What is a hotel channel manager, and how does it stop double bookings?

A channel manager is software that keeps the rooms and prices you show on each online travel agency (OTA) in step with your own calendar. When a room sells anywhere, it closes that room everywhere else. When you change a price, it sends the new price to every channel.

Without one, somebody logs into each OTA's extranet and updates it by hand. That works until two guests book your last room within minutes of each other on two different sites.

The data going out is usually called ARI: availability, rates and inventory.

• Availability. How many rooms of each type are left to sell on each night.
• Rates. The price for each room type and rate plan, per night.
• Restrictions. Rules such as minimum stay, closed to arrival, closed to departure and stop-sell.

Coming back are reservations, changes and cancellations. A two-way channel manager turns each one into a booking on your calendar, with the OTA's reference number and commission recorded.

Double bookings rarely come from one dramatic failure. They come from small delays and separate copies of the truth.

• Manual updates. A room is sold over the phone and nobody closes it on Agoda until the next morning.
• Separate inventories. The website, the desk and the channel manager each keep their own count, and the counts drift apart.
• Fixed allocations. Giving each OTA a set number of rooms means one channel sells out while another holds rooms nobody can buy.
• Timing. Two OTAs sell the same last room in the seconds before either update arrives.

The first three are fixed by software that works from one shared inventory. The fourth can be made rare but never impossible, which is why some hotels hold back their last room from the OTAs on busy nights.

All three work best when they read the same inventory, which is why many hotels choose them as one system rather than three connected products. For the bigger picture, see what a hotel PMS is.

OTAs do not let just any software update your listing. Booking.com, Agoda and Expedia only accept automated updates through connectivity providers they have approved, so connecting a channel manager is a short setup project rather than a password you type in. Expect these steps.

1. 1

   Map your room types

   Each room type in your system is matched to the room type the OTA sells. A wrong mapping sends the right price to the wrong room.

2. 2

   Map your rate plans

   Standard, non-refundable, breakfast included and so on, each matched on both sides.

3. 3

   Record commission and markup

   Note what each channel charges so your reports show net revenue, and decide whether OTA prices carry a markup.

4. 4

   Test with a real change

   Close a date or change a price and confirm it appears on the OTA before you rely on the connection.

5. 5

   Keep your extranet login

   You still need it for photos, descriptions, reviews and payouts. The channel manager handles rates, availability and bookings.

• Does it share one inventory with my booking engine and front desk, or keep its own count?
• How is the connection to each OTA made, and how long does a new property take to connect?
• Is every update logged with a time and a result, so I can show what was sent?
• Can I set restrictions per date and room type, in bulk?
• Is commission recorded on each booking, so I can see what each channel really costs?
• What happens to OTA bookings if the connection is down for an hour?

The Orian channel manager is built into the same system as your calendar, front desk and booking engine, so there is one availability number and nothing to keep in step internally. Rates, availability and restrictions are edited on one grid, OTA reservations arrive as normal bookings with their commission recorded, and every push is written to a sync log.

Your Booking.com, Agoda, Expedia and Airbnb connections are set up with you during onboarding and tested with a real change before you go live. Until a channel is connected, it keeps running from its own extranet exactly as it does today.