What’s the difference between booking engine and channel manager?
We often hear o booking engine and channel manager together, but what is the difference? The channel manager and the booking engine are fundamental tools in the online distribution strategy. Yet, they are two very different software, even complementary. It is thus necessary to understand well the differences and the functionalities to define a correct sales strategy.
Channel Manager
The channel manager allows you to manage the availability and prices of your rooms on online channels (OTAs) from a single platform. For example, if a hotel or property manager sells on Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb, they no longer have to browse every extranet. With the channel manager, the updating of availability and prices is automatic and in real time. The channel manager synchronizes any changes in rates and inventory in real time on all channels.
This means that the risk of overbooking is drastically reduced. Furthermore, the software allows a great saving of time and energy that were before dedicated to manual control. As a consequence, the risk of human error is also practically eliminated.
For these reasons it is an essential program for any accommodation facility. Whether it’s a hotel, a b&b, a property manager or a hostel.
Booking Engine
On the other hand, the booking engine is the software that allows you to receive reservations directly from the website of a property. The software has an interface developed to integrate with the graphics of the website. The user can thus select the type of room, the rate and the date of the stay and complete the payment.
As you can understand, the booking engine guarantees a very different shopping experience from that of the simple request form. In this case, the traveler can complete the booking instantly on the site and there will be no commissions to the OTAs. Obviously, having to manage the payment from the site means having a safe and certified tool for managing online transactions.
How do booking engine and channel manager interface?
We have seen that the channel manager integrates with the different OTAs to be able to manage them simultaneously from a single platform. On the other hand, with the booking engine the traveler can book directly from the website. This means that the site of the property becomes in effect an online sales channel. Therefore, the booking engine must integrate with the channel manager just like the portals on which a property sells its rooms.
To conclude, channel manager and booking engine are two fundamental tools for every kind of property. Each has its own features, complementary to the other. The fundamental thing is that the two systems must be integrated with each other. This is essential to allow automated management of reservations.
If you are looking for an integrated channel manager and booking engine, contact RoomCloud at sales.roomcloud@tecnes.com
