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Jordan Hollander
CEO @ HotelTechReport
Jordan is the co-founder of Hotel Tech Report, the hotel industry's app store where millions of professionals discover tech tools to transform their businesses. He was previously on the Global Partnerships team at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Prior to his work with SPG, Jordan was Director of Business Development at MWT Hospitality and an equity analyst at Wells Capital Management. Jordan received his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management where he was a Zell Global Entrepreneurship Scholar and a Pritzker Group Venture Fellow.
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Effective management of booking channels is critical to a hotel's revenue strategy. The right channel manager software streamlines distribution, prevents overbookings, and ensures seamless connectivity with OTAs and direct booking platforms. For boutique properties or large chains, these tools enhance efficiency and profitability. This guide explores top channel manager solutions for modern hoteliers.
We surveyed 6197 hoteliers across 134 countries to create this in-depth guide and help you find the best fit channel management software for your hotel business. Inside you’ll find everything you need to know including product rankings, feature comparisons, price benchmarking, integration interoperability and more.
Hotel Channel Manager Shortlist
Here are 10 of top Hotel Channel Manager that are covered in this in-depth guide:
Choosing the right Channel Managers for your hotel depends on several variables some of which come down to personal preference but most of which come down to the characteristics of your property. Is your hotel a small property with limited budget? Or is your property a luxury resort with lots of outlets and high ADR? Below are HTR’s defined key personas based on common property characteristics that typically indicate similar product choices.
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A channel manager simplifies selling hotel rooms and managing inventory while providing key performance reports to guide marketing and sales strategies. Not only that, it offers a comprehensive toolset to optimize operations, streamline distribution, and make data-driven decisions that enhance your hotel's business performance.
Here's what a channel manager can do for your hotel business:
Increase occupancy: Hotels can list on multiple channels at once which is an opportunity to broaden their reach across business, domestic and international travelers and increase the chance of being booked.
Stay in control and save time: Rooms listings and availability are automatically updated on direct and indirect sales channels. Hotels can leverage yield management to maximize occupancy rates and reduce over bookings.
Maximize profits: Reputable channel manager technology can be integrated with a hotel’s booking engine, which promotes direct bookings. This ensures the hotel is kept at the forefront of the guest acquisition strategy and customer acquisition costs are kept under control. Rate automation and rules can maintain the pricing strategy with little effort in real-time.
Increased total reservations and revenue: With more visibility on more channels, the hotel should attract more reservations than ever before. Even a small increase in occupancy rate from the channel manager should have a very positive effect on monthly and annual revenue. Results will vary according to occupancy rate and average daily rate of the hotel.
Growth in occupancy rate: It depends on the size of the property and the amount of connected channels. An increase of 10% or more is very achievable.
Drives more profits: By setting direct pricing rules in the channel manager, hotels ensure direct bookings always offer the best value. Other approaches to improve profits include stop-selling rooms and packages, setting a minimum number of days per stay, or creating discounted rates.
Here are key features of a channel manager that enable hotels to operate and manage their financial flows more efficiently:
Kill Switch: A kill switch is a feature that allows hotels to instantly suspend sales on all or specific distribution channels in the event of an emergency, such as system errors, changes in room availability, or unforeseen circumstances
Dynamic Pricing: This enables automatic pricing based on demand, occupancy and current trends to drive competitive pricing strategies to maximize revenue
Analytics: Channel analytics allows hotels to track metrics and activity performance based on metrics such as booking volume, revenue and conversion rates for each channel. The goal is to recognize which channels bring them the most profit, how to improve strategies and allocate resources more efficiently
Third Party Integrations: API integrations allow the channel management software to connect with property management systems (PMS), central reservation systems (CRS) and other third-party platforms to synchronize real-time data such as rates, availability and bookings
iCal Integration: This feature allows channel managers to collect booking information which is particularly suitable for smaller accommodation capacities and helps prevent double bookings
Automatic Rate Management: This feature allows hotels to pre-set parameters to automatically adjust room prices. Prices may be affected by competitive pricing and market trends.
A hotel channel manager costs as little as $59 per month for small properties with 1-5 rooms, scaling up to $669 per month for properties with 751+ rooms. Popular options like SiteMinder and myallocator (Cloudbeds) start at around $75 per month. Costs may increase with added features like booking engine integration, website services or integration with OTAs like Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb, and VRBO.
Choosing the best channel management solution for your hotel involves evaluating key factors to ensure the software aligns with your business needs.
Here’s what you need to consider when choosing a channel manager for your hotel property:
It should be user-friendly and have advanced functionality like real-time inventory management, two-way integrations with online distribution channels like OTAs, GDS and metasearch sites, as well as CRS, PMS and booking engine
A good hotel channel manager must have price parity across all booking channels, provide a unified inventory model and prevent double bookings and overbooking
It should support different room types and manage cancellations and check-ins
It should have a strong support team to help with any issues or updates and offer partnerships with providers such as Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb and VRBO
It must provide revenue management tools, help increase direct bookings and offer a mobile app to update rates and check occupancy in real time. Cloudbeds, Siteminder and Rategain are some examples of hotel channel management software
The best channel manager for a hotel depends on its needs, but ultimately it should improve the guest experience, increase online sales and connect with multiple sales channels
The best channel manager for hotels depends on property size, budget, and features needed. SiteMinder and Cloudbeds are popular options due to their affordability and robust functionality. SiteMinder offers extensive integrations and analytics, while Cloudbeds excels in simplicity and ease of use for small to mid-sized properties.
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