Choosing a channel manager for your B&B or holiday rental: standalone or all-in-one?

Short answer: compare channel managers on seven points: a real API connection with the channels you use (not iCal), syncing of rates and restrictions and not just availability, how fast a booking closes the room everywhere, how mapping rooms and rates works, whether you can add each channel's commission on top, the total cost, and support in your own language. For a B&B or holiday rental with a handful of rooms, an all-in-one PMS with a built-in channel manager is usually the simplest choice: one calendar, one place for your rates, and no second system you have to wire to the first.

Search for "channel manager for a B&B" or "holiday rental channel manager" and you quickly find a long list of providers that all seem to promise the same thing: no more double bookings and every channel from one screen. The difference is in the details. Below is what to look for, in the order things most often go wrong in practice. What a channel manager actually does is explained in what is a channel manager.

Standalone or all-in-one: what is the difference?

A standalone channel manager does one thing: it sends availability, rates and restrictions to your channels and pulls bookings back. Your reservations, guest details, invoices and the booking engine on your own website live in a different program. You then have to get the two talking to each other, or retype.

An all-in-one PMS has the channel manager built in. A Booking.com booking lands in the same calendar as a booking from your own website or a phone reservation, and the invoice, guest messages and cleaning schedule all start from that same booking.

A standalone channel manager can make sense if you already have a PMS you are happy with that has a good connection to it. If you are starting from scratch, or currently juggling Excel and each platform's extranet separately, all-in-one saves you a connection that can break and an extra subscription. The difference between a PMS, a booking engine and a channel manager is covered in more depth in PMS, booking engine or channel manager.

1. Which channels, and via API or iCal?

Start by listing the channels you are on now and the ones you want to be on: Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Vrbo, Google, and perhaps regional or niche sites. Then ask, per channel, how the connection works.

• API connection: the channel manager is an approved partner of the channel and talks to it directly. Availability, rates and restrictions go out; bookings with name, price and changes come back.
• iCal: a calendar file that is fetched every so often. It only blocks dates, without rates or guest details, and with a delay. That leaves a window in which two guests can book the same night.

A provider that promises an "Airbnb connection" but does it through iCal only half solves your problem. The difference is explained in connecting Airbnb: API or iCal.

2. Availability, rates and restrictions

A good channel manager sends more than open or closed. Check that your nightly rates, minimum stay, closed to arrival or departure and stop-sell go along too. When you set next year's rates in the autumn, you want to do it once, not in five extranets.

3. Speed and double bookings

Ask how fast a new booking closes the room on the other channels. With an API connection that is usually a matter of seconds; with iCal it can take much longer. Also ask what happens with a change or cancellation: does the night become available again automatically? More in preventing double bookings.

4. Mapping rooms and rates

Every channel has its own rooms and rate plans. When connecting, you record once which room in your own system matches which room on each channel. That is called mapping. Ask whether you can do it yourself in a clear screen or have to wait for a support agent, and how you can see that a connection works.

5. Adding commission per channel

Booking.com, Airbnb and Expedia each charge a different commission. If you want the same net income per night, the price has to be able to differ per channel. Check whether you can set a markup per channel, so you do not have to manage every rate separately. How to work out that net income is explained in net revenue per booking channel.

6. Cost: what are you paying for?

Pricing models vary widely: per room, per channel, per booking or a flat monthly fee. Add up everything you need: the channel manager, the PMS, the booking engine for your website and any setup fees. Ask about the notice period too. A cheap standalone channel manager plus a separate PMS is not always cheaper than a single package.

7. Support, language and switching

When a connection stalls, you want someone who understands your situation, in your language, and preferably quickly. Also ask how a switch works: are your future bookings carried over, and how do you avoid double bookings during the changeover?

Checklist to compare offers

• Are all my channels covered, and via API (not iCal)?
• Do rates, minimum stay and stop-sell go along, not just availability?
• How fast does a room close after a booking, and does a cancelled night reopen by itself?
• Can I do the mapping myself and see whether the connection works?
• Can I set a commission markup per channel?
• What is the total monthly cost including PMS and booking engine, and what is the notice period?
• Is there support in my language, and how does switching work?

How BedFlow PMS does it

BedFlow PMS is an all-in-one PMS with a built-in channel manager. To connect to the channels, BedFlow PMS uses the channel manager Channex; you do not need your own account or keys for that, you manage everything in BedFlow PMS. Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Vrbo, Google and a range of other channels each have their own tile. Availability, rates and restrictions go along, with an adjustable commission markup per channel, and bookings land automatically in the same calendar as your direct bookings. How connecting works step by step is in the guide on channels. What it costs is on the pricing page.

Want to try it with your own rooms? You can test BedFlow PMS free for 30 days, no credit card needed.