll learn it all to get started and make the most of a dedicated channel manager for your hotel brand.
What Is A Channel Manager?
A hotel channel manager is a dedicated software that helps track all the availability and rates of hotel rooms across all OTAs. The system helps to manage all the operations and tasks in real-time seamlessly.
You get the freedom to centrally manage and update all the booking rates and keep a check on your hotel room management across multiple OTAs and your website.
It enables one to tackle one of the major issues digital transformation brings to the hotel industry, i.e., overbooking and double bookings.
You can simultaneously update all the information on all digital touchpoints and manage all the customer data, inventory within a few clicks.
A hotel channel manager software will help you educate your customers about the real-time updates and provide them with a great customer experience to make a well-informed decision.
A channel manager removes all the loopholes and flaws, managing and keeping track of all the updates on your digital presence across multiple channels.
You shift your focus towards enhancing the hospitality of your guests rather than draining your energy and time on updating all the dynamic updates across various OTAs or your website.
An important term that is associated with an online channel manager is channel management.
Let’s look at what channel management stands for in the hotel industry and why it’s important for your hotel venture.
What is A Channel Management System?
Channel management is the term coined for the entire process of managing your hotel inventory and multiple booking aspects using a channel manager. And the entire system is called a channel management system.
It is the strategy that hoteliers can use to specify which channels they want to list their hotels, analyze all the top-performing OTAs, and optimize their digital presence to boost profits and minimize costs.
The channels include OTAs or your website and retail travel agents, global distribution systems, search engines, or direct channels like social media pages.
You can integrate them all in one place to get a complete overview of all the processes and have central control over things. You can maneuver certain changes on all the channels concurrently using a simple channel management approach.
You’ll be facilitated with a powerful dashboard that will remove all the troubles of switching from one platform to another to access live availability and rates.
You need to understand certain important aspects of channel management before you decide to integrate it with your existing business workflow. Let’s see.
Importance of channel management in marketing
Effective channel management will help you to boost your business sales and marketing efforts.
It helps create and manage a strong network of multiple booking channels to attract guests and improve the profit numbers.
You can create and manage as many connections without increasing the workload of your business. The more the channels, the more the sales opportunities.
You can use multiple digital marketing strategies and promote your business offline to generate traffic towards your hotel listings on the digital platform. And with a proper channel management system in place, you can keep track of all the management of those listings and improve the customer experience of your potential prospects.
Hotel online distribution with channel management
One of the significant changes in the hotel industry is that online distribution channels have one of the necessary ingredients for your success. You can’t survive in the business based on walk-ins and organic phone calls.
One of the primary examples of online distribution channels is OTAs. You need to pass through intermediaries to reach out to your potential guest.
You can also use your website or other longer channels like retail travel agents, search engines, and global distribution systems(GDS).
Powerful channel management will help you ace your hotel distribution management and have a controlled expansion of your hotel business.
Factors affecting your channel management
With the advancements of technology in today’s world, there are hundreds of channel management systems you can integrate into your existing business. But which is best suited for your business?
Well, it’s not like one size fits all for choosing your channel management system. You need to decide based on your hotel and other important factors like:
- How many channels do you want to integrate
- Which OTA you want to connect
- The target audience you have
- How many rooms do you have
- Your budget
- Other integration you want to implement, like property management system or booking engine
- Types of rooms you have
All these factors are important before you decide to select your channel management company. You can contact AxisRooms’ experts to discuss your requirements and find solutions for your present and future troubles.
Does Your Hotel Need A Channel Manager?
If you are a result-oriented business owner and want your hotel business to stand out from your competitors, injecting digital supremacy with a professional channel manager is a must-have for your hotel brand.
You’ll have:
- Improved efficiency
- Centralized control
- Scalability
- More automation
- Better customer satisfaction
If you choose to have a channel manager for all the management of price rates, customer data, and rooms’ inventory on multiple online distribution channels.
Channel manager is undoubtedly one of the essential software which can provide your hotel brand with a cutting edge over others if you want to take your hotel business to the global level. Here are some of the key points why your hotel needs a channel manager.
Shift Your Focus To Other Important Tasks
The key ingredient to scalability and effectiveness in your operations is infusing automation into your existing workflow.
Either you hire employees to do particular tasks or use software to automate the process. It will help you save your time and energy to focus on your business’s more creative and core aspects.
Similar is the case with channel managers in your hotel business; if you want to take your venture to new heights, you need to try new things and give more time to enhancing the on-site services, sales, and guest engagements.
You can automate the non-creative element of keeping a constant check on the availability of rooms and consistent room prices across all the online distribution channels you are using.
Hiring an employee will prove costly and increase the chances of human errors that’ll affect your hotel business. On the contrary, it will be cost-effective if you decide to integrate a powerful hotel channel manager. There will be no room for error, as the entire system can be automated using advanced technologies.
You’ll be free from all the tensions and hiccups that human intervention can cause in the online distribution channel management and can focus more on your core business.
Boost Your Business Numbers
With an enhanced level of focus, you’ll be able to increase your productivity, which can help to create a positive work culture within your team. Your business processes can become solid, and you’ll have a better view of the operations; the customer experience will boost, and it will all boil down to a boost in business numbers.
You’ll witness a serious increase in your business revenues, profits, and you’ll be able to minimize your expenses with better management of your online distribution channels with the help of a channel manager.
There will be no cases of overbooking or double booking, thus resulting in an enhanced customer experience. Your brand’s presence in the industry will boost, and you’ll be more efficient and effective than your competitors.
You can scale your hotel chain to the global level and attract a tremendous amount of business without worrying about the proper channel management. You can achieve all your desired business outcomes and create an oiled automated management system that’ll help you bring in millions.
With a great overall customer experience, your first-time guests will become your raving fans and will choose your hotel brand whenever they decide to travel to their favorite destinations.
Keep Everything Updated For A Better Customer Experience
You’ll be able to keep all your inventory updated and have a keen eye on all the insights and activities happening on any of your online distribution channels. It will help you avoid any misinformation given to your guests and improve the overall customer experience of your guests.
You can provide real-time updates on your room’s availability and rates. It will also help you avoid any discrepancies caused by double bookings or overbooking so that your hotel brand doesn’t get affected in any way.
You’ll be able to remove all the manual processes so that there’s less chance of human errors. Moreover, the traditional approach to keeping all the digital footprint data updated can be time-consuming and frustrating for anyone.
It might not seem like a headache during an offseason, but it will be difficult for you to manage all the increased traffic and inquiries on festivals or on-season. And if your hotel chain has branches in evergreen destinations, it becomes the need of the hour for you to integrate a dedicated channel manager.
With all these major transformation changes, a channel manager is an asset that can help your business to skyrocket its business operation and scale to your desired levels seamlessly.
How Does A Hotel Channel Manager Work?
A hotel channel manager works in real-time so that you can stay updated with all the processes and movements happening across all the multiple online distribution channels.
83% of the customers have booked their hotel reservations online in recent years. With online booking numbers at an all-time high, the importance of channel management increases big time.
The basic mechanics of a channel manager are like any other pipeline management software. You’ll get a powerful dashboard where you can view all the updates happening in real-time across all the listed OTAs and other distribution channels, and you can make changes via this single dashboard.
The respective online distribution channels will receive the update request, and within a matter of time, your customers can view the updated version.
It works to keep you updated with all the user data and performance of your listings or websites. You can analyze all the updates and then make well-informed decisions to enhance your business workflow’s user experience and productivity.
The channel manager favors individual owner properties and large hotel chains and provides tailored online distribution channel management solutions. You can create a strong presence on OTAs and get the most out of these popular travel platforms for your hotel bookings.
Here is a list of vital functionalities of channel manager:
Manage Bookings
A channel manager works to enable you with all the live booking updates and on-site preparations to provide the best customer experience for your guests.
You can track all the incoming and checkout dates and ensure your hotel’s staff delivers unforgettable hospitality to your guests.
You also have the option to confirm and view all the booking requests from all the online distribution channels from a single dashboard.
Logging
A channel manager can log every minute detail to stay updated on all the user activities’ detailed information.
Keeping updated with all the information will help to manage and process all the future decisions better. You’ll get complete audit reports so that everything remains transparent in the process.
Multiple Customization Options
You can unblock and block multiple channels, update all the sold-out dates, and provide real-time updates on all the rooms’ availability within a few clicks.
You have the option to customize your dashboard and tailor it according to your business. But the customization features depend upon how good your software provider is, so make a wise decision while selecting your channel manager provider.
Multiple OTA Integrations
You’ll have the option to integrate with all the leading online travel agencies to be present at the locations where most travelers are searching for good-quality hotels. It is one of the most important functions of a channel manager, which can help you improve the quality of your customer service and enhance the management flexibility of all the online distribution channels.
OTAs have created a new market space, and people trust hotels listed on most of the top OTAs for their traveling purposes. So you need to be present where your potential guest is searching for hotels.
A powerful channel manager can be linked with all the OTAs to provide real-time updates regarding your essential details to help the prospect make a booking decision.
Robust Analytics
There’s no better way to optimize your existing digital operation than with robust analytics. A channel manager enables hoteliers to extract analytics reports to keep track of all the movements related to your business like inventories, bookings, guests management, ADR, RevPar and much more.
Understanding all the trends and figuring out all the flaws and loopholes in the existing system to improve and develop a better workable plan.
You can analyze how the online distribution channels are working and their results for your hotel brand. If you feel a particular OTA is not doing good for your business, you can remove and focus on the ones helping your business.
You also have the power to check all the ratings and reviews guests are posting on all the online channels. You can provide them with personalized replies, improve the brand interaction, and maintain a solid relationship to visit again.
But remember, not every channel manager company can provide such premium functionalities to your hotel brand. Only a few, like AxisRooms, can give you access to top-notch channel manager software that can transform your business.
Benefits Of Channel Manager Software
There are many benefits to using channel manager software for your hotel brand. A channel manager gives numerous returns compared to the cost you put in to integrate a dedicated channel manager into your business.
You need to pay a subscription fee and multiple commissions to OTAs for listing your hotel brand on their platform. Hence, you need returns from using a channel manager to cover all these costs and drive some serious benefits for your business.
However, if you can increase revenue and occupancy with the help of a channel manager, it is proven that the profits will outweigh all the expenses, even if bookings are channeled from third-party platforms.
Even if you are a small property owner, a channel manager can help you simplify all your inventory management and help you boost your business outcomes. Let’s have a look at all the exclusive benefits a good channel manager can drive for your hotel brand:
Establish A Central Management System
You can control your online distribution channel management from a reliable, single, and stable distribution platform. You can make concurrent changes across all your digital footprints in a matter of a few clicks and provide your potential guests with a great customer experience.
With centralized management, you enable your business to look for new potential growth opportunities and scale your hotel brand to new heights.
Your business workflow will be professional and systematic with minimal errors and better effectiveness for a better brand presence in the hotel industry.
Real-time Automation
You can get real-time updates automatically from all the online distribution channels simultaneously on a single dashboard with the help of a channel manager.
There’s no need to waste your time and energy switching between multiple platforms to keep yourself updated with all the room pricing and availability at your hotel.
Sometimes, if you want to make dynamic changes to all your listing details, you can also tweak those without changing individually on all the channels.
Transparency With Performance & Bookings
There will be complete transparency with the help of an online hotel channel manager, as you’ll get all the performance updates about all your distribution channels.
Even your potential guests will be updated with all the latest data regarding the bookings and the dates they plan their travel. It will not provide any misinformation to your viewers and help to keep your brand’s credibility and authenticity intact.
You’ll also have the benefit of avoiding troubles from recent problems like overbooking and double bookings.
Avoid Overbooking & Double Bookings
With an increase in your digital presence, there are a lot of cases of overbooking and double bookings happening across the hotel industry.
Hoteliers find it hard to manage the online processes and keep a firm grip on booking management. With the help of a channel manager, everything becomes simpler, and a better management process is injected into your existing business.
Seamless and error-free management of all the bookings and customer data can be implemented to enhance the business and customer experience.
Increased Global Reach
By integrating a powerful channel manager, you can follow all the top-notch tactics that all the biggest brands in the hotel industry are using.
You can also increase and scale your business to a global level and provide a great customer experience for all global travelers.
If you cannot provide a premium experience to all international travelers, you won’t succeed in the international hotel industry. Having a channel manager handle all the management of online distribution channels is one of the ways to provide a premium experience to your potential global guests.
Focus On Core Operations
You’ll be able to shift your and your team’s focus towards improving the in-house experience of your guests rather than wasting all the time and energy managing all the bookings and updating all the online distribution channels regularly.
There will be more productivity across your business operations, and everyone can work happily and with a dedication to achieving all your business targets.
Achieve Business Goals
With all the tailored and simplified business processes, you’ll be able to increase the productivity of your existing system and boost all your business revenue, profit, and ROI numbers.
You’ll also be able to create solid trust with your audience so that they can become your regular customers. With increased profits and a growing customer base, you’ll be able to achieve all your business goals and desires and create an established hotel brand even in the competitive business landscape.
Channel Manager: Training, Support, and Implementation
You need to be aware of some critical points before you decide to integrate a channel manager into your existing hotel business. These vital points include all the pricing, setup, training, support, and implementation of the channel manager.
If a hotelier is not aware of these points, this may be a roadblock, in the long run, post-integration. So let’s extract all the vital learnings one by one:
Training
If you want to have a satisfying experience with modern software, you want your tool to be as easy to plug and play as possible so that there are no technical hiccups caused while managing all the operations.
To get hands-on training on the tool, most top channel manager provider companies like AxisRooms provide a trial period where you can learn all the setup and basic training to operate the hotel channel manager software.
So when you decide to purchase the product, there’s no setup or training required to avail the premium product features.
If you choose a top-notch service provider like AxisRooms, you’ll also get a dedicated technical staff member to help you with the training and setup. You can address all your queries and technical difficulties with the staff member and have a deep understanding of the setup and operational procedures.
The training can be taken in groups or individually, depending on your hotel brand size and requirements, and it might take a few days to finish up with all the initial training and set up lessons.
Support
Once you are done with the training and setup of the channel manager, you need proper support to handle any dynamic difficulties that can come up during your management times.
You need your issues to be resolved within no time so that you can stay updated with all the data in real-time and update all the latest changes to be visible to your potential guests.
If there are delays in the process, your guests might face difficulties, and it will affect the overall image of your hotel brand. A channel manager is one of the vital tools that can help you boost your online sales, so you want it to function properly.
So you need someone who can understand your property circumstances, communicate with you regarding your channel manager issue, and provide a tailored solution as soon as possible.
With AxisRooms channel manager software, you’ll not face any hiccups when it comes to the support as there will be 24*7 live customer support available to resolve all your channel manager issues.
Implementation
Professional channel manager service providers can manage the implementation of a channel manager software, or you can use all the training learnings for a smooth setup with no help.
Once the setup is ready, the basic functionalities are simple to use, and you’ll get a complete overview during your training. Otherwise, you don’t need any hardcore technical knowledge to use the software to its highest potential.
You can centrally manage all the important metrics related to online distribution channels and modify anything instantly. A channel manager will help you boost your reservation approval rate drastically as it eliminates all the confusion and roadblocks in the case of traditional techniques.
You’ll have master control over multi-channel operations and complete data insights for informed decision-making. During the implementation process, you can also choose hospitality analytics to keep your business up in the highly competitive business landscape.
Apart from all the vital aspects of channel manager software, pricing is also considered the main metric because you need to pay a cost to integrate a channel manager in your digital landscape.
Pricing
If you own a small property or are an individual property owner, your budget will affect a lot of your decisions. Even if you have a large hotel brand chain, you don’t want to drain your money on something that doesn’t drive profound benefits to your business.
A channel manager will undoubtedly compensate for its cost with the benefits it delivers to your business, but the pricing models can vary for different channel managers.
Some companies offer channel manager services on a commission basis similar to the OTAs’ business model, and some may charge the number of channels you want to connect with.
Going through all these nitty-gritties can help you plan out your budget and choose a pitch-perfect plan based on your business requirements.
You can connect to specific channels and drive the desired number of guests for your hotel, paying no extra fees.
Channel Manager Features
When choosing a channel manager, ensure that it seamlessly manages all of your business operations. Apart from the prime functionalities of a channel manager like managing rates, availability, booking and support to boost your sales, you can come across multiple features that can be overwhelming.
So to help you cut through the noise, we’ll help you consider some of the primary features of a channel manager for your hotel. Let’s go through all of them one by one:
Integration Abilities
A great channel manager can integrate with your existing tech ecosystem so that no hiccups are caused in your business operations.
It can integrate with the property management system, CRS, and revenue management system to smoothen the workflow of your hotel venture.
Some channel managers even have the feature to auto communicate with the multiple distribution channels about the new bookings and the availability of the rooms.
Apart from integrating third-party tools and other existing technologies, a good channel manager can add multiple top distribution channels to the ecosystem to make the management easier and smoother.
Including all the top OTAs, a channel manager should integrate metasearch platforms, GDS platforms, and other channels into your digital landscape.
Flexible & Reliable
The chances of errors in the traditional methods of managing all the listing details across all the distribution channels increase when there’s a need to update data regularly.
A channel manager is reliable and flexible with all the updates. You can even automate the process so that all the changes happen concurrently across multiple channels.
Most top channel managers have low error rates, and you can automate the update process for your national and potential international guests.
Real-Time Dashboard
The real-time dashboard feature is the most amazing thing about a channel manager. You can use a single dashboard to view all the activities and updates on your online distribution channels. The results are shown in real-time, and there’s no lag, so everything is transparent.
You also have the power to update any minor or major details about the rates or the availability of rooms across your digital ecosystem within a few clicks using the powerful dashboard.
The results will be updated concurrently on all the platforms, and you’ll be able to view everything on the dashboard. You can easily spot errors on any online distribution channels so that your customers are not misguided or misinformed regarding any information.
You can also extract all the vital information regarding the bookings, different OTAs, and customer behavior to make informed decisions.
You can manage your budget, tailor your marketing strategy, and even keep an eye on the account booking volume with the help of all the valuable insights provided by the channel manager.
Avoid Booking Inconvenience
A dedicated channel manager can help escape all the hassle caused to hoteliers by double bookings and overbookings. With the ability of pooled inventory, all the channels will show all the maximum room slots available so that the risk of double bookings or overbookings is minimal.
A channel manager has a two-way connection with OTAs to send and receive updates in real-time from the hoteliers.
With the right information, you can provide your customers a seamless customer experience. If they have the best experience staying at your property, they’ll become your repeat customers and choose you over all your competitors.
It will help you scale your business, achieve your business goals, and differentiate you from others.
Easily Accessible
In today’s digital era, where everything needs to be easily accessible on your smart devices, a decent channel manager also brings this functionality to the table.
A channel manager is easily accessible by anyone from any part of the world to manage all the dynamic updates across all online distribution channels. Most of the top channel manager software is mobile-friendly and gives the hoteliers the freedom to experience the management of distribution channels from their mobile devices or laptops.
There are a lot of variations in the types of channel manager software available in the industry, you need to select the right one that suits your business budget, size, type, integrates with all the existing technologies, and has most of the above-listed features.
If you want to escape the trouble of searching for the best channel manager for your hotel brand, then AxisRooms channel manager can provide you with all the suitable solutions for complete online distribution channels within your budget limits.
How Does Channel Manager Improve Hotel Business?
Channel managers can transform your existing business operations with the power of managing your rates and inventory on all of your listed online distribution channels.
You can increase your hotel business to a global level and match the international standards of the hospitality and hotel industry. It can help you save a lot of workforce with its smart integration with the hotel property management system for real-time connectivity.
Let’s understand all the transformational impacts that a channel manager has for your hotel brand:
Change The Way Your Manage Inventory & Multiple OTAs
With just a few clicks, you can update all the rates and inventory across all the multiple OTAs channels from your PMS with the help of a channel manager.
You can view all the updates and bookings made on all the OTAs on your PMS with no delays, so that there’s no bottleneck in the availability of the hotel rooms.
The two-way connection between a PMS and a channel manager can help you view all the bookings at the front desk and provide the best experience for your guests.
You can:
- Simplify the rate distribution on the OTAs and automate some of the functionalities with the help of a channel manager.
- Save all the reservation details so that you get complete insights about your guests and use them in the future.
- In case of cancellations or reservations, you can update the entire digital network with the latest details for no discrepancies and inconvenience to the viewer.
You’ll also be able to remove all the troubles faced with double bookings and overbookings for a smooth workflow of booking management.
Explore The Power of Pooled Inventory
You’ll be able to bring pooled inventory to escape all the unreliable, time-consuming, and ineffective workflow of allocated inventory. You can manage and put your inventory on a single dashboard and stay updated with all the dynamic changes across the OTAs and other online distribution channels.
With the help of a channel manager, you can communicate with all the OTAs and PMS in real-time and create an effective ecosystem for improved hotel business operations.
The guest will get an enhanced user experience, and it will help you stand apart from your competitors. You’ll be able to create everlasting relationships with your guests so that they’ll choose you over others.
Escape Manual Errors
If you are experiencing manual errors in your day-to-day hotel operations, you know it’s frustrating, time-consuming, and affects the overall productivity of your workforce. A channel manager can completely transform your error rates and boost your overall productivity.
- You can save all the time and energy to focus on creative and in-site aspects of your hotel business.
- You can improve the overall experience of your bookings and all your details across all channels with a few clicks.
- You can remove all the overbooking errors caused by a manual system, as you don’t need to individually visit all the channels to update all the new inventory and rates.
With the help of a channel manager, you can use the power of automation to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your system.
Scale To Global Levels
You can infuse the ability to scale your hotel brand to a global level with the integration of a powerful channel manager. As top hotel brands use top-notch channel managers for better customer experience and inventory management, you can also follow the same standards for operating your business.
With over 50% of hotel bookings made on online portals, you need to have a stronghold on booking networks to boost your business and derive your desired outcomes. With the help of a channel manager, you can connect with the global OTAs to open all the doors to attract a global audience to your property.
- You won’t be able to tap the global audience with the help of traditional management because it will be overwhelming for you and your staff to handle the increased footfall and dynamic changes in the inventory.
- You can build a solid online image and credibility so that it becomes easier for you to connect with potential global guests over your competitors.
- You can spot and select selective global regions and boost selective targeting so that you can achieve your desired results by cutting through the noise.
You need a powerful channel manager if you want to improve your existing hotel business from the house of AxisRooms. Get in touch with the experts at AxisRooms and discuss all your requirements.
Hotel Channel Manager's Role
The role of a channel manager is very specific; it helps to bridge the gap between all the online distribution channels with your property management system to create a better and more agile ecosystem for your business operations.
It helps give the best customer experience to your potential guests, so they are not misinformed about anything.
It helps create robust channel management in the hotel industry so they can easily figure out ways to scale their business without worrying about the existing business operations.
The role of the channel manager also depends on the scale of your hotel business.
If you have listed your business across three online distribution channels, you need a smaller and different channel manager than if you have twenty different distribution channels.
Let’s understand the different roles of a channel manager in your hotel business and how they can help you achieve your desired business outcomes.
Work In Sync With Leading OTAs
All the top channel managers can work hand-in-hand with leading booking sites like Tripadvisor, Booking.com, among others.
Even if you have a small-scale hotel business, you might have listings on some of the leading OTAs. A channel manager will help you create a strong hotel distribution management system and smoothen the business workflow.
With the help of a dedicated hotel booking channel manager, you can change and update all the bookings and rate changes concurrently across all the distribution channels. Your potential customers will not feel disappointed during their initial interaction with your brand, and you’ll be able to build solid trust with all of them.
Seamless Integration With Existing Technologies
A channel network can completely sync with all the existing technologies used in the hotel ecosystem and strengthen the workflow by fixing all the online distribution channel management flaws.
A channel network can work seamlessly with a property management system, revenue management system, and CRM for better and improved management of all the online distribution channels.
You can update all the rates and inventory within a few clicks, and all the updates will be visible in the property management system. You can track all the revenue in the revenue management system by keeping track of all the bookings and cancellations.
If you face any hiccups while using the channel manager, then you can connect with the service providers’ support team to swiftly solve your issues so that your hotel’s brand image isn’t affected.
Save Time & Energy
Another major role of a channel manager is to save time and energy for your workforce. You can automate most of the redundancies in your existing workflow, which will help you save time and shift the focus of your workforce to more important things.
You can focus on managing the in-house operations and improving the customers’ staying experience rather than updating and maintaining the room price and inventory on all the online distribution channels.
It will improve the overall productivity of your team and help you drive more results in less time. You can achieve your business goals in a shorter time and stand out from the rest of the competitors with professional and international standard business workflow.
Freedom To Make Changes
With a dedicated channel manager, you have the option to customize and tweak any settings or listing details that can be seen on all of your online channels.
A channel manager creates a two-way management approach; it can receive updates from multiple OTAs and other channels and even update all the integrated channels about the updates.
There are no restrictions on managing the channels because a channel manager is designed to have multiple options to update, reject, and cross-check all the inventory, rates, and bookings.
You can decide on your bookings by cross-checking the availability so that your customers don’t face any inconveniences. It will help to avoid the problems of double bookings and cross-bookings.
Comprehensive Reporting
You don’t have the freedom to extract customer data reports or performance reports from the OTAs tailored for your business using the traditional methods. But with the assistance of the channel manager, you can audit all the reports, save all the vital data, and use it to make well-informed decisions.
Apart from these, there are many roles of a channel manager depending upon your requirements and the channel manager you choose to integrate into your existing business workflow.
You can improve your existing venture with the help of regular reporting and can spot all the ineffective OTAs so that you can shift your focus towards selective channels for enhanced results.
Choosing the Best Channel Manager for Your Hotel
Choosing the best channel manager for your hotel can be an overwhelming task for you because there are so many options available in the market, and you don’t want average service for your business.
If you are looking for the best channel manager for your small hotels or even large hotel brands, there are many aspects you need to look for in a channel manager service provider before you select one for your venture.
Let’s go through all the nitty-gritty but vital elements you should consider while selecting a channel manager company.
Spot The Flexibility
The very first thing you need to look at in the channel manager service provider is whether their channel manager is flexible or not. Because if it’s not able to fulfill your unique requirements, what’s the benefit of paying a hefty price for the channel manager service.
Every hotel business has a different set of requirements and wants to integrate a selective amount of online distribution channels. So you need to look at whether the company can provide you with tailored solutions to your management needs; if not, that’s not the right fit for you.
You can consult with the representatives of different companies and state your specific requirements in front of them and wait for their replies to see whether they can deliver your desired solution or not.
Rigorous Research
To avail of the channel manager service, you need to pay a large chunk of your budget to enhance your business operations and online distribution channel management. You need to give proper attention to deciding on the service providers.
Do some digging on your behalf and look out for all the company’s testimonials and reviews listed on the internet. If you find something fishy, don’t go ahead with the association; if not, that’s the green signal.
You can also check out the demo versions of some of the top channel manager service providers to get a hands-on experience with the software. This heps you understand the functionalities, touch and feel, and power of the software and how effective it can be for your hotel brand.
Look For Additional Services
Integrating a channel manager into your system is not enough; you need to look for additional customer service providers if you want great value for your money.
Other services like 24*7 customer support, hands-on training, and dedicated technical management support can be a few essential additional services that can enhance the effectiveness of the overall package for your brand.
Having a great association with a top-notch channel manager provider will help your business perform better and increase the business bond and network.
Transparency
It is one of the most important terms that can build a solid relationship with a brand and can even destroy a business relationship with a channel manager provider.
You need to ensure that the company you associate with is transparent with you from day one; you don’t want to work with people who don’t paint a clear picture with their clients.
Either sign an NDA or have trust in your associates beforehand so that they are completely transparent with terms and conditions related to the service they’ll provide.
A transparent filter between the two entities is always a great thing for both brands in the business world.
Cost-effective & Quality Service
If you are a small business owner, you need to associate with providers that can provide the best channel manager service at a highly affordable price bracket.
Even if you have a large hotel chain, you don’t want to drain your money on something ineffective, right?
So look out for quality and cost-effective channel manager services. Go through multiple proposals from different top agencies and pick out the most for your brand.
Keep in mind all the requirements and your budget in mind, so that you can pick out the best channel manager software from the best suitable company for your venture.
If you want a no-brainer answer to selecting a channel manager software, you won’t find a better option than AxisRooms. Fullfing all the essential requirements and providing one of the leading channel manager services for global hotel brands, AxisRooms has bridged the gap between quality service and cost-effectiveness.
There’s no compromise on customer satisfaction, as a dedicated support team is always there to manage all the technical questions and doubts 24*7.
So before you list out all the other channel manager service providers, don’t forget to get in touch with AxisRooms’ experts for a detailed discussion.
Channel Manager’s OTA Connectivity
A channel manager helps you sync and connect with all your OTA channel listings like Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Expedia, Hotels.com, among others.
You can reach out to all the potential guests looking for a decent hotel room during their traveling duration. A two-way connection from a channel manager helps to work hand-in-hand with all of your OTA channels and manage all the dynamic booking, rates, and inventory.
If you receive a booking reservation on a particular channel, that reservation will be automatically updated across all the channels so that all the hectic manual work is erased and all your potential guests have the latest details across all the OTAs.
It removes the chances of overbookings where a potential guest has to face discrepancies on multiple websites. For example, if all your rooms are booked on Booking.com, it won’t show the same result in some other OTA channel.
A channel manager also helps you change details about the bookings and the rates across all the OTAs within a few clicks.
That’s not it. Let’s discuss all the points related to OTA connectivity with a channel manager.
Concurrent Updates
With powerful connectivity across all the OTAs, a channel manager will maintain a uniform flow across all the OTA channels. I
If you want to set a specific rate for a specific time, you can update that, and the channel manager will help you cut all the manual time wasted in updating individual OTA platforms.
The channel manager will also sync with the booking management system so that all the dynamic updates happening are updated in real-time on all the multiple channels.
Simple Interface & Powerful Dashboard
Once you integrate specific OTAs with the channel manager, you can view all the data and insights on the powerful dashboard. You have the centralized control to manage and update anything.
With strong connectivity, you’ll be able to make all the changes across all the OTAs using a single dashboard.
While most of the average channel manager dashboards are a bit complex to operate, it will be easy for you to make all the changes if you choose to go with a top-notch channel manager.
You won’t need any prior technical knowledge to use a channel manager, and you can make your existing business workflow simpler and faster.
Data Safety
All your vital data will be safe, and there will be no data loss during the communication between an OTA and a channel manager. There will be no data loss or discrepancies experienced while managing all the data and simultaneously making changes across multiple OTAs.
You can even extract all the vital user and OTA data to overview user behavior and OTA performance.
You don’t want to list your hotel brand on an OTA that is not deriving a solid business; you want to focus on the ones helping you increase your hotel business.
You can make well-informed decisions with the user data and OTA data and figure out areas you can improve and attract more customers to your business. You can also check the regular reviews and comments of the users on multiple OTAs so that you know what your guests and potential guests are talking about you.
Reduced Errors
The connectivity of the channel manager with all the OTA channels will help you minimize all the errors caused while manually maintaining all the data across multiple OTAs. You’ll be able to manage all the updates and changes with no discrepancies in a productive way.
Your guests will not face any troubles with any misinformation on the OTAs, and they’ll stay updated with all the dynamic updates during their travel bookings. You can improve the efficiency of your workforce and focus on more creative and productive tasks to increase the overall staying experience of your guests.
You can also scale your business with the help of a smooth channel manager and OTA connection to global levels, as you can list your businesses with leading international OTA to attract foreign audiences.
If we wrap it up, with seamless two-way connectivity of channel manager and OTA, you have the option to manage all the rates, inventory, and bookings on the listed OTAs and provide real-time updates to your users for a better experience.
But you need to choose the best channel manager’s service provider company to help you achieve these benefits seamlessly. Look out for AxisRooms before you choose to associate with any other service provider because you need the best to achieve your desired targets. Mediocrity will not help a lot.
Deep Integrations with Pricing Rules
Once you decide to integrate a channel manager with your existing business and all the technologies like PMS, RMS, and others, you should try out the free trial version to get a brief idea of all the functionalities.
You’ll get to know how many integration options you have, and the price of the channel manager is reflected in the functions and options of the tool.
These things are important because investing in a channel manager is not easy; you need to pay a hefty price to avail the services of a great channel manager to manage and optimize all the online distribution channels.
Let’s understand two of the important elements before you kick-start the use of a channel manager for your business.
Integration
Once you decide how many online distribution channels you want to integrate with your channel manager, it will become easier for you to proceed forward.
You can learn to integrate the channel manager with your existing tools like PMS, RMS, among others, once you get hands-on with the demo version of the channel manager so that you don’t face any hiccups when you decide to purchase the tool. You can also manage all the channels seamlessly and update all the prices, inventory on your own.
If you don’t want to handle all the integration parts yourself, you can ask the service providers to set up everything to run all the operations as soon as possible. If a company doesn’t offer you integration support, you can ask for it, or you always have the option of looking for new companies.
You can also get 24*7 customer support if you face any technical difficulties with all the integration so that your business doesn’t get affected by all the technical faults. Once it’s integrated, you can provide your potential guests with the best experience and even manage your online distribution channel with finesse.
Pricing
Pricing is one of the important segments that’ll decide which channel manager you can integrate with your hotel business.
Being a small property owner, a lot of your buying will depend on your budget, and even if you have a large business, you won’t spend blindly on any tool.
So firstly, you need to understand your requirements to choose the best channel manager for your business. You need to filter out which channels you need to manage and what target audience you want to target.
You need to figure out all the nitty-gritty aspects before filtering out a channel manager based on its price bracket.
Once you are done with the pricing, you need to decide which pricing model to follow for your channel manager. There are mainly two to three ways in which a channel manager service provider can change you.
First, the company may charge you on a commission basis, like any other OTAs. You need to pay a small cut from the payment you’ll receive from the guests, and you need to pay the channel manager service providers. The commission cut will be decided beforehand so that there’s no trouble with the payment during the execution process.
Second, the company may charge based on the channels you are integrating with your channel manager. For example, the price for integrating four channel managers will be much lower than that for integrating twenty. It all depends on the company and how much they will charge for individual channel managers.
Third, the company may charge you based on the number of properties you want to connect with the channel manager. If a hotel chain has multiple properties located in different locations, the workload of the channel manager will increase to manage all the processing and management of different properties. So the price of large hotel chains will be higher compared to small businesses.
There can be other pricing factors depending on the company, so discuss all these factors before integrating any channel manager with your existing business.
If you want to balance the pricing and integration services, you must choose AxisRooms for your channel manager requirements. Being one of the leading channel manager service providers for hoteliers worldwide, you’ll get 360° solutions from the experts managing your channel manager requirements.
Providing top-notch quality channel managers with customized prices, with AxisRooms you’ll get the best value for your money. Once integrated, you’ll get complete customer support for resolving all the technical issues so that your hotel brand doesn’t get affected.
Is Channel Manager Worth The Cost?
A channel manager that can derive your desired results and remove all the pressure for manual updating and managing online distribution channels can be worth the cost you’ll pay either on a commission basis or any other payment model.
But if we talk in general, a channel manager’s high-end cost is worth paying for because of the endless transformations and benefits for a hotelier to improve the existing business environment.
There are many transformations that a channel manager can provide. Let’s have a look at some highlights that can help you decide if it’s worth the money you’ll spend.
Up To Date Listing
With the help of a channel manager, you can update all the information across multiple channels simultaneously within a few clicks. You don’t need to manually hop onto individual platforms to update all the inventory and live room prices with your listings.
You can save time and energy by providing your potential guests with live information to avoid a bad experience during their interaction with your hotel brand.
You can utilize all the time and focus on improving your productivity and improving the guests’ staying experience. There are many things a hotel brand needs to take care of to provide the best guest experience.
Effective Promotion
You can promote your hotel brand across multiple OTAs for enhanced brand visibility to attract more audiences. With an effective channel manager, you can even scale your business to global levels and manage all the global audience.
With the increased promotion levels, you’ll receive a tremendous amount of traffic to your booking sites. It will be difficult for you to manage dynamic changes and updates using the traditional methods.
With the help of a channel manager, there will be no errors and discrepancies in the data, and your promotion will bring positive ROI because of a dedicated channel manager.
Multiple Booking Sources
You can add multiple OTAs to your channel manager so that it can handle all the information with finesse. You have the option to integrate a selected number of OTAs and other distribution channels with your channel manager.
Once you have integrated all the channels, you can extract the performance reports of all the integrated channels and check which one is driving your decent results and which one is not performing to the desired levels.
You can add or remove distribution channels based on the reports and optimize your existing workflow with the help of a channel manager.
Boost In Revenue
If you have a full reservation for specific dates, and somehow a cancellation request is received, once approved, the channel manager will automatically place the room for sale across all the channels.
You don’t need to go and update all the OTAs manually. It will boost your chances of sales, and you can drive in a great amount of revenue with effective management.
With top-notch management and great revenue, you can achieve your business targets seamlessly and within no time.
No Overbooking
You’ll avoid the problems of overbooking when managing all the bookings across multiple online distribution channels.
Suppose someone is trying to book a reservation with your hotel and one platform is showcasing booked because of flaws in the manual update process. Another OTA is still showing a room available. It will cause a case of overbooking.
You won’t be able to fulfill the requirement, and the user experience will degrade. If you want to scale your hotel brand to new levels, you can’t allow such flaws to happen.
You’ll have access to a powerful dashboard where you can view all the information and manage all the operations with a few clicks.
Optimized Performance
You’ll be able to optimize your existing workflow with the integration of a channel manager and enhance the productivity of your workforce.
There will be fewer errors and flaws because, compared to manual processing, you’ll be able to focus and work towards improving the in-house experience of the guests.
You’ll have a complete overview of all the processes, updates, and sales channels so that you can optimize the overall performance of all your online distribution channels.
These are the top reasons why a channel manager is valuable for your hotel brand, but apart from this, you need to tailor all your requirements and choose the best channel manager for your business.
If we talk about the best, AxisRooms is the one channel manager service provider that can help you with your dynamic requirements and give you the best cost-effective rates for a top-notch channel manager.
Ideal pricing of channel manager
The ideal pricing for a channel manager that can fulfil your brand’s requirements varies depending on your budget, requirements, and goals.
Many different service providers offer different channel managers by going through all your requirements and budget constraints. But how can you know the ideal pricing of the channel manager you are being offered?
Let’s go through different elements linked to understanding the ideal pricing of a channel manager so that you can make a well-informed decision during your purchase.
Understanding The Requirements
The first thing you need to understand is that you need to be crystal clear about your requirements. Your requirements will help you choose and filter out the best channel manager for your business.
It will help you set a specific amount for your channel manager so that you can drive a positive ROI.
You need to choose the best OTA channels to list your business and understand all the complexities you face while manually managing your online distribution channels.
Budget
Your budget is an important element that decides whether you’ll buy a channel manager or which type of channel manager you want to buy.
Having a small business property, it’s difficult to make decisions without looking at your budget options.
Even if you have a big budget, you don’t want to invest in a channel manager who fulfils your desired requirements. So what’s the right budget amount you can set for your channel manager?
As you might know, a channel manager is a cloud-based software, and you don’t need to install it on your smart device physically. A decent channel manager will cost you around $25 to $350 per month.
This price difference is because of the different requirements for different hotel brands. The greater the complexity of your hotel ecosystem, the higher the price.
But once you choose a high-end plan, you’ll cover all your hotel environments within the price range, and you’ll also get a higher level of functionality compared to an inexpensive version of a channel manager.
So that’s why understanding your requirements is the first step to choosing a channel manager based on the pricing and functionalities. Set your budget accordingly and decide to choose a plan that can drive you a positive ROI.
Now that you know the pricing and can decide your budget accordingly. Let’s understand all the different pricing models available in the industry,offered by the channel manager service providers.
Pricing Model
Many channel manager companies have different pricing models. Many of them have hidden costs, so you need to be very careful with the pricing model while choosing your channel manager.
The different pricing models are:
- Based on a fixed monthly fee, you need to pay a specific amount to the company monthly or a monthly commission basis where you need to pay a total commission for a particular month. The commission plan is similar to most OTAs, where you need to pay a commission for the number of guests you receive from a particular OTA.
- Based on fixed channel costs, you need to pay a specific amount for all the online distribution channel integrations you want to have with your channel manager or pay individual prices for every specific channel you want to integrate.
- Other additional service costs can include the setup cost of customer service. You’ll be assigned a technical expert to handle all your technical issues or problems in no time. These additional costs can be included in the core pricing model, or some companies will ask you to pay additional fees to avail these additional services.
If you want to pay some advance or choose a monthly payment option, there may be other conditions. But before you try out anything, don’t forget to access the free version of the tool so that you can get a complete understanding of how the tool operates and how you can extract all the most benefits using it.
Speaking of the free demo version, with AxisRooms channel manager services, you access a free trial version where you can get a complete hands-on experience of the tool. There are minimal doubts left during the purchase time. You can contact the professional team to understand everything related to different channel managers AxisRooms offers for your hotel brand.
You’ll get complete customer support and highly cost-effective pricing so that there’s no compromise on the workflow of your business. If you want best-in-class channel manager services, don’t forget to go through AxisRooms before you make a buying decision.
Who Can Use a Channel Manager?
A channel manager can be used by any hotel brand globally having a small property or a large chain. With the growing popularity of OTAs, it has become a necessity for hoteliers to list their property on all of the top OTAs to attract potential guests.
But with the increased traffic and online expansion, the management of rates, inventory can be a headache. That’s where a channel manager comes to the rescue for the hoteliers.
A channel manager can help a small scale hotel achieve all the business outcomes and even a large hotel chain to manage all the operations smoothly. Let’s discuss who can use a channel manager based on two aspects.
Based On Hotel Scale
Small & Medium Scale Properties
A channel manager can help a small and medium scale hotel property to scale their business to new heights and create a flawless ecosystem to manage all the online distribution channels.
You can save time and energy managing all the manual work to update and maintain consistent information across OTAs and other online distribution channels. You can use the focus to improve productivity and enhance the guests’ on-site experience so that they can become your raving fans and choose you over others.
It will help you to cater to more people and drive in serious revenue numbers. You can achieve your business outcomes and climb the leader’s top by outshining all the competitors to create a solid brand presence.
Large Scale Properties
Having a large hotel chain, you need to maintain the brand image and provide a consistent experience to all your customers, so they don’t lose their trust and switch towards other hotel brands.
A channel manager can help you improve the customer experience and provide a seamless workflow so that potential guests are not misinformed regarding your rates and room availability during their travel time.
It will help you maintain your solid brand name and help you scale your business to global levels to attract international levels.
You can even integrate with international OTAs to strengthen your hotel brand presence globally. It will be easier for you to add or remove multiple channels whenever you want with no complications.
Based On Hotel Staff
When we talk about in-house hotel staff, everyone can seamlessly use a channel manager with no issues. If you face any technical hiccups while using a channel manager, you can contact the service provider’s customer support to solve all your issues.
Management Experts
If you have management experts handling all the updates and booking requests across all the online distribution channels, it will be easier for them to manage everything with the help of a channel manager.
They can automate a lot of processes and save time and energy. There will be a reduction of human error, and most of the hectic work can be handled by the channel manager. The overall Productivity will improve, and you’ll be able to give the best experience to your potential guests.
There will be no misinformation provided to the viewer, and the expert will have centralised control over all the online distribution channels for better performance.
The data analysis will be swift, and the experts can optimise all the lacking areas and spot out channels that are not driving a great deal to your business. The experts can easily perform all the expert strategies and filter out channels for better performance.
A channel manager will act as the advanced arsenal in the hands of your management experts as the productivity will increase, and all the discrepancies will disappear.
Even A Novice
Even if you don’t have an expert managing all the operations, anyone from your team can manage and handle a channel manager’s processes.
With simple training provided at the start, it will be easy and smooth for even a non-technical person to handle all the operations and update or remove any channel from a powerful dashboard.
An advanced channel manager is super easy to use and explore. There’s hardly any complication. Basic knowledge of using different tools on a smart device will be enough to manage a channel manager. With the advancements, you can even use a channel manager from your mobile device, making it super convenient to use and operate.
So what’s making you wait? If you need premium yet cost-effective channel manager services, get in touch with AxisRooms’ experts and discuss your requirements to get a tailored quote and access to a free demo version now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is channel manager important?
A channel manager can help hoteliers manage their online channel distribution more easily and extract great benefits by improving the existing workflow of the business. You can save your team’s time and energy and focus on the in-house experience of the guests so that they have a memorable stay at your premises. You can optimize your channel manager’s performance and even understand all the user data for enhanced performance.
With the help of a channel manager, there will be minimal chances of errors, and you can automate many redundant processes. You can even open the gates for new opportunities to expand globally and provide the international audience with a smooth booking experience and an overall staying experience.
How can I get a demo of the channel manager?
You can contact the channel manager service provider and ask them for a free demo version of the tool to get hands-on experience with it. If you choose AxisRooms for the same, you need to contact AxisRooms’ experts or visit the website to unlock the opportunity for free access to the channel manager. You can use all of the premium functionalities for a limited time so that you can get to know all the ins and outs of the tool.
Our experts will help you understand all the nitty-gritty and even help you set up the channel manager. With our complete customer support, we’ll handle all your technical queries and issues in no time.
How can I compare channel managers?
You can research different channel managers and try out all the free demo versions to understand the difference in usage. There are no complications while making the buying decision. You can even go through all the reviews and testimonials of all the top channel manager service providers and figure out what others say about the company.
You can even go through all the pricing models and services offered by different companies to determine which suits your requirements and budget best. You don’t want to associate with a company that under-delivers and is overpriced.
If you want to extract a better ROI from your channel manager investment, choose the right associate like AxisRooms and experience the transformation in your existing hotel business.
What is other software in integration with CM useful?
You can integrate a channel manager with your existing software like property management system and revenue management system so that they can work in sync and provide more products to your business ecosystem.
All the revenue generated by the online distribution channels will be updated swiftly on the revenue management system with the help of a channel manager. And even all the bookings and cancellations updated on the OTAs and other channels will be updated on the PMS to view overall processes better and create a slippery business ecosystem.
You’ll be able to improve the productivity of your business and achieve all your business goals with ease if you can sync a channel manager in your existing workflow.
Which different property types does a channel manager cater to?
A channel manager is ideal for all types of properties in the hotel business. If you have a small-scale property and have listings in some of the OTAs, then a channel manager can help scale your business and effectively manage all the updates in the rates and inventory. You can automate a lot of manual processes and save time and energy to focus on something better.
If you have a large hotel chain, you can solidify your image and provide the best experience for all your guests with no hiccups. You can even scale your business to global levels and provide world-class international guests looking for premium hospitality services.
Section - CM related specific queries with email and contact
If you have any doubts or queries related to a channel manager or channel manager services provided by AxisRooms, you can get in touch with our experts to clear all the doubts and be crystal clear about integrating channel manager in your existing business.
Our team of experts has been helping many top hotel brands globally to strengthen their business and manage all the online distribution channels seamlessly. We help them integrate the entire channel manager system and provide consistent customer support for a better user experience. So what’s making you wait?
Type in your specific queries or doubts, and our experts will reach out to you soon.