PMS and channel manager integrations: which ones does your B&B really need?

In practice, a B&B or holiday home needs five kinds of integrations: booking channels (Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and possibly Google), payments, accounting and invoicing, guest messages and, if you work with door codes, smart locks. What matters more than the number of integrations is what each one does: does it work both ways, do rates and restrictions go along, and do bookings arrive within seconds?

When you compare software, you often get shown a wall of logos. Twenty, fifty, a hundred of them. It looks impressive, but it says nothing about the question that matters to you: does that integration take work off your hands, or do you still end up doing everything twice? Below you will find, per type of integration, what it should be able to do and which questions to ask before you choose.

1. Booking channels: the integration that saves the most work

This is the core of a channel manager. A good connection with Booking.com, Airbnb or Expedia does four things:

• Availability goes to every channel automatically. When someone books through Airbnb, that room closes on Booking.com straight away.
• Rates are changed once in your PMS and appear on every channel shortly after.
• Restrictions such as minimum length of stay or closed arrival days go along.
• Bookings, modifications and cancellations land in your planning by themselves.

Mind the difference between an API connection and an iCal link. An iCal link only passes on booked dates, without rates and often hours late. That is fine for one holiday home on one channel, but not to rule out double bookings once you are listed on several sites. We explain the difference in detail in Airbnb iCal vs API connection.

Which channels? For a small B&B in the Benelux, Booking.com and Airbnb are usually enough, possibly with Expedia (which also serves Hotels.com and Vrbo) and Google. If you sell packages or short weekend breaks, also look at sites such as Weekendesk or Weekendjeweg.nl. More channels are not automatically better: every channel needs its own profile, photos and follow-up. How many make sense is covered in How many booking sites should your B&B be on?.

2. Google: free visibility next to the OTAs

Google shows accommodation prices in its search results and on Maps, with a link to your own website. For that you need a connection with Google Hotels or Google Vacation Rentals through your channel manager or booking engine. The benefit: a guest who finds you through Google can book directly with you, with no commission to a booking site.

3. Payments: collecting money without chasing bank transfers

For direct bookings you want to collect a deposit or the full amount online. That runs through a payment provider such as Stripe or Mollie, with Bancontact, cards or iDEAL. Check:

• Is a payment automatically matched to the right booking?
• Can you send a payment link for a deposit, and later for the balance?
• Can you refund from your PMS, or do you have to do it in the payment provider's dashboard?

4. Accounting and invoicing: the work your accountant sees

Every booking ends in an invoice. A connection with your accounting software saves you retyping or forwarding PDFs. In Belgium that means packages such as Yuki, Octopus, Billit or ClearFacts and, since mandatory e-invoicing between businesses, Peppol for invoices to business guests. Check that credit notes and payments go across too, not just the invoice itself.

Legal reporting belongs here as well: think of your municipality's tourist tax or the monthly statistics for Statbel. A PMS that calculates or exports those figures itself saves you an evening of work every month.

5. Guest messages: one inbox instead of five apps

Guests send questions through the Booking.com chat, through Airbnb, by email or on WhatsApp. An integration that brings all those messages into one inbox stops you from missing a question because it arrived in the wrong app. Check that your reply goes back through the same channel, so the guest reads it where they asked. More on this in answering guest messages in one place.

6. Smart locks: only if you work with codes

If you offer self check-in, a connection with your lock (for example Salto KS or TTLock) saves a lot of hassle: a separate code per booking, valid from check-in to check-out, sent to the guest automatically. If you hand over keys at a reception desk or welcome every guest in person, you do not need this one.

The questions to ask about every integration

When you compare software, ask the same five questions about every integration:

1. Two-way or one-way? Does information only go to the channel, or does something come back (bookings, messages, payments)?
2. How fast? Seconds, minutes or hours? For booking channels, that is the difference between never and occasionally having a double booking.
3. What goes across? Only availability, or also rates, restrictions, guest details and cancellations?
4. Who fixes it when it breaks? When something goes wrong between two systems, vendors like to point at each other. Ask who your helpdesk is.
5. What does it cost? Some packages charge per channel or per integration. Ask for the total price for the channels and tools you actually use.

Switching from another package? Start by listing the integrations you use today, and check for each one whether it exists in the new package and does as much. That avoids surprises after the switch.

How BedFlow PMS handles it

In BedFlow PMS, booking channels run through an API connection, with availability, rates, restrictions and bookings going both ways. On top of that there are direct integrations for payments (Stripe, Mollie, Bancontact), accounting (Yuki, Octopus, Billit, ClearFacts, Peppol), guest messages (Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and WhatsApp in one inbox) and smart locks. The full list is on the integrations page, with a guide per integration in the documentation.

Want to see whether your channels and tools are on it? Try BedFlow PMS free for 30 days, no card details needed. Or check our pricing first.