What is a channel manager? Meaning, how it works and when you need one

Short answer: a channel manager is software that automatically keeps your availability, rates and restrictions (such as a minimum number of nights) in sync across every channel where you sell rooms: Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, your own website and other booking sites. When a booking comes in anywhere, the channel manager closes that night everywhere else straight away and brings the booking back into a single calendar. The name says it all: you manage your sales channels from one place instead of five extranets.

That is the definition. But anyone looking up "channel manager" for the first time usually also wants to know what actually travels over the connection, what such a system does not do, and whether a small B&B or holiday home really needs one. That is what the rest of this article covers.

Where the term comes from

In hospitality, every place where you sell rooms is called a channel: Booking.com is a channel, Airbnb is a channel, your own booking engine is a channel, and so is a travel agent or a short-break site. The online booking sites together are known as OTAs (online travel agencies).

As long as you are on one channel, there is no problem: the calendar in that extranet is your calendar. From two channels on, someone has to make sure that a room sold on Airbnb is not sold again on Booking.com. That someone is you, by hand, or it is a channel manager.

What actually travels over the connection?

A channel manager sends three kinds of data to the channels and brings one kind back.

From you to the channels:

• Availability. How many rooms of a type are still free per night. If you sell individual rooms, that is a 1 or a 0 per room.
• Rates. Your price per night, per room type and per rate plan (for example flexible and non-refundable).
• Restrictions. Rules that decide when someone can book: a minimum number of nights, no arrivals on Saturday, or a night closed completely (stop-sell).

From the channels to you:

• Bookings. New bookings, but also modifications and cancellations. They land in your calendar automatically, with the guest's details.

Worth knowing: a proper channel manager works both ways and uses an official connection (an API) with each channel. That is different from an iCal link, which only passes on blocked dates, knows nothing about rates or restrictions and refreshes with a delay. Why that goes wrong in busy periods is explained in the drawbacks of iCal sync.

How it works in practice: mapping

A channel does not know your rooms by name. When you connect, you therefore record once which room in your own system matches which room or listing on each channel, and which rate belongs to which rate plan. This is called mapping.

After that, it runs by itself: change a rate or block a room in your own calendar and the change goes out to every connected channel. When a booking comes in, availability drops on all the other channels at once.

Two habits need to go. Stop changing prices in the Booking.com extranet or in Airbnb itself: the next update overwrites them with what is in your channel manager. And do not leave old iCal links next to a real connection, or you will get phantom blocks.

What a channel manager does not do

This is where most of the confusion comes from, because three kinds of software are often mentioned in the same breath.

• A channel manager is not a booking engine. It distributes your rooms to other channels; the "book now" button on your own website is a separate piece.
• A channel manager is not a PMS. Invoices, payments, tourist tax, the cleaning schedule and your guest register are not part of the channel manager. That is the job of a property management system.
• A channel manager does not choose your prices. It takes the price you set and sends it everywhere. If you want prices that move with demand, you need a pricing rule or a separate tool for that.

The difference between the three is covered in more depth in PMS, channel manager or booking engine: what is the difference?.

When do you need one?

There is a simple rule of thumb: as soon as the same room can be booked in more than one place, you need a channel manager. The risk is not in the quiet weeks but on that one Friday in July when two guests book the same room on two different sites within fifteen minutes. How to prevent that, and which settings to check, is in preventing overbookings.

Even without overbookings it saves time: no more retyping rates in five extranets, no calendar to update late in the evening, and the same price everywhere, which also helps with rate parity.

If you only sell through your own website and take bookings by email or phone, a channel manager is not a priority yet. Start with a good calendar and a booking engine.

Standalone channel manager or built into your PMS?

You can buy a channel manager separately and connect it to your administration. You then work with two systems, two logins and a link between them that you have to keep an eye on yourself. For a hotel with its own IT person that can work. For a B&B, guest rooms or a few holiday homes it is simpler when the channel manager sits inside the PMS: one calendar, one place for rates and restrictions, and bookings that land straight with the right guest, invoice and cleaning task.

How it works in BedFlow PMS

BedFlow PMS has the channel manager built in. You connect your channels under Settings → Connections: Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, HRS, Check24, Weekendesk and, through OpenGDS, partners such as Natuurhuisje and Weekendjeweg.nl, around 130 booking channels in total. The full list is in All integrations.

Changes to rates, availability and restrictions go out batched, within seconds, to every connected channel. On top of that, a full sync of your rates for the year ahead runs every morning, so a missed update never lingers. Bookings, modifications and cancellations land in your calendar automatically, guest included, and flow on from there into your invoicing and guest communication.

Curious what that costs for your number of rooms? Have a look at pricing, or try BedFlow PMS free for 30 days at bedflow.eu: connect your first channel during the trial and see your calendar stay in sync everywhere.