Channel management success
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Channel management is a brilliant way to maximise efficiency within your business by integrating mobile and web technology to streamline data from across a range of online channels, onto one efficient web page. It makes organising availability and rates incredibly easy.
Working as a hub of internet pathways, channel managers connect to online booking sites, wholesalers, traditional travel agents, GDS, inbound tour operators, and so on. These pathways are opened up by channel management not only to make booking accommodation a whole lot easier for potential guests, but to save the time and ultimately money of the accommodation providers themselves.
Channel management is able to provide accurate availability and price consistency across all online bookings. This means that staff need only make a single change, to update a range of websites instantaneously; minimal staff training means minimal expenditure.
Channel management is also able to vastly increase distribution for accommodation providers. Able to add as many online booking channels as desirable, for no additional cost and very little effort, this software allows companies to offer up their rooms globally. Further still, major online booking sites are both willing and able to market properties super effectively, which means free and easy marketing for the properties themselves! Not to mention that any decent channel manager will happily adjust inventory across all sites when a booking occurs on any one site in particular; this is referred to as the pooled inventory model and it eliminates any risk of double bookings.
In fact, when choosing channel management software for your company, the likelihood of multiple bookings is certainly something to consider. Look out for an “availability threshold”. This threshold is set by the customer and when the availability falls below that threshold, the availability is removed from channels to prevent any over-selling.
According to Simon Casey of Seekom Online Booking Solutions, over-selling occurs most when there is only one room left in a property listed with multiple channels, for instance on an event weekend where all other properties are booked out. “When the last room is booked, it does take time to update all channels - it can take as long as 15 minutes depending on how big the update queues are. In this time, other channels still think the room is available and so multiple bookings could be made.” Clearly this is a serious issue for accommodation operators as it becomes their responsibility to rebook affected customers.
In terms of channel management costs, they vary from software to software. Some companies offer a fixed monthly fee that includes unlimited bookings and unlimited channel connections. Others have no upfront, monthly, nor support fees, simply charging the operator for successful bookings at a reasonable rate.
Most often, channel managers that work on a flat monthly rate are the best value for money, but this is not always the case. Bookit, the often frequented booking engine, proffers that the “standard commission for bookings from a reseller is 12% including credit card fees, and for direct bookings accommodation operators pay 4.5% including credit card fees and processing”. These costs may vary slightly, but ultimately they are a small price to pay for increased online bookings, lower acquisition costs, increased business efficiency and consequently higher profit margins.
When choosing a booking engine, look for one without lock-in contracts as this is a good indication of their ability to service your business - a sudden change in technology could leave you lagging behind if you are locked into second rate software. Remember that many additional channel options will be connected in the future and so booking channels not connected to a reputable channel manager risk being left out in the cold.
Tania Witheford from STAAH offered her advice for those selecting a channel manager. She insisted that whilst there are multiple tools available, it is important to engage and get the best result from any channel; to learn about the channel, understand how it displays properties and how the display is influenced; what a potential consumer might be looking for and how they would ultimately use the channel and most importantly how to get best visibility and thus results.
It is also important to note that accommodation providers now do 40% of their business online, so that the channel manager you choose is less of a commodity, and more of a business co-operative. It thus cannot be overstated how crucial it is to ensure you choose the right one for you. A good plan would be to visit the channel management team in question and query their operating system yourself - ensure it is backed by an indelible support team that can take care of all your needs under one roof.
There are a number of added benefits that channel managers may provide accommodation properties, including the fact that guests would arrive fully prepaid and equipped with confirmation vouchers, cancellation policies and rate seasons will be made fully customisable by operators, and finally ad-hoc manual bookings may also be made for walk-ins or add-ons. Another huge benefit of new channel management technology is that it is ‘cloud-based’, meaning that the property management system and channel manager are not installed but are actually accessed over the internet. This eliminates a load of risk, because your property management system will now be available from any internet connected device including smartphones and tablets. Gone are the days of worrying about backing up data!
For now a crashed PC simply needs you to locate a different computer in order to be back in business.
Whether an accommodation provider is a small B&B or a gargantuan holiday park, channel managers are far more cost effective than older distribution systems, and embracing this new technology today will give them the expert efficiency that they require to ensure success.
By Rosie Clark, Industry Reporter
