The Perfect Duo: Hotel Channel Managers and Hotelbeds, a Winning Combination

Are you currently using a channel manager, or are you interested in incorporating one into your distribution operations? Would you like to know how a channel manager could complement your partnership with us and take your hotel further? We've got you covered! 
 

In this article, you'll find the main benefits of partnering with a channel manager if you work with Hotelbeds, as well as how channel managers complement our powerful Partner Extranet, among other frequently asked questions.  
 

Read on and discover all the information you need to know about channel managers for hotels.  

What is a channel manager? 

Before we move forward, first things first: what exactly is a channel manager, and what does a channel manager do? 
 

Nowadays, hotels can't just rely on telephone or face-to-face bookings to guarantee a high occupancy rate for their rooms.
 

Hoteliers need to use more than one sales channel to get the most out of their offering and achieve maximum profits — but it can be challenging to manage several channels at once. This is where the channel manager comes in.  
 

A channel manager is an online platform for hotels. It allows you to constantly update the advertisement of your rooms across the several channels or booking sites that you’re connected to. Similarly, the channel manager system updates your availability automatically and in real-time across all channels. Whenever you receive a booking, remove a room, or make general changes to your inventory, it will automatically update. 
 

The channel manager can increase a hotel's ability to attract bookings and maximise profits. Channel managers are a fundamental part of a hotel's online distribution strategy. At Hotelbeds, we consider the channel manager to be a valuable addition to our partnership offering: by allowing you to connect the contracts that you hold with us to the tool, you can rest assured that the agreement is being efficiently and effectively optimised. 
 

Advantages of working with hotel channel managers 

Certainly, relying on channel managers is an effective strategy to facilitate inventory management, among other many advantages: 
 

• Channel managers show real-time rates and availability on all channels at the same time, and these are updated automatically. As a result, bookings can be accepted more easily.  
   

• You can ensure best control in inventory management. By splitting inventory between different channels, there's a risk of double bookings or not reaching full occupancy. When using a channel manager, inventory will be pooled and availability and rates will be automatically updated, so only available rooms will be bookable.  
   

• Channel managers enable you to get to know each distinct channel better, including how they work, your best performing rooms, and so forth. You'll have access to reports, analytics and booking trends. Besides, it will help you analyse the best performing channels and how to optimise connections to generate more revenue for the hotel.  
   

• You can integrate with a variety of channels, including OTAs (Online Travel Agency), metasearch engines (such as Google), your own website, and Hotelbeds as an example of the B2B channel, to name a few.  
   

Hotelbeds and channel managers: what makes us a good team? 

After all these years as leaders in the TravelTech sector, we've corroborated the importance of having a channel manager for hotels as a partner to streamline your daily work and increase your revenue. If you still have doubts about investing in one, here are a few reasons why we highly recommend a channel manager as an excellent complement to Hotelbeds. 
 

• Currently, we're working hard to improve and create certain functionalities for channel managers to incorporate into their platforms. In this way, among other advantages, hoteliers like you will be able to create contracts with Hotelbeds through the channel manager platform itself.  
  
  This means you won't have to sign more contracts with a Contract Manager from our team and then wait for us to upload them to the system. With this new functionality, you'll be able to create contracts directly through the channel manager, and they will be reflected directly in our system. This will allow you to sell more rates with us more easily. 
   

• Besides, you’ll have the option to create new rooms through the channel manager platform. You won't have to contact our team first, which will reduce the time to market considerably.  
   

• As an additional benefit, if you’re a hotelier interested in working with us, and you already have a channel manager, Hotelbeds has partnered with a few of them and will bring you the opportunity to register and create an agreement with us through their system.  
   

However, not all the channel managers we work with have these functionalities. Hotelbeds offer the opportunity to develop them; but it’s the channel manager's team who is responsible for implementing them. Yet, channel managers are increasingly asking for the possibility of developing this tool.  

In short, investing in a channel manager while working with Hotelbeds reduces manual bookings. As a hotelier, you can control availability better, as well as make sales forecasts. Automatic updates allow you to see what you have and don’t have available for the following months. In this manner, you can determine whether to lower the prices of certain rooms to increase your revenue. 

Interested in working with two major players in the travel industry? Register your property now and gain access to many opportunities to increase bookings and revenue. 
 

It’s a match: our Partner Extranet + channel managers  

One of the main questions hoteliers ask when they join Hotelbeds — and already work with a channel manager — is the following: how does the channel manager work together with our Partner Extranet? However, which may seem complex at first glance is, in reality, much simpler. 
 

Our Partner Extranet is a complementary tool to the channel manager. On the one hand, and as mentioned above, there are some channel managers which lack the functionalities to automate some processes when integrating with Hotelbeds. 
 

This is where our Partner Extranet comes into play to make the work easier. For example, a hotel that can't create new contracts through the channel manager platform needs to modify the rates in the Partner Extranet to start mapping with the channel manager. If they can't create new rooms with the channel manager either, they must use the extranet to add them and then update the channel manager.  
 

On the other hand, regarding hotel content, such as descriptions, images and facilities, all hoteliers must use the Partner Extranet to enter this information.  
 

How does the integration with Hotelbeds work? 

To begin with, we have our own team responsible for the new integrations with channel managers. While it's the channel manager who develops these functionalities with the Hotelbeds APIs on their respective platforms, our team tests to make sure everything works correctly.  
 

If you don't have a channel manager yet to help you manage your distribution channels, we recommend comparing channel managers to see which one might be the right fit for you. When choosing your best channel manager, we recommend you consider factors such as your number of available rooms, the diverse types of rooms you have, the audience you want to reach, your budget, and other variables.  
 

The good news is that, nowadays, almost any channel manager can integrate with us. In fact, we have partnerships with 200+ hotel channel managers, both the top ones and the regional ones in specific countries. 
 

Finally, we will also help you with the integration process. Some channel managers handle hotel integrations directly. In other cases, you'll have to follow a series of steps, and this information will be provided to you by our Contracting team.  
 

We hope we've clarified the main questions you had about working with a channel manager and Hotelbeds at the same time. We assure you it's a winning formula and could exponentially increase your bookings, improve your revenue, and help you have better control of all your inventory and rates. That's why we encourage you to start working with a channel manager software to make your daily tasks easier.  
 

And if you haven't joined Hotelbeds yet, we can help you increase your property's visibility to over 66,000 travel distributors, including 60,000+ travel agencies. Hotelbeds gives you access to a worldwide portfolio of B2B partners. Don’t miss your opportunity to appear in front of this valuable client base – register now!