How to increase online bookings? Is Channel Manager one of the solution ?
Never use a Channel Manager and keep it as Manual it can be.
Yes you read that right!!!
The definition of a Channel Manager is ....
Channel manager is a software for Hotels and all Accommodation Service providers, it is made to distribute your room inventory across several different Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com, Goibibo, Agoda, Tripadvisor etc at once and syncs bookings to your PMS software in real-time so you can optimize bookings while avoiding over bookings.
A stunning revolution by leading industry heads find the flaws it has and which brings down the revenue drastically with the Hotel Managers and Managements knowledge.
The first reason what Channel Manager Software does is that it works on day calculation calculation instead of check out time calculation. For example keep that you are a fifty rooms property and tomorrow you have 30 rooms arrival and 20 rooms occupied today and check out time is tomorrow 12 noon, what Channel Manager does is that it shuts down all the OTA’s inventory and projects the same on the PMS that tomorrow it is sold out day. But the hard truth is that you have 20 rooms Check Out after 12 noon.
Only after the check out is done the Channel Manager Software opens the inventory, by the time your competitor Hotel would have been the king of the day and you might never get the day reservation and loose visibility again on OTA’s since you are made to close the inventory automatically by a Channel Manager Software mechanically. Also Staff finds it a happy living to have less rooms to face the cleaning and check in again.
Second reason is that every individual OTA's work in its own way and provides its data in different formats to the Channel Manager Software connectivity . For example when you and I are asked to share the data of our company to a third party in writing will that be exactly the same as yours and mine? Definitely not going to be the same. For instance keep it that both the data given by you and me are going to be the same formats will that writing be matching ? In the same manner a channel manager software language works good with certain OTA and does partially with the other.
So where is the question of Channel Manager increasing the bookings?
Lets be practical in deciding a Good Channel Manager.
Channel Mangers link your property with online travel agents like Booking.com, Expedia, Goibibo TripAdvisor, etc., with ease and handles the Extranet and makes the reservation look simple but when you understand that it is just works like a mechanical procedure you never get the right marketing and business
There are many other flaws with a channel manager.
They talk of handling rate parity of Online Portals and here is an example of how that makes you loose business.
The Software just makes sure that the rates are dispersed to display equally on all online portals but when you want to have a hike in weekend pricing or put a promotion on one portal what happens is that the rates on all other portals are reduced according to the promotion activated on one portal but not for the same day but for the entire future rates on all portals or just do not calculate correctly which heads for rate parity. So for example if X OTA is running a hidden offer the rates will be made visible on all portals as open offer. Because the software does not work on Artificial Intelligence.
Currently all Channel managers are just a Software that works and makes human work easier in just closing the inventory on all portals in a single button and displaying same rates everywhere, but we must understand that each online portal has to be taken care individually and ensured that we adapt to them according to their requirement to increase room nights from the individual portal.
By using Channel Manager hotel staff forget to reply their reviews, forget to see the adaptations and promotions of each portal, forget to calculate the room closing status of each day and above all we forget that they could have earned more if they have not been using a channel manager. Every Extranet evolves with frequent updations and we should ensure that we update the same to be on par with the competition.
The best solution will be to have staff appointed with knowledge in OTA's and keep the portals engaged to grab to opportunity to increase the visibility and to increase the room sales. As known to all Hoteliers there is high demand for people with real knowledge with current scenario and to hire them is costly and more over to have them with the hotel for a longer period is even more difficult.
We must understand that each online portal has to be taken care individually and ensured that we adapt to them according to their requirement to increase room nights from the each individual portal.
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