Best Hotel Channel Management System – How to Build Your Own  

In today’s digital technology age, applying technology to production and business has become popular and indispensable for many industries. And the hotel business is no exception. Many hotels, resorts, and homestays have applied the hotel channel management system to optimize operating processes. If you are a hotelier, you may consider using the system to manage reservations, and inventory available rooms on all booking channels simultaneously to avoid double bookings.  

So, what is the hotel channel management software? How beneficial is the software to businesses operating hotels, resorts, and homestays? How does the software work? Which channel management software for hotels can be used? Let Adamo Software answer these questions and provide you with all information related to hotel management software.  

I. What is a Hotel Channel Management System 

A hotel channel management system is utility software for hotel room management on online booking channels, linking hotels and online travel agents (OTA) channels. Some featured channels include Booking.com, Agoda, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, etc. The software helps control hotel rooms’ availability and prices across these online distributors. Not only does it help maximize sales and enhance business performance for hotels, resorts, and homestays, hotel channel management system also helps control room availability and avoid overbooking status when selling rooms on multiple channels or solve difficulties in room arrangement and management.  

Each work item such as updating room prices, confirming room information, or preparing income and expenditure reports takes a lot of time and effort and is prone to errors. With the hotel channel management software, these tasks become easier, as all activities in the hotel are strictly controlled, and unexpected risks can be greatly reduced. More detailed information on the benefits of the software will be discussed in the following parts of the post. So, let’s keep reading. 

II. How can a Hotel Channel Management Software Help Your Business? 

A hotel channel management software goes beyond reservations. Not only does it make it quicker and easier to sell your rooms and optimize operations but it also provides key performance reports on booking trends and occupancy rates. These insights can be used to drive sales and marketing strategies, target the right customers, and maximize revenues for your hotels, resorts, or homestays. Let’s find more detailed information on how the software can help your business.  

1. Widely promoting hotel brands 

Thanks to the hotel channel management system, hotels can connect to online travel channels more easily. This creates flavor conditions for hotels to build relationships with potential customers and increase hotel recognition simultaneously. Below are some ways that the system can help with hotel brand recognition. 

• Promoting online presence 

With the system, hotels, resorts, and homestays can manage all online channels that have their presence, thereby continuously updating information and descriptions to boost rankings on those online channels. In addition, by ensuring accurate room availability, hotels can increase their credibility across online channels.  

• Guest reviews and ratings 

Guests review and ratings play an important role on online channels, demonstrating the reliability and service level of the hotels, resorts, and homestays. The hotel channel management system helps to monitor and respond to guests’ feedback across multiple channels from a single dashboard.  

• Enhancing guest experience 

Thanks to the data collected from the system, hotels, resorts, and homestays can offer personalized experiences and recommendations. This contributes to enhancing guest satisfaction and brand loyalty. 

2. Increasing direct bookings 

Many travelers may want to find more information about the hotels, resorts, and homestays when they seek accommodation and find the names of the hotels, resorts, and homestays on the OTA channels. They will often visit your website for their desired information. The channel manager will enable them to connect to the booking engine on the hotel’s main website. Customers can book directly here. Thus, hotels, resorts, and homestays can manage revenue better with a stable number of rooms booked without having to pay commission fees to third parties. 

3. Managing room rates easily 

With hotel channel management, accommodation facilities can update information on online channels continuously and instantly to distribution channels. This allows them to adjust or offer special promotions flexibly. The system will contribute to improving hotel revenue and profits, bringing in the highest quality guests. Here are some ways the systems can help.  

• Real-time rate updates 

Accommodation facilities can ensure that any changes to room rates are updated in real time across all distribution channels thanks to the software. They can adjust their room rates dynamically based on occupancy, demand, and market trends. 

• Flexible rate plans 

The hotel channel management software allows hoteliers to customize their room rate plans,  such as non-refundable rates, early bird discounts, or last-minute deals, and publish the rates on different channels. Besides, they can implement seasonal pricing strategies to maximize revenues during the high season and attract bookings during the low season.  

4. Synchronizing room information and prices 

The hotel channel management software helps automatically synchronize information about room availability, prices, and booking conditions across different online sales channels. This ensures accuracy and avoids discrepancies in room prices across sales channels. With a unified dashboard, hoteliers can manage all their distribution channels, room information, and room rates in a single platform.  

5. Information safety and security 

Hotels, resorts, and homestays can use the hotel channel management system to ensure the safety and security of information related to reservations and prices, prevent the risk of information loss, and maintain the hotel’s reputation. All information stored within the system is encrypted; therefore, unauthorized access can be prevented.  

Overall, the hotel channel management system is an effective tool that helps hotels, resorts, and homestays increase efficiency, optimize revenue, and improve overall operational effectiveness. Supposing you are operating in the hotel management, consider using the system. Keep reading for more information on the benefits, the way the system works, and reference systems.  

Also read: Complete Guide to Channel Management Software for Hotel Managers 

III. Top Benefits of a Hotel Channel Management System 

As mentioned, the hotel channel management system is essential for managing hotel sales and optimizing the customer booking experience. Below are the top benefits of this system. 

1. Saving time for hoteliers 

The first and most easily seen value of the hotel channel management system is that it can speed up and save time on channel management. Through the system, hotels can directly adjust information about room prices, number of rooms, promotions, etc., without having to log into each system or contact individual travel agents. All activities in the system are automated, saving time significantly. In addition, with real-time updates on the rates, inventory, and booking details, the software also helps limit manual information updates, minimizing errors and duplicate bookings. Besides, thanks to the software, the hotel reservation team can save time in calculating and quoting room rates for both direct and online customers. This work is no longer too difficult with the consistent pricing across all channels.  

2. Limiting human errors 

Another advantage of the hotel channel management system is limiting the possibility of errors caused by manual management of items such as price and number of rooms. The mistakes caused by manual human activities affect money, time, and even relationships with partners. Through the channel, those mistakes can be eliminated. With the system, users can receive automated alerts and notifications when there are any discrepancies or inconsistencies in room rates or availability. With automatic reporting and analysis based on accurate and real-time data, the system contributes to reducing the risk of errors in manual reporting. 

3. Improving revenue management 

Improving revenue management is also one of the key benefits of the hotel channel management system. The hotel’s revenue can be optimized through flexible room rate plans based on real-time demand, market conditions, and current and forecasted occupancy levels. The system uses sophisticated algorithms and data analytics to identify the best rates depending on each season, ensuring that prices are at the optimal point. 

With the system, hoteliers can access detailed reports on the performance of different distribution channels, thereby identifying which channels bring the highest profitability and focusing more on these channels. In addition to the current revenue, the system also forecasts the number of bookings in the future. From that, hoteliers can optimize their revenue management strategies. 

4. Improving marketing and promotion 

Besides revenue and inventory management, the hotel channel management system also helps hoteliers improve their marketing and promotion strategies. Thanks to exceptional marketing strategies, hotels, resorts, and homestays can significantly increase their visibility, leading to higher booking rates, and greater overall success. With the data on customers’ insights stored in the system, hoteliers can have different marketing strategies and campaigns targeted to distinctive customers. Based on the customers’ past behavior and preferences, hoteliers can send them personalized offers and promotions, increasing the hotels’ rebooking rates.  

By connecting to a series of online booking channels and monitoring and optimizing images, videos, and information on these channels, hotels, resorts, and homestays can increase their visibility and brand name. In addition, the system also allows users to access real-time analytics and performance reports so that they can track their marketing campaigns’ effectiveness. Thanks to that, they can choose which campaigns to keep and push to optimize results. Not only that, the system is connected to social media sites, creating conditions for hotels to advertise and reach more audiences. They can also use the hotel channel management system to create and manage email marketing campaigns.  

In general, a hotel channel management system is an effective tool for hotels, resorts, and homestays to increase efficiency, improve revenue management, enhance guest experiences, and significant cost savings. So, how does the system work? Let’s continue reading! 

IV. How does Hotel Channel Management Software Work? 

The hotel channel management software can act as a standalone system connecting sales distribution channels or can integrate with PMS hotel management applications to fully automate operations. Let’s see how the system works in each condition.  

1. Operating independently  

In case the system works independently, hoteliers will have to monitor the system regularly and manually update reservations from guests into the property management system (if any) or the Excel room fund management file. All information about room rates and room funds for channels will be automatically updated and synchronized to all distribution channels. When a guest books a room on an OTA channel, the system will update the remaining room funds for the OTA channels and send a notification to the hotel.  

2. Integrated operation with the property management system (PMS) 

The hotel channel manager system can integrate with the PMS in one way or two ways. Let’s find out detailed information about each way. 

• One-way integration 

Similar to independently operating, room rates and room fund information are updated directly to the channel manager system. The system will automatically synchronize for all distribution channels. The difference is that guest bookings will be automatically transferred by the channel management system to the hotel’s PMS. Hoteliers just need to check the information and arrange rooms for guests. 

• Two-way integration 

Two-way integration between the channel management and the hotel PMS management system means that room fund information, number of available rooms, and room rates will be updated based on information from the PMS in real-time. The information is sent from the channel management system to PMS and updated back to the channel management system and you do not need to intervene anything. This will save operating time for the hoteliers.  

Thanks to the integration, hoteliers will have a comprehensive, synchronized view of the hotel’s business situation, a deeper analysis of the business situation through reports, revenue management, business performance at each time, etc. Thereby, hoteliers can manage the system clearly, quickly and flexibly.  

V. Best Hotel Channel Management Software 

As mentioned, applying the hotel channel management system helps hotels, resorts, and homestays maximize room occupancy and reduce administration time. Below are some best hotel channel management software you can refer to. 

1. SiteMinder 

SiteMinder is a powerful hotel channel management system that is highly rated by its users. Developed by hoteliers for hoteliers, the system has recorded impressive results like increasing booking by up to 40% and enhancing revenues. Below are some outstanding features of this software. 

• Connecting to more than 450 distribution channels, including the GDS 

• Avoiding double bookings with instant updates 

• Integrating distribution, reservations, and payments in one platform 

• Providing pricing and channel insights 

• Implementing automated seasonal pricing strategies to adjust rates 

• Easily updating room rates  

• Integrating with an automated and secure payment system 

• 2-way PMS integration 

Thanks to these features, many hotels, resorts, and homestays choose SiteMinder to enhance their reach to customers through online channels. Whether you have a hotel chain or a small guest house, consider using SiteMinder. 

2. D-EDGE

D-EDGE is also a trustworthy hotel channel management system. It has become the management solution of more than 20,000 hotels in more than 100 countries and territories around the world. The solutions are presented in six groups below. 

• Central Reservation System (booking engine, channel management, GDS, Central Inventory, payment automation) 

• Data Intelligence (price recommendation, price monitoring, online reputation, performance analysis) 

• Connectivity Hub (connection to more than 500 third-party solutions: PMS, RMS, CRM, OTA, etc.) 

• Digital Media (display advertising, search marketing) 

• Website Creation (web design and development, content creation, production) 

• Guest Management (guest data management, strategies focusing on customers, etc.) 

By using D-EDGE, hoteliers can maximize their occupancy, control rate strategy, and avoid overbooking. When there is a booking, your availability is automatically and instantly updated across all connected channels. Thus, hoteliers do not need to update information manually and avoid double bookings. 

3. Cubilis

If you are looking for a channel management system that fits small and medium-sized hotels, Cubilis can be your ideal choice. The system’s real-time updates and 2-way connections with leading OTAs help with efficient online distribution, preventing overbooking and limiting price discrepancies. With the system, you can access more than 200 online booking channels or OTAs, such as Booking.com, Expedia, Smartbox, Agoda, etc. Here are some benefits of the Cubilis system.  

• Boosting bookings and visibility 

• Managing room rates seamlessly across all connected platforms 

• Real-time updates, real results 

• Creating more direct bookings and profit 

• Securing online payment 

• Providing valuable insights with detailed reports 

Cubilis’s hotel channel management allows the hotels, resorts, and homestays to integrate with the PMS. All the data related to prices, restrictions, etc., will be automatically transferred to the hotels, resorts, and homestays’ PMS choice. Mews, Bookingplanner, Protel, Fidelio, VIPS, etc., are some available PMS applications. 

4. Cloudbeds

Channel Manager Cloudbeds mainly focuses on hotel booking management and distribution. This hotel channel management is closely linked with PMS Cloudbeds and ensures that bookings and room rates are synchronized across all platforms. This tool always updates prices in real-time, thus ensuring an effective room pricing strategy. Below are more details about the system’s advantages.  

• Maintaining continuous synchronization 

With this system, hoteliers are guaranteed to keep up-to-date data on availability and rates. The Cloudbeds Channel Manager automatically updates all bookings from both OTAs and the hotels, resorts, and homestays’ websites, ensuring real-time accuracy.  

• Changing room rates easily with one click 

Cloudbeds software allows you to manage both pricing and distribution from a single platform. This not only helps to save your time but also ensures you can stay competitive and provide exceptional guest experiences.  

• Avoiding overbookings 

With Cloudbeds, you will not have to be worried about overbookings. The system ensures your inventory is always up-to-date and reflects real-time availability.

5. RateTiger

RateTiger is a hotel channel management system that is loved and trusted by hoteliers around the world. The system enables hoteliers to control their real-time room rates and availability in just one platform. Besides, there are many other advantages of this software, including secure online distribution ensuring all data are safe and bookings flow in real-time, boosting bookings, smart and easy to use, flexible and scalable solutions fitting the accommodations’ needs, and freeing up your time, maximizing revenue. 

Thanks to the software’s automated process, the chances of human errors while updating rate, availability, and reservation will be decreased. In addition, the system equips you with the overall performance and the status of all your connected channels of your hotel. Moreover, RateTiger also leverages the power of social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to connect your hotel with potential guests. Let’s showcase your hotel’s property and encourage guests to book directly on your website! 

VI. How does Adamo Help You Build Your Custom Hotel Channel Management System? 

As a leading software development company in Vietnam, we have supported many large and small businesses operating in many different fields. The travel and hospitality industry is one of them. If you are a hotelier looking for a hotel channel management system to manage your hotel’s room rates, room availability, etc., Adamo Software can help you with this.  

Through the channel manager software that Adamo builds, you can monitor your sales channels, including corporate sales teams, online travel agents, and third-party travel agencies. From that, you can gain a clearer understanding of your revenue sources, creating flavor conditions for effective marketing campaigns. Let’s find out how we can help you build your custom hotel channel management system.  

• Conducting thorough assessments of your hotel’s specific requirements, challenges, and goals 

• Designing the custom system tailored to your specific needs, including competitive pricing, automated rate updates, multichannel distribution, etc. 

• Integrating with your current systems, such as PMS, customer relationship management, revenue management, etc.  

• Implementing real-time data synchronization 

• Developing a user-friendly interface 

• Providing comprehensive training and ongoing support for your team 

• Incorporating pricing engines that can adjust room rates based on real-time demand, market conditions, and competitor pricing 

• Developing tools for creating personalized offers 

• Implementing advanced data encryption techniques to protect your customers’ information 

Overall, Adamo Software helps you build a custom hotel channel management system that meets your needs. With our expertise, we are confident in providing you with the best services bringing the best results, optimizing your hotel’s operations, and enhancing your revenues and customer satisfaction.  

In conclusion, a hotel channel management system is an indispensable tool for hotels, resorts, and homestays to have their operations, revenues, and profits boosted. The system helps the accommodation facilities promote the hotel brand, increase direct bookings, manage room rates, synchronize data, and ensure data safety. Investing in a hotel channel management system is a strategic decision that can drive long-term success and growth for any hotel business. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s research and choose a suitable software or software-making unit to be able to build your software.