What is Channel Management? What is a Channel Manager? Why is Channel Management Important in Hotels?
What is Channel Management?
Channel Management is a general term in marketing and refers to the development and management of distribution channels for a product or service.
To try to give an example in a very simple language, let's say you own a grocery store. Taking orders by phone or your neighbor coming to the window and calling you to order is a sales channel for your grocery store.
Since we sell rooms instead of sugar and fat in hotels, every platform that brings us reservations is a channel. Receiving reservations by phone or on our own website is a channel for our hotel.
Especially with the development of the internet, the era of door-to-door hotel research is now completely over. Wherever you go in the world, there are now websites that specialize in this field and offer you hundreds of different alternatives. Moreover, on these sites, we can also see the comments and ratings of those who have stayed in these hotels before.
Now let's look at it again from the hotel manager's perspective.
The online reservation market is largely in the hands of big players such as booking.com, expedia.com, odamax.com. However, there are a significant number of other players. Moreover, becoming a member of them is free. So why should we limit ourselves? Let's become a member of as many sites as possible...
In this case, a problem arises;
Let's say we own a small hotel with 10 rooms.
We became a member of site A and uploaded the room pictures. We determined the prices and the number of rooms. Then we went and became a member of site B and entered the prices and number of rooms there.
A reservation came from site A between January 1-5. In this case, we need to reduce the number of rooms in B by 1 between January 1-5 so that we do not receive reservations above capacity.
Then we received 1 reservation for the same dates from B. We immediately went to A and reduced the number of rooms by 1 from there.
We booked all the rooms this way.
One of the reservations from A was canceled 2 days before, (which is largely canceled in online reservations) in this case, we need to increase the number of rooms in B by 1 again so that we can make sales.
Since our goal is to keep our rooms as full as possible, we should not be satisfied with just 1-2 websites, but should try to register and make reservations on all websites suitable for us.
But if I become a member of 10 different sites, when a reservation comes from any of them, I have to go to the others one by one and reduce the number of rooms. If I want to change the prices at certain times, things get out of hand.
No, it's best, let's work with 1 or 2 channels. What if there is a last minute cancellation?
Here we come across the CHANNEL MANAGEMENT solution.
Let's say Channel Management platforms or software (yes, of course it is a software) manage all the online booking sites you have registered with on your behalf, according to the rules you set.
When you use the software, you determine your prices and number of rooms on a single screen after you become a member of the sites.
Let's say a new reservation arrives from one of the sites. In this case, the software automatically reduces the number of rooms (availability) on the other sites by 1. You do not need to go to the other sites and reduce them one by one.
Another scenario is that there were many cancellations at the last minute. We want to reduce the prices so that the hotel does not remain empty. When we change the price from a single screen, the prices on all sites are automatically updated.
This is the wonderful thing called Channel Management.
What is a Channel Manager?
The companies that provide this service that we have described above are also called Channel Managers. Not using channel management in an environment where competition has increased so much is a huge deficiency. Moreover, despite all these benefits, the service fee is quite low.
3T Adonis Hotel Management software works integrated with the best Channel Manager companies in the industry. If you use Adonis Hotel Management and at the same time work with a Channel Manager company, you can use Adonis Hotel Management in an integrated manner with the Channel Manager you work with. Moreover, you do not have to pay any additional fee. For detailed information, you can call our line at 02126941999.