Your Full-Service Channel Manager

A channel manager allows for efficient channel management. Channel management is the management of your listings on different Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), booking channels, and other websites where you can list and advertise your short-term rental accommodations. This can be done manually, but is a very time-consuming process. Or it can be automated via a channel manager. 

A channel manager is a software that manages the online distribution of short term rentals to online travel agencies (OTA’s), metasearch engines, and other types of booking channels. 

Through API’s it enables direct synchronization, either from your PMS or own API or directly, of content, pictures, rates & availability and more across all connected channels. It is therefore a very efficient tool to increase the reach and visibility of properties. Moreover, since it allows you to distribute and sync content, reservations and rates and availability you will save time and gain more control. So a channel manager is a very cost-effective way to manage your hotels, vacation rentals, hostels or resorts across all the booking channels.

Whether you manage/own vacation rentals, hotels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, resorts, vacation parks or a hotel chain, in order to get more bookings you will have to increase the visibility of your short term rentals. This can be done by listing on more booking channels, such as OTA’s, metasearch engines, online marketplaces and other. However, managing them on all these different channels manually can become quite a difficult task. For that reason, automating these processes with a channel manager is a very cost-efficient way to increase your bookings and optimize your short term rentals distribution strategy. And there are many more benefits.

• More online bookings. First of all, it will help you increase the amount of online bookings. By providing you with the option to easily connect to multiple channels you will have more online bookings. 
• Reduced manual work. By automating all processes, manual work will be drastically decreased, giving you more time and enabling you with a better distribution strategy. 
• Increasing direct bookings. Besides the increase of bookings on the channels, the channel manager also helps in increasing direct bookings. This is due to the fact that when people notice your accommodations on a third party website they are more likely to check out your website as well and book directly from there.
• Global and local reach. Many channel managers, including the NextPax full-service channel manager also offer connections to niche-channels. This allows you to target your accommodation more specifically. Moreover, you can easily list on all the major and global booking channels.
• Avoid unwanted overbookings. When using a channel manager, all of your rooms or homes, including availability, will be synced across OTA’s. Consequently, you avoid overbookings caused by, for example, human mistakes.

In order to decide the best channel manager for your business you could ask yourself several of the questions mentioned here:

• Is the channel manager offering full integration with the property management system (pms) you are using? 
• Is the channel manager offering connections to the major channels or the channels you wish to list on?
• Is the channel manager offering support? And if needed, is it offering support in your native language? 
• Do they offer solutions tailored to your needs? For example, is it tailored to the needs for hotels and/or vacation rentals? 
• Is the channel management tool PCI DSS compliant?
• What is the pricing model they offer? Does it include a fixed fee per month or do they provide a more flexible pay per booking model?

This can vary depending on what the channel manager in question offers. For instance, NextPax offers integration with various PMS (Property Management Systems), CRS, bedbank or even your own developed system. Through the use of advanced API’s, it is possible to integrate with existing core systems and the connected channels. Also, it provides the ability to alter your property’s photographs, descriptions, room types, and associated content from a single central location.