A online channel manager is one of the most useful tools in the hotel industry.
A channel manager is software that synchronizes the inventory, rates, and sometimes content on all the channels where the hotel is listed for customers to book.
The hotel industry is evolving with every new day. Now, online bookings drive the business.
And for these online bookings Hotels list their hotel inventories on different websites called channels.
Managing inventories and rates on these channel manuals is a hectic task so here online channel manager comes into play.
Here are 7 reasons why deploying a channel in every Hotel is a necessity.
To get maximum online bookings you list your hotel on many channels. Now, when someone makes a booking on one of the channels then you have to update it on all the channels.
If there are only one or two channels then there are not many issues in updating them manually. But if you have done your listing on many platforms then it is a hectic task.
Updating your inventories on each of the channels manually will consume a lot of time and it also has a lot of chances of error.
A channel manager automates this process for you. Whenever a booking comes for your hotel a online channel manager updates the inventory on all the channels you have listed on.
Hence saving your time without making an error.
Just imagine the dilemma you have to face in case of overbooking or double booking.
Two guests are standing at your hotel at the same time claiming the booking of the same room.
Which one will you allocate the room and which one you will turn down?
And what will be the effect of turning a guest down on your Hotel’s reputation?
The channel manager saves you from such a dilemma. The Channel Manager ensures that only available rooms are visible to the guests on the booking websites.
Let us assume that all your rooms are booked and you have zero availability.
And then one of the rooms gets vacant but you took some time to update it on the various channels.
During this time can you figure out how many opportunities you have missed? People were looking for a service like you but you were not there as an option.
You let your competitor take that opportunity. A channel manager does not let you miss such opportunities.
It updates your inventories and rates in real-time and hence always keeps you in the race.
If you are not taking your business decisions on the basis of the data analysis then you are gambling with your business.
Hotel Industry is one of the maximum data-gathering industries. And, its clients are willing to give their data to get a more personalized experience.
A channel manager empowers you with the data and reports on your online bookings, how is the performance of each of your channels and etc.
This gives you a better insight into your business and saves you time. And also decrease your operational cost.
Channel Managers can be integrated with tools like Bookings Engines, PMS, and Analytics tools.
This gives you the power of managing all your hotel operations from a single point.
Integrated tools get you a whole environment for your hotel which gives you full control of your business.
This kind of control boosts your revenue generation.
Integration of a channel manager with Online Travel Agencies is always for the channel manager makers.
And that is why different channel managers are connected with a different number of OTAs.
Powerful Channel Managers are integrated with many OTAs. So while selecting a Channel Manager for your hotel this is one of the parameters you should look at.
If you have a channel manager which is integrated into a large number of OTAs covering most of the top OTAs then you have the power to play around and list your desired OTA without any issue.
Apart from that with Property Management System integrated with your Channel manager you can curb the mistakes from you and your hotel staff.
Okay, all your efforts and hard work are for your guest. In a hotel, everything is concentrated on your guests.
With a channel manager handling your inventories, you have the time that can be dedicated to the satisfaction of your guests.
During walk-in or on-desk bookings, there are fewer chances of mistakes as only available rooms will be shown in the PMS for booking.
The chances of selecting the wrong dates of booking also diminish with the help of a channel manager.
As I always say that a happy guest is the cheapest source of marketing. And technology has made it easy to achieve satisfied guests for hotels. And one such technology is a channel manager.
So this was my attempt to list the importance of a channel manager.
Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
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