Bookings that come in from everywhere
In a hotel, bookings rarely arrive through a single route. There is your website, the booking platforms, phone calls, emails, sometimes an agency or a corporate account. Each channel has its own screen, its own availability and its own pace.
As long as these channels are not connected, reception bridges the gap by hand: copying the booking into the room plan, closing the room on the other platforms, checking that nothing has crossed. At peak times, a booking slips in between two updates and the same room is sold twice. The guest arrives, the room is not free, and the hotel has to rehouse them with an apology.
The problem is not the team. It is a system in which information has to be re-keyed to move.
The channel manager, explained simply
A channel manager is software that connects your hotel to all its sales channels. It does two things:
- It sends your availability and rates to every platform at once, as soon as they change.
- It collects the bookings made on those platforms and brings them into one place.
When a room is booked somewhere, it closes everywhere. Nobody has to do it by hand.
Channel manager and hotel management system: who does what?
The channel manager does not run the hotel. It carries information. The core remains the hotel management system (often called a PMS): it holds the room plan, guest profiles, arrivals, departures and billing.
For centralisation to work, the two must be connected both ways:
- the hotel management system tells the channel manager what is free and at what price;
- the channel manager sends every booking back into the hotel management system, with the guest’s details.
The booking engine on your own website connects in the same way. The result: all bookings in one place, and availability up to date everywhere.
Signs it is time to centralise
- Reception copies bookings from one screen to another.
- Rooms are held back “just in case”, because nobody is sure what has really been sold.
- A double booking has already happened, or was narrowly avoided.
- Rates differ between channels without anyone intending it.
- Every evening, arrivals have to be checked against bookings to make sure everything matches.
- Training seasonal staff takes days, because each channel has its own procedure.
If two or three of these sound familiar, the main gain is time given back to reception and a risk of error that disappears.
Our solution: a hotel management system that brings it all together
What Clarendis puts in place is a hotel management system connected to your sales channels and your website. We work step by step, without changing everything overnight:
The steps
Assessment
We list your channels, room types and rates, and how reception works today.
Set-up
Rooms, rates and sales rules are defined once, in one place.
One room plan
Your website’s booking engine and your booking platforms are attached to the same room plan, as far as each platform allows.
Training on your real cases
Early arrival, room change, cancellation: the team practises on its own situations.
Support after go-live
We stay alongside the team for the first weeks to fine-tune the details.
The off-season is the right time to make this change: the team has time to learn before the busy periods return.
Putting these tools in place in your hotel
Take action
- Hotel PMS and management system
- Direct booking engine
- Our hospitality solutions
- Five digital guest services for mid-size hotels
- Premium Hospitality
To see these tools at work on a complete stay: the live presentation on 29 October
Frequently asked questions
What is a hotel channel manager?
It is software that connects the hotel to its sales channels. It publishes availability and rates on every platform and brings bookings into one place, so the same room is never sold twice.
Do you need a hotel management system as well as a channel manager?
Yes. The channel manager carries the information; the hotel management system runs the room plan, guests and billing. Connecting the two is what removes re-keying.
How can a hotel avoid double bookings?
By having a single source of availability, connected to every channel in real time. As soon as a room is sold somewhere, it closes everywhere, without reception stepping in.
Can we keep our current booking platforms?
Yes. Centralisation removes no channel: it connects them. You then decide, with full visibility, where you want to sell your rooms.
How long does implementation take?
It depends on the number of channels and how the hotel is organised. We confirm it after the assessment, with a schedule that avoids the high season.
A project to scope?
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