Distribution
Channel Manager
A channel manager is the software that distributes a hotel’s rates and availability to every booking channel and pulls reservations back, keeping inventory synchronised so the same room is never sold twice.
Without one, a hotel updating rates across a website, several OTAs, a GDS and a wholesaler is maintaining the same numbers by hand in half a dozen places. The channel manager makes the PMS or CRS the single source of truth and pushes changes outward from it.
Its most important job is preventing oversell. When a room sells on one channel, availability has to decrement everywhere else within seconds; a slow or failed sync is how a hotel ends up walking a guest it had no room for.
Channel managers are also where rate parity problems tend to surface. A mapping error between a rate plan and a channel’s equivalent can silently publish the wrong price on one OTA while every other channel looks correct.
Venli connects to the channel manager and the PMS alongside 100+ other systems, so an agent can check what is actually published rather than what should be.
Frequently asked questions
What is a hotel channel manager?
A channel manager is the software that distributes a hotel’s rates and availability to every booking channel and pulls reservations back, keeping inventory synchronised so the same room is never sold twice. It makes the PMS or CRS the single source of truth.
How does a hotel channel manager work?
It pushes rate and availability changes outward from one system to every connected channel, and decrements availability everywhere within seconds when a room sells on any one of them. A slow or failed sync is how a hotel ends up walking a guest it had no room for.
What is channel management in the hotel industry?
Channel management is maintaining consistent rates and inventory across a website, several OTAs, a GDS and wholesalers without keeping the same numbers by hand in half a dozen places. It is also where rate parity problems tend to surface first, through mapping errors.
Related terms
- Rate Parity — Rate parity is the practice of publishing the same room rate for the same room, dates and conditions across every distribution channel — the hotel’s own site, OTAs and other partners.
- Central Reservation System — A central reservation system (CRS) is the platform that holds a hotel or group’s rates, inventory and reservations centrally, and serves them out to every booking channel from one place.
- Online Travel Agency — An online travel agency (OTA) is a website or app that sells hotel rooms and other travel on behalf of suppliers — Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda and Trip.com are the largest. Hotels pay the OTA a commission on each booking in exchange for the demand it brings.
- Property Management System — A property management system (PMS) is the core operational software of a hotel. It holds the reservations, room inventory and guest folios, and runs the front-desk workflow — check-in, room assignment, housekeeping status, billing and the night audit.
- Yield Management — Yield management is the practice of continuously adjusting room rates and availability by segment and channel to extract the most revenue from a fixed, perishable inventory of rooms.