Category: Channel Manager

Online travel agencies (OTAs) and booking platforms play a pivotal role in the success of hotels worldwide. These platforms provide a convenient way for travelers to book accommodations, offering a vast array of options and competitive prices. For hoteliers, establishing and nurturing strong relationships with OTAs is essential for maximizing visibility, driving bookings, and ultimately, increasing revenue. In this article, we’ll explore strategies and best practices for building stronger relationships with OTAs and booking platforms.

Understanding the Importance of OTAs

OTAs have transformed the way travelers research and book hotels. With the click of a button, potential guests can access a wealth of information about various properties, compare prices, read reviews, and make reservations—all from the comfort of their homes or mobile devices. As a result, OTAs have become a primary channel for hotel bookings, accounting for a significant portion of overall reservations for many properties.

Establishing Trust and Collaboration

Building a strong relationship with OTAs begins with establishing trust and fostering collaboration. Hoteliers should view OTAs as partners rather than adversaries, recognizing the value they bring in terms of visibility and reach. Here are some key strategies for cultivating positive relationships with OTAs:

1. Transparent Communication: Open and honest communication is crucial for building trust with OTA representatives. Hoteliers should maintain regular contact with their OTA account managers, providing updates on inventory, pricing, promotions, and other relevant information. Transparency regarding room availability and rate parity is essential to avoid any discrepancies or misunderstandings.
2. Offering Competitive Rates and Inventory: OTAs prioritize properties that offer competitive rates and a wide range of available inventory. Hoteliers should regularly monitor pricing trends and adjust rates accordingly to remain competitive in the market. Additionally, providing OTAs with access to a diverse selection of room types and packages can enhance the property’s appeal to travelers.
3. Optimizing Content and Imagery: High-quality content and imagery can significantly impact a hotel’s performance on OTAs. Hoteliers should ensure that their property listings are optimized with accurate descriptions, appealing photos, and relevant amenities. Investing in professional photography and compelling written content can help differentiate the property from competitors and attract more bookings.
4. Implementing Dynamic Pricing Strategies: Dynamic pricing strategies involve adjusting room rates based on demand, seasonality, and other factors in real-time. By leveraging data analytics and revenue management tools, hoteliers can optimize pricing strategies to maximize revenue while maintaining competitiveness on OTAs. Implementing discounts, promotions, and exclusive offers for OTA customers can also help drive bookings and enhance relationships with these platforms.
5. Providing Exceptional Guest Experiences: Ultimately, the guest experience is paramount in driving positive reviews and repeat bookings through OTAs. Hoteliers should prioritize delivering exceptional service and personalized experiences to guests from the moment they book until check-out. Prompt responses to guest inquiries and requests, as well as proactive resolution of any issues or concerns, can help generate positive reviews and foster loyalty among OTA customers.

Leveraging Technology and Data Insights

In addition to the strategies mentioned above, hoteliers can leverage technology and data insights to strengthen their relationships with OTAs. Advanced channel management and distribution tools allow hoteliers to seamlessly manage inventory, rates, and bookings across multiple OTA channels in real-time. By integrating these tools with their property management systems (PMS) and revenue management platforms, hoteliers can streamline operations, minimize manual errors, and optimize revenue potential.

Furthermore, data analytics play a crucial role in understanding OTA performance, traveler behavior, and market trends. By analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) such as booking conversion rates, average daily rate (ADR), and revenue per available room (RevPAR), hoteliers can identify opportunities for improvement and tailor their strategies to maximize ROI from OTAs. Additionally, guest feedback and review data obtained through OTAs can provide valuable insights for enhancing service quality and addressing areas for improvement.

Conclusion

Building stronger relationships with online travel agencies (OTAs) and booking platforms is essential for hoteliers looking to maximize visibility, drive bookings, and increase revenue. By prioritizing transparent communication, offering competitive rates and inventory, optimizing content and imagery, implementing dynamic pricing strategies, and providing exceptional guest experiences, hoteliers can cultivate positive partnerships with OTAs that benefit both parties. Leveraging technology and data insights further enhances the effectiveness of these strategies, enabling hoteliers to optimize performance and stay ahead in a competitive marketplace. Ultimately, by embracing collaboration and innovation, hoteliers can position their properties for long-term success in the dynamic world of online travel.

Booking Master’s Hotel Channel Manager

Booking Master’s Hotel Channel Manager is a comprehensive solution empowering hotelier to efficiently manage room availability, rates, and reservations across various online distribution channels. Acting as a centralized control hub, it synchronizes real-time updates across platforms like MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Booking.com, and more, ensuring accuracy and efficiency in managing bookings. Seamlessly integrating with the Property Management System (PMS) and Online Booking Engine, it prevents the risk of overbooking and revenue loss by providing instant updates on inventory. With benefits including strategic alliances with OTAs, prevention of double bookings, unified channel control, and efficient rate management, it optimizes revenue streams while saving time and resources. Its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with PMS and CRM systems enhance operational efficiency, ultimately improving revenue management and guest satisfaction.

Want To Book A Demo? https://www.bookingmaster.in/contact/

A ‘Channel’ is a third-party website. It is often referred to as an Online Travel Agent (OTA). These third-party websites allow users to search and book Hotel Rooms and Flights. These channels get into an Agreement with the Hotelier. As per this Agreement, they charge a fee for marketing your Hotel/ Resort and processing bookings on your behalf. In return, they charge a commission that was agreed upon. This Commission is usually a fixed percentage of the booking value, typically 10-20%.

Importance of Channels

OTAs can significantly increase distribution and therefore potential Hotel bookings. OTAs like Booking.com and Expedia control a huge proportion of all online hotel bookings. Even if your Hotel is a well-established brand with deep pockets, it is quite difficult to attract direct bookings through your Hotel’s Website. OTAs on the other hand, invest huge amounts of money just to attract large numbers of visitors to their websites. Since these OTAs show multiple properties visitors prefer these websites for their research as they do cross-comparisons before booking their accomodation. All you have to do as a Hotelier is to stand apart from other Hotels in this list of properties in terms of Ratings, Reviews and Services. OTAs play a major role in converting ‘lookers’ to ‘bookers’.

Decoding Channel Manager

Booking Master’s Channel Manager is a cloud-based application, that distributes your Hotel rooms, rates, and availability to all connected channels. For instance, your booking engine and OTAs.

When a customer makes a booking on any channel the channel manager updates rates and room availability across the rest of the channels automatically and on a real-time basis.

Working of the Channel Manager

When a room is booked by a channel manager pass this information in the form of Booking Data to the Hotel’s PMS i.e. Booking Master’s PMS. Once the reservation data is saved, the room is blocked. This particular information is now picked up by Booking Master’s Channel Manager who removes the room from the inventory across all channels on a real-time basis. This drastically reduces double bookings and unwanted overbookings for the hotel. At the same time, this allows the hotel to advertise its entire available inventory on all relevant portals.

Channel Managers give hotels some massive advantages. Your hotel’s reach is hugely increased through its presence on multiple platforms. This gives the Hotelier a greater opportunity of filling all the rooms. Channel managers also save an enormous amount of time and effort.

Thus, the benefits of using Booking Master’s Channel Manager are as follows:

1. Hotel Rooms can be sold online across major online channels
2. Inventory & rates are updated in real-time across multiple OTAs
3. No more manual errors
4. Minimize overbookings
5. Reduce price parity issues
6. Increase visibility
7. Increase sales capacity
8. Saves time
9. Maximize profits

Why choose Booking Master?

A channel manager could significantly boost your Hotel revenues and enhance the occupancy rate. Booking Master’s Channel Manager helps you track multiple channels from a single point. It helps you update multiple listings simultaneously through its two-way synchronization. A lot of time is lost in making adjustments to the listings one by one manually. Booking Master’s Channel Manager saves crucial time of the Hotelier that she can spend in other important things like Business Development. Double Bookings have a negative impact on Hotels’ revenue. Booking Master’s Channel Manager helps prevent overbookings and Double Bookings by updating the channels on a real-time basis. In a nutshell, Booking Master’s Channel Manager saves time and money by eliminating routine operations. Also, Booking Master’s channel manager increases the visibility of the Hotel on a national level.

Grow your Hotel Sales and Productivity with Booking Master’s Channel Manager Integration.

Distribution Channel in the Hotel Industry

In the Hotel Industry, a Distribution Channel refers to a chain of intermediaries involved in getting the product, in this case, a hotel room or service from the Hotelier to the customer. This can be done via a number of platforms through the Hotelier can sell hotel rooms. Possible methods include Booking Engines, Global Distribution Systems, Travel Management Companies, Tour Operators, Online Travel Agents (OTAs), Retail Travel Agents or Online Websites.

Using a variety of channels allows the Hotel owner to create a strategy that will drive bookings and positively contribute to revenue.

Types of Hotel Distribution Channels

There are various types of channels your hotel can use to reach its desired audience.

Direct

Direct channels include Hotelier’swebsite, phone, or social media. It’s important that the Hotel Owner has a website with the provision of direct booking and the website must have an in built hotel booking engine. Its important to note that Direct Bookings are the most profitable as the Hotekiers can avoid paying commission to third parties.

Indirect Channels 

These include Tour operators, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), wholesalers, tour operators etc. 
Online Travel Agencies and Metasearch Engines invest in advertising with the commission hotels pay them. Thus, they have the ability to target a wider audience. 

Offline

Offline is becoming less significant due to digitization . It basically includes phone, direct email, offline advertising, and walk-ins. 

What is Distribution Strategy?

Channel Distribution Strategy helps in creating a method for selling hotel rooms, which Hoteliers determine by analyzing the costs of each distribution channel for selling hotel rooms. Finding and choosing the right distribution channel that are the most cost-effective ones at high-demand times will help Hoteliers determine when to sell rooms and through which channels to improve profits.

How can Booking Master’s Distribution Channel Manager help you in generating more revenue?

Booking Master’s Distribution Channel Manager can help you in managing each distribution channel. This can involve managing your rates and booking restrictions, ensuring your hotel’s inventory is continually updated across all channels, etc. An effective hotel channel management strategy is imperative for optimizing sales and maximizing revenue. Booking Master’s Distribution Channel Manager is a technology solution that helps hoteliers simultaneously manage their inventory, and room rates and maximize the room sales across multiple platforms such as Booking.com, Agoda, Expedia, Trip Advisor, and so on. This is more effective than manually updating each booking channel. In this way, hotel owners can invest their valuable time in more important tasks such as Hotel Marketing, Client Engagement, and on-site services.

Key Features of Booking Master’s Channel Manager Software

• A centralized view of all channels.
• Automated sharing of information about new bookings across numerous sales channels.
• Interface with the Hotel’s Booking Engine to prevent overbookings.
• An always-Updated Portal View.
• Real-Time Inventory Adjustments.
• Available on Cloud.
• Pooled Inventory Method: The Distribution will always show the maximum number of available rooms on all online channels without risking double bookings.

[Note:When a hotel has multiple distribution channels and enlists the same room across those various channels, there is a possibility that the same room gets booked by multiple channels.]

• It provides analytics and reporting: Reports such as Reservation Earnings, Booking Volume, and Detailed Data on which Online Travel Agency booked the reservation helps Hoteliers in making informed decisions when marketing to future guests.
• It can push rates and inventory across all channels.
• Customizes and sets room rates, plans, availability, and restriction. 
• Integrates with new booking sites to grow sales.
• Allows hotels to customize their listings on OTAs.
• Allows hotels to easily set up automated rate rules, such as discounts, early bird discounts, and last-minute discounts.
• Automatically sends out booking confirmations.
• Sends out automated cancellation notifications to guests.
• Allows hotels to easily offer room upgrades to guests.

Benefits of using Booking Master’s Channel Manager

• Helps in reducinglabour costs.
• Saves substantial time on general administration.
• Helps in consolidating selling rates of rooms/services so that Hoteliers don’t miss out on potential bookings.
• Helps avoid errors with names, dates, occupancy, check-in times, room type, etcthat can easily occur.
• Customizationof listings on OTAshelps hotels better promote their brand and increases their visibility.
• Helps hotels maximize their revenue by offering discounts to guests.
• Room upgrades to guests, help inincreasing revenue.
• Helps hotels optimize their pricing strategy, thereby maximizing their revenue.
• Reduces the chance of missed opportunities as the automated distribution system gets updated in real-time if a reservation gets cancelled and another guest is searching for travel at the same time.
• Automated reports, help in making data-driven decisions.
• Enhanced transparency and up-to-date availability solve human error issues, such as over-booking.
• Key data and metrics help hotel owners in identifying notable trends.
• Improve hotel visibility, potentially increasing demand, occupancy rates, and the amount that can be charged.
• Properties can join more distribution channels which are critical in the low season.
• Opens up the opportunity in niche marketplaces.
• Helps improve revenue and business performance.