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Channel Manager

Hello, how do I get the right channel manager so I could see my hotel rates on when google I google hotels in Edmonton.


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pibomarco 5 years ago

I use MyAllocator and I am very satisfied, they have also great and quick help support. (aprox 25€ - 40€/month) Depends how many units you have.
The cheaper one: Hotelrunner aprox 15€/month.

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monet208 5 years ago

Quite expensive in the UK

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Pita Lie 5 years ago

I use Sirvoy for 4 years and just love it. The price depends on how many channels you choose. We paid approximately 85 USD per month for 3 channels (Expedia, Hostelworld and Booking.com) inclusive of PMS for the front office. Just love their customer services as they sort out with our channels when there is overbooked etc.

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pibomarco 5 years ago

Do they offer a two way connection with AirBnb?

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Pita Lie 5 years ago

AirBnB just signed up with Siteminder. Sirvoy offers connection with Siteminder provided you have account with Siteminder.

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Ron French 5 years ago

Hi all .....what about the channel manager offered on b.com? im a tachnophobe and would love some advice on this ....Please

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pibomarco 5 years ago

I am not familiar with channel manager from Booking.com. I think overall all channel managers are kind of the same.. and is the best thing if you are hosting on more booking portals. Everything goes automaticly you save lot of work. It's more of a question how much are you willing to pay for it, because the prices varies.. If you're a tachnophoe, maybe you will be struggeling in the beggining but once you wil lget used to it, you will not imagine not to use it anymore. Help support is also very good and proffesional and you will be properly guided.

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Pita Lie 5 years ago

It is very important that you know whether the channel manager offers PMS (property management system) as well if you have plenty of rooms and accept walk in - as sometimes the channel manager is cheap but the PMS is expensive.

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pibomarco 5 years ago

This is my situation:
I've build my personal website using WIX platform (very easy - anyone can do it and I was totally clueless).I pay aprox 20€/month for WIX website (Premium plan). What do I get from them?
- FREE BOOKING ENGINE (on the site) (0% commission)
- FREE PMS
- MY OWN WEBSITE that i can simply update whenever I want

Then you connect a channel manager "HotelRunner" with Booking.com, Expedia.com, AirBnB.. and your WIX site for aprox 15,00€/month.

Now do the math.. I receive lots of bookings from my personal website, where I don't pay commisions etc.. And also better offers for the guest comparing to OTA's.

Basicly lots of options to choose from. :)

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Alistair Levie 3 years ago

I've a question please, I'm thinking of a new web site using Wix, but keeping my existing Freetobook channel manager, (it's free and works well and I'm used to it).

Can I use the Wix hotel builder and replace their hotel booking App with Freetobook?

 

Thanks

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pibomarco 3 years ago

I would suggest that you create a basic WIX website (no need to use Wix hotel), and then implement your freetobook booking engine in your website. 

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Pokoje Goscinn… 1 year ago

Hi pibomarco,

I am looking to add a 'Make Reservation' functionality to my hotel's website that connects to BDC through a channel manager.

Are you still using WIX for your hotel? I've tried going to the website pension-pibernik.com, but it seems like the reservation button takes you to the beds24 reservation service. If you stopped using WIX, would you mind telling me why? 

WIX has a 'WIX Hotels' manager that connects with Booking.com, but it seems like you went your own way by connecting the free booking engine from WIX to HotelRunner. I had no idea WIX could even do that. 

Also, do you know of any services that allow you to insert a reservation window into your website? I've found KWHotel which might do the job, but are there any that you might recommend trying? 

Thanks. 

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pibomarco 1 year ago

HI

Yes I still use WIX website. I made a change that go directly to beds24 (channel manager). But if you want to see how it is implemented to WIX you can check this link: 

https://www.pension-pibernik.com/book-a-room


I basicly just changed chanel manager. 
WIX hotels seem very nice but it is too limited in functionality for my needs, because I sell quite a few units. If you sell only one unit, perhaps you can give it a go with WIX hotel. 
I think any chanel manager allows you to put their booking engine on your website. For me is now beds24 the chosen one. :) 

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Ron French 5 years ago

i am just starting to use the rentlio cm on b.com all seems pretty straightforward so far ....and i think at a reasonable price ...also offers booking engine with the package for your website

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

I'm using Siteminder for everything, full options and it's great. Especially that they have the two-way Airbnb connection now.

I have about 20 channels connected and all integrations set up.

Let's just say that I love technology and the more versatile one is, the better.

PMS is also from them, which makes everything seamless.

You can choose what works best for you, just make sure that technically, the CM and PMS suits what you want it to do, if there are things that are missing, it's going to hurt later.

Cheers,

Zsolt

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Briarscottage 5 years ago

We use siteminder with Little hotelier booking engine for the last 5 years, happy

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Info 5 years ago

We use Nightsbridge which is very popular in South Africa.

I am not sure if they are available worldwide but I don’t see why not because everything is done online and their rates are probably cheaper than other global solutions…

They have direct .xml links to all the major OTAs including BDC so we manage everything centrally from our pc and only make changes once which ripple to all the appropriate places…

If you are looking, check them out at nightsbridge.co.za

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Richard Martin… 5 years ago

We Use My UK Travel, good as the price is low and your bookings via them are commission free. The PMS system is good however the invoicing function is not good at all

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Roman Sytnyk 5 years ago

Wow WIX has a PMS??

I can recomment to have a channel manager with content API so even descritpons and pictures can be distributed to different channels.

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ANDRE HAYWARD 5 years ago

I use a Wix site (its free and easy) and i have my own domain that diverts to the wix site.

Domain charge in South Africa is about R150 per year (+-10euro)

As a channel manager i use "Nightsbridge". It is easy to use, cheap, works extremely well. Basic monthly charge not link to your bookings at all.

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Info 5 years ago

I use NightsBridge which is a South African based business. It costs me about R315.00/21.00€ per month (5 rooms) then an additional R35.00/2.32€ per month per channel. I’m more than happy to recommend them as their system is extremely user-friendly even my mother who is very, very, very technophobic can use it. It also has an app so even when I am away I can still do bookings/ cancel bookings. Their customer support is also amazing. It also integrates with QuickBooks which makes invoicing a breeze.

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Apartments 5 years ago

I have a Profitroom, had a SiteMinder and I prefer the newer one. It costs us £74 per month, price depends on the number of channels. They also set up Booking engine on your website. Nice and easy. Very helpful.

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pibomarco 5 years ago

Shout-out to MyAllocator! It's great!

£74? Daaamn. :)

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Apartments 5 years ago

It's not that much in London:-) It is £15 on top for being connected to my reservation programme, which costs 95 Euro per year.

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pibomarco 5 years ago

I understand, my country is a bit poorer. :D

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Apartments 5 years ago

:-) I mainly chose Profitroom because I can connect it to my reservation program, KW Hotel. Both are from Poland. Besides SiteMinder costs £55 per month and I pay £59.

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Jordana 5 years ago

Hello, I think it all depends on what do are your "negotiables", with this I mean:

- How much time you are willing or want to spend with whatever system you put in place

- How many accommodations you have

- How many channels you want to use

- How much money you want to use for this. etc.

For example, I was using Redforts, that is a really good channel manager and PMS, that does many thing, but still was taking me a lot of time that I prefer using creating more business or relaxing honestly.

So now I changed to Guesty, which is a more complete, so to speak, PMS, apart from the channel manager it also has many more features that really reduces the stress from the workload like :

- unified inbox (BRILLIANT! I don't have to enter Expedia, Airbnb, Booking.com, etc, just one inbox)

- Connected with Stripe so I set when I want to charge the reservations and it does so automatically.

- takes Security deposit automatically

- Sent text automatically like welcome, self check-in, how is everything, please leave us a review, bla bla)

- Can connect with many many integrations like revenue managers that works like Airbnb smart prices but much better, integrations with automatic codes so you don't have to do anything and many other integrations.

For this I pay 3% of my booking, so no fixed cost, if I don't receive any booking I don't pay, if I have fully booked I pay only 3%. For me is completely worth it.

So what I mean is, at the end of the day, you and only you know what do you prefer paying for and be done automatically or if you have all the day for this and prefer moving prices up and down, charge very reservation, validate cards, enter every channel to answer 1 message, etc. Think of what is the thing that bothers you the most to do, and delegate it to a system or to another person, use your time to generate what you are best for and leave simple things or tedious things to a system, at least that is what I do :D

Hope this helps!

Jo

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Franck L 5 years ago

Hi Flcm28

I added a channel manager last year and it really changed my life. Nevertheless, there are few things I would have been happy to know before starting.

There are few parameters you should check first.

- Contact your PMS to know if they are connected to the channel manager before signing any contract with a channel manager. Your PMS may have a list of recommended channel managers. If you need any development in the future or even if you have issues in the mapping or rates, it is very important that they have worked together in the past.

- The price is an important factor. But not that much important actually, if you consider the time you will save with a channel manager, it worths spending money in this tool.

- Re your property's website, you need to check that your channel manager supports your direct booking engine. It maybe my big mistake. Both companies were not very connected and I had hard time to be in the middle of tech guys.

- I work with SiteMinder. It is relatively easy to use and to set. The only drawback with this company is their customer support service. When they cannot find a solution to your problem with you on the phone, they create tickets for their tech department/IT/development. They never come back to you. They never reach out to give you a solution and you have to call them many times. Very frustrating.

- Check how often the channel manager send updates to your channels: If the frequency is very low you may get over-bookings as your inventory is not updated.

Have a great day

FL

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Spice Vacation… 5 years ago

I am looking for a channel manager which one of the most important aspect is that I can reduce the minimum stay and it will automatically pas through to Airbnb, Booking and Homeaway. I spent countless hours doing this as I change not only rates but also minimum stays very often. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

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pibomarco 5 years ago

I hate chanel managers that take commissions from each booking etc.. OTA's are enough. I preffer fixed monthly rates.

I am using MyAllocator fro mCloudBeds.

Also MyAllocator is in a beta phase for two way connection with AirBnB. But you must meet as a proffesional hospitality on AirBnB.. Not every host can have this feature.

With the 2-way connection, you can:

  • Connect to your existing Airbnb account
  • Map myallocator rooms to existing Airbnb listings
  • Create new Airbnb listings directly from myallocator
  • Push rates, availability, and property information like photos, descriptions and more from myallocator to Airbnb
  • Add room types with multiple units of availability (*not all unit types apply)!



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Spice Vacation… 5 years ago

Pibomarco, You have no idea how useful your info is. Thank you! I will also try WIX as I do not have yet a website. For more than 15 years I have depended exclusively OAT's. Hopefully My allocator will free me some time to start building the website. Thank you!!

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Salidainn 5 years ago

I use a cloud based Property Management System by name of Openhotel. (openhotel.com).

I don't recall exactly, but is is like $5.00/room/month. I have been with them for 6 years with very few complaints. I think they connect to airbnb, not sure.

Mike

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Starhaven Retreat 5 years ago

We use Siteminder and have for the past 5 years, they are easy to use, very reliable however slightly more expensive than other systems. But we have found the ease of use is worth it.

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Susanne W 5 years ago

I'm looking at the channel manager known as Little Hotelier as opposed to Resonline which we've been using for the past 3 years. Would appreciate some detailed feedback about the benefits of switching to Little Hotelier for a small property. We have 10 units in our holiday resort.

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Angela @Promhills 5 years ago

I use Little Hotelier (5 cabins). We've used it for several years. Before LH we used QRes and I trialled Resonline too. I just found LH to be more logical and easier to set up and use. It streamlined the PMS in a more user friendly way for me. I love that it now connects seamlessly for instant bookings via Airbnb too. There are several widgets to integrate into your website (mine is here: http://www.promhillscabins.com.au/index.php/rates-availability) or you can choose to have it as a pop up page from a book button.

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

I also use Little Hotelier, excellent software that can do so many things.

Also the stability is important and the support team, which is great from their side.

It might be costly, but it pays for itself.

We had a different PMS and CM before, that was just horrible to use. Lacking so many options and it also created overbookings, funny, right?

@Angela - cute alpacas :)

@Susanne W - go for it. You can trial their setup for 30 days, see how it works out for you.

Zsolt - www.thuild.com

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Michael 5 years ago

Hi Guys!

Nice to meet you all..

We are using YiedPlanet channel manager and really like it.

Aspecialy good for Booking extranet and all over platforms as well.

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Info 5 years ago

I use Nightsbridge and found the service to be excellent and it integrates with many other Booking sites and promotes extensively

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pibomarco 5 years ago

Wow Guesty.com has such an aggressive sales / marketing. They got me on a phone just recently (don't know how they got my number).. for 15minuttes and couldn't let go. So annoying, with their sales pitch in every sentence (excellent, awesome, brilliant, we're best,...).. Feel sorry for their clients who I assume got basicly forced to take their services that are overpriced. They prey on weak characters.

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Andre 5 years ago

We are using Cubilis as a channel manager. Very happy with their support. Fast and on point.
Funny what you mentioned about aggresive sales people @pibomarco. I had that with Siteminder. Their product seems fine by the way.

We work with Mews as a PMS. If you are planning to change your PMS, take at least a look at Mews. They are not cheap but the automation and available integrations make it worth it. (no I have no shares in Mews, just a satisfied user)

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Corinne Orde 5 years ago

I use Freetobook. They're based in Scotland. Very reasonably priced as long as you don't use too many OTAs. There's no commission for direct bookings to your own website. The system works really well, and I've ever had any conflicting bookings or errors. Their help line is fantastic too. I always get an answer, in easy-to-understand, comprehensible English, within a few hours. Their interface is a bit clunky and needs an update. If they had an app like Pulse for notifications, it would be totally awesome! Having said that, I can thoroughly recommend it as a UK-based solution.

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Laura, Communi… 5 years ago

Hi everyone! There's been more recent conversation on this topic. Head to this thread to see what other members are suggesting for channel managers. :)

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Akwador 5 years ago

We are using Siteminder and our Direct booking is handled by them too, under the software name 'Booking Button'.

Very easy to use, reliable and covers most 3rd party booking agents.

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Bhavesh 4 years ago

I'm really confused about which channel manager to use. I tried Hotel Runner on a trial but their customer service is appalling! Any help greatly appreciated.

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Spice Vacation… 4 years ago

MyAllocator looks great, however their fees are outrageous. I run a vacation rental company where I manage 7 one-bedroom apartments in 7 different buildings. That since they are in different locations, and I have 7 different property numbers in Booking, they say I must have 7 separate myallocator accounts at a total cost of $196 per month ($2,352 a year). That is outrageous. Anyone out there working with vacation rentals in different locations that have better experience ?

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pibomarco 4 years ago

MyAllocator is great and has competitive rates comparing to other CM's
They also have great and responsive customer support.

I have two properties:

Property #1
Total 16 units for the price 48,00€ per month

Property #2
Total 4 units for the price 29,00€ per month

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Info 4 years ago

@pibomarco

Hi Marco,

I saw your post in regards to Wix and HotelRunner - Personally, I would love to create a Wix web site, but I am worried with the functionality of Wix Hotel App. As it sounds like you have experience with these systems is it possible that you help me out with a few questions:

- You said that Wix Hotel offers a PMS system. Can you create reservations, close room in their PMS? And does it update the other channels (i.e. airbnb, booking.com).

- Could I control room prices from a channel manager and would the prices change in Wix Hotels?

Thank you immensely for you time!

Julie