Channel Manager

A channel manager is software that lets you sell your rooms on all your connected booking sites at the same time. It automatically updates your availability in real-time, on all sites. This happens every time a booking is made, when you close a room with a sale, or when you want to make bulk changes to your inventory. An all-in-one online channel management solution like Little Hotelier combines your channel manager, booking engine, and front desk system — so you can manage your hotel all from one centralised place. Forget manual updates, and control all your bookings in a single platform and calendar with just one log-in. Seamlessly connect your availability and pricing to leading reservation platforms like Booking.com and Expedia — and experience up to 46% more bookings! Start your 30-day free trial today.

Channel management means you can manage multiple distribution channels to sell room inventory across various platforms around the world. It’s one of your most effective ways to reach a global audience without risking being overbooked. And you can partner with established online booking giants like Hotels.com and Airbnb, as well as niche travel sites in local markets like Lastminute.com and Agoda. When you do it right, channel management can boost your bookings and help you generate more revenue. See how Little Hotelier Channel Manager can help you manage bookings with ease and effortlessly update inventory for all your channels — from a single point of entry.

A channel manager distributes your property on as many booking channels as you choose, automatically updates your availability across all your connected channels whenever you take a booking.

For example, your small property may have 10 rooms, but you’re connected to 5 OTAs. Your channel manager makes sure your rooms are bookable on all of these sites, and that your potential guests are seeing your true inventory at that point — whether that’s on your website or an OTA’s.

This means you’re selling as many rooms as possible through as many channels as you wish, and you never have to worry about overbooking.

While a channel manager helps you distribute your room inventory across multiple booking channels like OTAs and your property’s own website, a central reservation system (CRS) just helps you manage all your room inventory. And while a channel manager is focused on boosting your bookings by bringing in as many new ones as possible, a CRS is focused on optimising your existing room reservations to boost your operational efficiency. Both of them can connect to a property management system (PMS) to increase your revenue and improve the guest experience.

A channel manager and a booking engine are both very important to your overall reservation and distribution strategy — but their roles are different. While a channel manager helps you efficiently distribute your rooms across several third-party channels, a booking engine allows guests to book rooms directly through your hotel’s website. Your booking engine is really a virtual receptionist, handling everything from room selection to payment processing. The two systems may perform different functions, but they definitely complement each other— and together they can boost your revenue and enhance the guest experience.

A channel manager is essential to ensuring you take as many bookings as possible, without overbooking or charging too much. Here are its 5 key features:

• Channel distribution management: your channel manager helps you keep track of how many rooms are available and at what price — then updates this information in real-time on all the websites where your small property is listed, so that nobody else tries to book the same room at the same time.
• Rate management: your channel manager ensures you set the right price for each room based on how many rooms are available and how much demand there is. You can easily adjust rates for each channel based on occupancy, seasonal demand, and other factors, while also taking into account rate parity. This lets you offer competitive rates across all your channels, and maximise your revenue without overcharging guests.
• Booking management: your channel manager lets you track your bookings across all your channels effectively. This includes taking and confirming bookings, managing cancellations and modifications, and updating your room availability and rates in real-time to prevent overbooking. It helps you provide a seamless booking experience for guests, while minimising the risk of operational errors.
• Reporting and Analytics: your channel manager should offer robust reporting and analytics capabilities, so you can track your performance across channels and identify areas for improvement. This includes monitoring booking volumes, revenue, and channel performance, as well as providing insights on guest behaviour and preferences. It helps you make data-driven decisions that can lead to more revenue and better guest satisfaction.
• Integration with Other Hotel Systems: your channel manager should also be able to integrate with other hotel systems like your property management system (PMS) and other hotel apps. This ensures all your systems are working together, to maximise your revenue and operational efficiency. Integration with other hotel systems also helps you provide a streamlined guest experience, from booking to check-out.

The benefits include increasing online visibility, ensuring rate parity, and making better decisions about pricing, marketing, and distribution. With a channel manager, you can partner with a wide variety of agents and begin introducing your property to travellers from every corner of the world. It might sound like a lot to pay a subscription fee to channel management technology on top of your commission fee to OTAs, but consider this: it’s been proven that even a slight increase in occupancy and revenue resulting from the use of a channel manager far outweighs the cost, even when you get a lot of bookings from OTAs. With Little Hotelier Channel Manager, you can market your property on 450+ channels, all from one place. It’s the easiest way to attract more ideal guests and avoid overbooking. By giving a wide range of agents the ability to sell your rooms, you’ll also be able to sell all of your available inventory at any given moment. It’s the most reliable way to continue to boost your revenue over time.

There are many channel managers on the market. Some are suited to small properties while others are robust enough to handle even large chains. Little Hotelier’s channel manager buyers guide can help you choose one that’s best suited to your business needs.

But whatever you do, consider these top 3 often overlooked items:

• Number of channels: The greater the number of OTAs your channel manager is linked to, the broader the markets you can access. So make sure there’s no additional fee based on how many channels you use.
• Support and training: Invest in a channel manager with support staff available to help you navigate the system and connect with the maximum number of agents.
• Solid reporting: A good channel manager will let you easily track and measure which online sales channels are working. This gives you the knowledge you need to negotiate commissions and end partnerships that aren’t working for you.

This involves choosing the right software, creating a hotel profile, connecting to OTAs, configuring room rates and availability, testing and launching, and monitoring and optimising performance.

Here are 5 simple steps to follow:

1. Once you’ve chosen a hotel channel manager, you need to create a profile for your property. This includes information like your property’s name, location, and room types. You’ll also need to prepare photos of your property’s rooms and amenities.
2. Next, you’ll need to connect your channel manager to the booking sites where you want to list your rooms. This involves setting up an account with each website and then linking the account to your channel manager.
3. After connecting your property to OTAs, it’s important to configure your room rates and availability. This includes setting the room rates for each room type and date range, then specifying how many rooms are available for each rate.
4. Before going live, make sure you test the tech to check everything’s working. Make test bookings on each of the different distribution channels and check that the room rates and availability are being updated correctly.
5. Once your channel manager’s up and running, monitor the performance of all your OTAs and optimise your room rates and availability as you need. Analyse the reports and data provided by the channel manager and make adjustments to ensure you’re maximising your revenue and occupancy rates

Once you have selected to start a free trial of Little Hotelier’s channel manager, you will either enter an online sign-up process and or be connected with a professional onboarding specialist. The online sign-up process is quick and easy, since you’ll be assisted by a ‘wizard’ that takes you through step-by-step instructions. Once through the initial stages, the most helpful aspect will be your smartguide – make sure to look out for it. This will ensure you understand what to do next and make the most of your new software. To make the process even smoother, make sure you have prepared photos of your property and rooms, a list of your room types, and other important information about your property such as contact details.

Support is available to you 24/7 during and after your channel manager setup. Depending on the plan you choose you’ll have access to email and online chat, or dedicated phone support on top of that. Little Hotelier also has a learning centre, which can answer many questions about the features and how they work.

Yield management can have a significant impact on your profitability. It’s about anticipating and influencing your guests’ behaviour to maximise revenue for your property. This means adjusting room rates based on how many rooms are available and how many people are looking to book those rooms. For example, if you have a lot of empty rooms on a particular night, you might offer discounts. Or if you’re almost fully booked, you might raise your room rates. Using yield management strategies will help you inform your pricing and the way you manage your revenue.

It depends on the provider, the features included in the software, the number of channels connected, and the number of rooms managed. Some services charge a flat monthly fee, while others take additional commission based on the revenue you generate. Generally, fees can range from tens of dollars to a few hundred dollars a month. It might seem costly, but the boost in revenue and the time you’ll save more than make up for it.

Yes, we invite you to explore our service for free, with access to the full product for 30 days. We’re here to make your life as simple as possible, so there are no lock-in contracts and you can cancel anytime you choose. Once your free trial is over, you can either continue to use your Little Hotelier plan (and we’ll start charging you through the payment method you selected), or you can simply reach out to us to cancel your subscription. Get started now, at no cost to you.