If you are running any hotel and your rooms are getting booked from multiple platforms like the hotel website or different OTA’s and your hotel has a limited number of rooms. This same room number is getting display on all the OTA.

So it becomes very hectic to update the real-time status of the room on each OTA.

Hoteliers face problems like over-bookings, inconsistent inventory management, and missed opportunities.

To overcome this problem here comes the role of the channel manager.

Channel manager is a centralized software that helps hoteliers to get hassle-free synchronization of property booking details availability, rates, and inventory with OTA channels and the hotel website.

It will resolve major hotel-industry problems like over-bookings, inconsistent inventory management, and missed opportunities.

So, the channel manager is useful in updating and syncing the room type, pricing, and room availability.

Let’s start with each step one by one

If you are already a registered user fill in your email and password.

In case you are a new user click on Sign Up to create an account.

After this, the registration form will appear.

Fill out the fields of the registration form:

• Name: Enter your name.
• Email: Fill in the email id.
• Hotel Name: Mention the name of the hotel.
• Password: Fill in the password for login purposes.
• Confirm Password: Confirm the password.

After that, once you login the landing hotel page will appear.

Note

Here on the top, you can see: “You are using Trial Plan. The plan will be expired on Date(7 days after the SignUp)”

Without any plan upgrade, the price and inventory will not get synchronized.

Note: In the trial plan, price and inventory will not get synchronized. To synchronize the inventory and price you need to upgrade the plan.

• Go to your profile logo
• Click on the drop-down
• Click on Subscriptions

Now you will get the list of subscriptions purchased or you will purchase for the first time.

Click on the Upgrade Plan.

• Now select any one plan monthly or yearly. Click on the Select Plan.
• Enter the number of Properties Count.
  • Property Count: Enter the number of properties (Hotel).
• Then click on CALCULATE PRICE for calculating the final plan pricing for entered properties.

After this final price will be there on per month or yearly basis for any number of properties. Then click on Proceed.

Fill in the billing address and click on Proceed To Payment.

Payment For Indian Users

When Indian users proceed with the payment the payment method will be a “cash-free payment method“.

For Non-Indian Users

The users from the other country will get the payment as “Paypal.“

After that plan is purchased, the subscription page will get updated with the purchased plan.

On the subscription page, click View details to check the Subscription Detail.

Subscription Details: Here you can get the details of the subscription you have purchased.

Subscription Payment History: Here user can get the details of the payment history of the subscription he had purchased.

When you get the subscription, then you can see the option of “cancel subscription“.

When the user clicks on the “cancel subscription” the below window will appear.

The subscription will continue till the end of the due date and cancellation will be effective at the end of the billing cycle.

Now users can synchronize price and inventory after upgrading the plan.

From the menu click on Hotels. The hotel list will appear. After that click on Add hotel.

When you click on “Add hotel” the below window will open. Here there are two tabs i.e “Information” and “Additional Details”.

In the “Information” tab fill the given details:

• Hotel Name: Enter the name of the hotel.
• Time Zone: Select the time zone of the hotel.
• Currency: Select the currency used by the hotel.

In the “Additional Detail” tab fill the given details:

Here you have to fill in the following details:

• Contact detail:
  • Phone: Select the dial code from the drop-down and mention the phone number.

• Location Detail:
  • Address: Fill in the address of the hotel
  • Address 2: Fill the second line of the hotel address
  • Country: Select the country from the drop-down
  • State: Enter the state of the hotel
  • City: Fill the city of the hotel
  • Postal code: Mention the pincode of hotel

After this, select the location on Google Maps.

Once you added the location on the map then mention the “Website Link“. Write the website link in the format like “https.//example.com“.

You can also create advance landing page URL, so that guest can reach to the specific page to complete the booking.

To set up a dynamic landing page for this hotel on your booking website, You can use the below variables to generate the correct landing page on the booking website.

• {checkinYear}   Year of check-in date
• {checkinMonth}   Month of check-in date
• {checkinDay}   Day of check-in date
• {checkoutYear}   Year of check-out date
• {checkoutMonth}   Month of check-out date
• {checkoutDay}   Day of check-out date
• {nights}   Number of nights
• {numAdults}   Number of adults
• {numChildren}   Number of children
• {numGuests}   Number of guests

Refer below example to create landing page url for this hotel. Change name of query parameters according to the booking page url parameters of the hotel on the booking website.

Example:

https://example.qloapps.com?hotel_id=1&date_from={checkinYear}-{checkinMonth}-{checkinDay}&date_to={checkoutYear}-{checkoutMonth}-{checkoutDay}&nights={nights}&num_adults={numAdults}&num_children={numChildren}&num_guests={numGuests}

will be interpreted to

https://example.qloapps.com?hotel_id=1&date_from=2022-08-06&date_to=2022-08-08&nights=2&num_adults=2&num_children=2&num_guests=4

Then finally click on “Update”. Hence the hotel will be added sucessfully.

Once we add a hotel, users can see the added hotel on the hotel listing page. Here users can edit and delete the hotel.

After creating the hotel, the hotel logo is there in the header. Choose any hotel in the header to create the data.

Note: When you will select any hotel in the header then only for that particular hotel data will be managed further.

After creating and selecting the hotel we will create the room types.

From the menu go to Room types the room type page will appear.

On the Room types page click on Add Room Type. After this fill out the Room type details form.

Fill in the room type details

• Name: Enter the name of the room type
• Total Room: Enter the total count of any room type
• Default Occupancy: Default occupancy in the room of the hotel
• Maximum Adults: Maximum number of Adults allowed in the room.
• Maximum Children: Maximum Number of children allowed in the room type.
• Max Infants: Number of total infants are permitted in the room

Click on ADD

Once you add the room type you will get the list of room types page. From here user can add the rate plan, edit room type and delete room type.

Now go to the options menu, and from the dropdown menu select Add Rate plan or Click the button as the given image above.

To add a rate plan fill in the given details

1. “Information” Tab

• Name Mention the name of the rate plan.
• Base Price: Fill in the base price of the room.
• Price Model: select the Price model as occupancy wise or room wise.

Now let’s discuss each price model one by one.

Room wise: Select the price model as Room wise to set Room wise price for the rate plan.

Occupancy wise: Select price model as occupancy base price to set per occupancy based price for the rate plan.

Rate mode: How the price will get updated. The price will get update by the selected rate mode. Rate mode has three options i.e auto, manual, and derived.

Now let’s go through each rate mode one by one.

In Auto rate mode, you can set values for price calculation according to per occupancy increase or decrease on behalf of default occupancy.

You have to enter the price for only the default occupancy of the room type and for the other occupancies price will automatically be set by the saved formula.

Users can increase or decrease the price in two ways either in percentage or fixed cost.

While sending rates from the “Price and Inventory” page to the user of the channel has to set the price for only default occupancy and other occupancies. Prices will increase/decrease according to the set formula.

In the Derived rate mode, you can set a formula for a price calculation for all occupancies.

You have to enter a price for only the default occupancy of the room type and for the other occupancies price will automatically be set by the saved formula.

Here, the user will enter the price that will be decreased or increased on the base price as per the occupancy mention.

While sending rates from the “Price and Inventory” page to the user of the channel has to set the price for only default occupancy and other occupancies. Prices will increase/decrease according to the set formula.

Here you have to manually enter the rate for each occupancy while sending the rate to the connected channel.

Here you have to manually enter the rate for each occupancy while sending the rates from the “Price and Inventory” page to the connected channels.

Here in all rate modes, the child and infant section is common. Here users only have to mention the price according to the given currency.

2. “Additional Detail” Tab

Breakfast included: Click on the switch button to enable/disable the breakfast option.

Parking Included: Click on the switch button to enable/disable the parking option.

Internet Included: Click on the internet button to enable/disable the internet option.

Refundable: To enable the refund option click on the refundable switch. The refund option will appear when the refundable field is enabled.

• Refundable Until Days: Number of days in advance of check-in that a full refund can be requested.
• Refundable Until Time: Latest time of day, in the local time of the hotel, that a full refund request will be honored.

Then click on ” Update”.

Before adding channels at QloApps Channel Manager for your property, you have to complete the setup process of the channel at OTA (channel) account.

After creating the property and its room type, you can create a channel for the property at QloApps Channel Manager.

From the main menu Go to Channels. The channel page will appear. Here the user can add the channel.

Follow the below guides for the channels set up and synchronization at the channel’s account:

• Set up Booking.com channel for QloApps Channel Manager
• Set up Expedia Channel for QloApps Channel Manager
• Set up for Goibibo & MakeMyTrip for QloApps Channel Manager
• Set up for Google Hotel for QloApps Channel Manager
• Set up for Agoda for QloApps Channel Manager
• Set up for Despegar for QloApps Channel Manager
• Set up for Yatra for QloApps Channel Manager
• Set up for Bakuun for QloApps Channel Manager
• Set up for Airbnb for QloApps Channel Manager

In the price and inventory section, the user can send updates to connected distribution channels on the following things:

Availability

Available inventory of the room type on that date.

Price

Price for rate plan on a date.

Min LOS(length of Stay) Arrival

The minimum number of nights a guest has to book to make a booking for a given rate plan.

This restriction applies to the check-in(arrival) date of the booking.

Maximum LOS Arrival

The maximum number of nights a guest can book when making a booking for a given rate plan.

This restriction applies to the check-in(arrival) date of the booking.

Example: Let’s Min Stay Arrival restriction is set for the 20 July is 2 and Max Stay Arrival restriction is set as 6 on this rate plan.

If guests book this rate plan with a check-In date of 20 July. Then he must book this room for at least 2 nights and he can not book this rate plan for more than 6 nights.

So restriction has to satisfy only the check-in date.

Minimum LOS Stay

The restriction applies to all the dates in the booking.

Example: Let’s Min Stay Through restriction is set for the 20 July is 2 and for 21 July is 4 and Max Stay Through restriction is set as 6 on this rate plan.

If guests book this rate plan for 20 July and 21 July. Then he must book this room for at least 4 nights. Because in the reservation date range on 21 July min stay is 4.

So restriction has to satisfy all the dates in the reservation.

Stop Sell

Stop the sale of the room rate plan on that day.

Close To Arrival

Check-ins are not allowed on that day.

Close To Departure

Check-outs are not allowed on that day.

Min Booking Offset

How many days before the arrival date guests are allowed to book the room rate plan?

Example: If Min booking offset is set 3 days 4 May. If a guest wants to book for 4 May then he will only be able to book before 1st May.

Maximum Booking Offset

How many days before the arrival date guests can book the room rate plan?

Example: If the Maximum booking offset is set 3 days 4 May. If a guest wants to book for 4 May then he will only be able to book After 1st May.

Additional Guest Rate

Rates for extra adults and children. You can check the prices of extra guests in the rate plans.

Note: In booking.com and Expedia this restriction is not applicable.

On the price and inventory page top, there is an All dates pannel.

On the left hand, there are parameters which are need to be update like the price, CTA(Close to arrival), CTD (close to departure), and many more.

Here users can update the inventory for multiple dates. Select the Date From to Date To. 

Select the Update Type. After this mention the number of inventory you want to update.

Here in the Bulk update section of the price and inventory page users can update the many parameters in one single click for multiple date rage.

There are 4 combinations to make a rate plan and update price and inventory.

In the room type edit rate plan select the price model as Room price.

Now on the Price and inventory page, the user can enter the price of any room type that he wants for any particular date.

Here in the occupancy price modifications panel enter the value that will be increased by or decreased on a percentage basis or price and update.

Now Go to price and inventory.

Here user will enter the value of the price for the default occupancy.

Now on this value, the price for 1 occupancy, 2 occupancy, and others will be calculate for chosen dates.

Here are the selected dates and the values that will become green.

This means that the data gets update but it is not syncing with the channel managers.

In-room type and Rate plan go to the Occupancy price modifications panel.

Here the user will fill in the rate that will increase or decrease the price either percentage-wise or price-wise for each occupancy option as given below the image.

Price for 1 Guest

Price for 2 Guest

After that, go to Price and inventory. Here enter the select default occupancy under the selected date.

Choose the update type as the price and enter the price.

Now you can see that the price for 1 occupancy and the price for 2 occupancies will get updates automatically on the basis of the price we have entered.

In-room type and rate, plan to go to the Occupancy price modifications panel.

in the occupancy modification panel, you can see it is mention here that “In Manual rate mode, you have to manually enter prices for all occupancies while sending rates.”

Now Go to Price and inventory.

We can see that for each occupancy and each date we have to enter the price manually.

In the bulk update, the user can select multiple date ranges. For that multiple dates ranges the other price and updates will get update.

Go to Bulk Update. Select the Date From and Date To. By this, you will add one date range.

Click on Add Date range to add another date range. Now enable and disable any parameter as per your choice.

The user can select multiple date ranges for different months. After that update the price and other parameters.

But that will get updates only for one room type. After this select pricing for that room type.

Note:

The user can send the same rate and inventory to the given channel. The channels are Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, Ctrip, Airbnb, and Despegar.

Currently, if the rate and inventory get updated on any of the given channels, then it will also get updated on the other channels too.

After that, completing all the above processes click on Full Sync to update the price and inventory on the channels.

PMS means property management system. A hotel property management system (PMS) is a collection of tools that hotel owners and operators use to control various aspects of running a hotel on a daily basis.

This includes bookings, front desk operations, housekeeping, maintenance, billing and invoicing, analytics, and reporting.

Here, we have integrated QloApps PMS with the QloApps Channel Manager.

If you have a running website with QloApps, you can sync the bookings with the connected distribution channel easily.

For PMS syncing, Some changes must be done in QloApps PMS files for versions <= 1.5.2.

Below are the files paths and changes in the files to be done before connecting QloApps PMS to the QloApps channel manager

Path 1: /classes/pdf/HTMLTemplateInvoice.php

Initialize $stage_name = variable at line: 329

$stage_name = '';

Path 2. /classes/PaymentModule.php

Comment at line: 416

//throw new PrestaShopException('The order address country is not active.');

Path 3. /classes/webservice/WebserviceRequest.php

Initialize the $shopIDs variable with an empty array() at line: 186

public static $shopIDs = array();

Path 4. /classes/webservice/WebserviceOutputJSON.php

Initialize $currentAssociatedEntity variable with an empty array() at line: 43

protected $currentAssociatedEntity = array();

If you have any doubts or queries while making the above changes in QloApps PMS. Then please contact us, We will make all the changes for you.

Once you have completed the prerequisite of PMS connection then you can proceed further with the general setting of PMS.

From the menu Go to PMS. Then set the general settings.

Here you will have to fill out the QloApps credential:

• QloApps Webservice Key
• QloApps Webservice URL
• QloApps TimeZone

Here we have given the process of how to get the QloApps credentials

Go to Advance parameter>webservices

After this, in the Configuration panel Enable QloApps’s webservice.

In the webservice Account panel click on Add new Webservice key. Click on Generate to get a new key.

For all the resources grant all the permission to add, delete, modify the view, and fast view. Then Click on save.

Copy the key from here.

Now in the QloApps channel manager in PMS paste the key in the QloApps webservice key.

If QloApps is installed in the root folder of your server, the API URL will be: http://example.com/api/
If QloApps is installed in a subfolder (qloapps/) of the root folder on your server, then API URL will be: http://example.com/qloapps/api/

To Get the QloApps TimeZone you will go to the QloApps backend.

Go to Localization >Localization.

Here in the Configuration Panel, you will get the time zone. For reference see the below image.

Fill this time zone given in the image to fill the QloApps Timezone in the QloApps Channel manager.

Hence you can fill all the three fields  QloApps webservice key, QloApps webservice URL, and QloApps Timezone easily.

Map the QloApps channel manager property with the QloApps backend hotel(Property).

Map the room type of the QloApps channel manager property with the QloApps backend Room type.

Then synchronize it by going into general settings.

If we delete any room type in the QloApps backend and synchronize the property again.

After this we try to map that room type with the QloApps channel manager then it will show the alert as “This room type is not found at the PMS while Syncing”.

For more see the given image below.

Here, when the booking is created on any connected distribution channel, that booking will automatically be synced with the QloApps channel manager. As well as, a booking is created on the QloApps backend.

Also, when any booking is made on the QloApps website, inventory will automatically get synced with all the connected channels in the QloApps channel manager.

You can see these bookings under the “Bookings” as discussed further.

Synchronize Properties: By clicking this button, All the properties information from PMS will be updated in the channel manager for Properties / Room types mapping.

Synchronize Bookings: By clicking this button, PMS bookings will be synced to the channel manager and channel manager bookings will be synced to PMS.
Note: Map properties and room types before syncing.

From the menu go to Bookings, and we can see the list of all the bookings done from different channels of the property.

Here In booking details, the user can see which booking is in sync or not.

From the actions and view details, the user can check all the details of the booking.

QloApps channel manager enables you to create bookings directly using the QloApps Channel Manager. The created booking will not only get synced with all listed Online Travel Agents but will also be added to the PMS as well. , if your PMS is connected with the channel manager.

To create a new booking, go to the ” Booking” Tab and click on the ” Add Booking” Button to start the process of creating new bookings.

Now, fill in the details of the customer and book in three steps.

• Guest Details: Enter the name, phone number, and email address of the guest.

• Booking Details: Select the room plan, rate plan, no of rooms, occupancy of each room, check-in and check-out dates.
  Based on your entered booking details, the total amount will be calculated automatically.

• Payment: Enter the transaction ID and click on save to complete the booking process.

All the vital activity and changes are in the log if done in the QloApps Channel manager

From the menu go to Logs.

In API logs three types of logs are there:

• Price/Availability feeds: When any rates and inventory get update they will log in price and availability feeds.
• Property details feed: When any property details get fetch they will log in to the property details feeds.
• Booking feeds. Any booking details if fetch will get log into the booking feed.

QloApps Dashboard helps you monitor the daily operations of your property. It also provides you with insights into your hotel performance and sales on various channels to help you make well-informed future decisions.

The dashboard page of the channel manager is further divided into various sections. Let’s discuss these sections in detail.

Through the date range selection option in the horizontal panel, you can filter the data displayed on the dashboard as per your preferred date range.

Also, Using the day, month, and week buttons, you can choose the view mode of the data. You can monitor the data for the whole day, week, month, or year on your dashboard.

The 11 sections on the dashboard that highlight the various insights into your property and its performance and daily operations are as follows:

• Today’s Operations: This section displays the real-time present-day data of the arrivals, departures, In-house guests, and received and canceled Bookings of your property.

• Activities: This section updates you about any new activity that takes place in your channel manager such as rate and inventory synchronization updates.

• Room Nights: This section displays the total, available, and booked room nights of your property in a selected period of time.

• Channels: This section displays the performance of various channels on which you have listed your property based on the number of bookings and the amount of revenue each channel provides.

• Performance: It provides you with an overview of how your property is performing in the hotel market by evaluating it on various parameters such as ADR, AOR, CR, DRR, RPAR, Average LOS, etc.
  
  This dynamic section also compares the performance of your hotel on the current day with the previous day and displays its growth rate for each parameter.

• Revenue: It displays the sales, bookings, and average booking value of your property in a day or month.

• Rooms: This section demonstrates the data on the number of rooms that were available and occupied rooms of your hotel in the last 15, 30, or 45 days.

• Room Type: In this section, you can monitor the performance of your room types based on the number of types it was booked, the revenue it earned you, and the number of nights for which it was booked.

• All Information: This section provides you with a comprehensive overview of the total and best-performing channels and room types of your property.

• Daywise Stay: Through this section, you can interpret which day works well for your hotel business. It displays the number of guests that stay on each day of the week in your property.

• Length of stay: Through this section, you can interpret the most preferred duration of stay for which your guests book your property.

If you want to learn about the functionality of QloApps then you can visit this link: QLO Reservation System – Free Open-Source Hotel Booking & Reservation System.

In case of any query, issue, or requirement please feel free to raise it on QloApps Forum.

Moreover, you can raise a ticket to connect with our experts for any assistance.