Hotel Distribution Channel Manager

A hotel distribution channel manager is a vital tool for hotels to manage and distribute their room inventory across various online booking platforms efficiently. It synchronizes data like rates and availability, reducing overbookings and discrepancies. This system is crucial for maximizing online visibility and revenue, making it an essential component in modern hotel management.

Key Takeaways

  • Streamlines Management: A Hotel Distribution Channel Manager speeds up the management of distribution channels, allowing for central adjustments and automation of repetitive tasks.
  • Reduces Errors: It enhances accuracy in the hospitality industry, significantly reducing booking mistakes like overbooking, which can be costly in terms of time, money, and business relationships.
  • Data Accessibility: Offers strategic advantages by providing access to important data and metrics in one place, aiding in making informed decisions based on trends and patterns.
  • Improved Revenue Management: Enables dynamic pricing strategies, helping hotels to optimize room rates based on demand and market conditions.
  • Facilitates Direct Bookings: Integrates with or includes a booking engine to streamline direct booking processes, enhancing revenue management by avoiding third-party commission fees.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

For those in the hospitality industry, a key part of any revenue management strategy revolves around distribution channel management. After all, while direct bookings are usually preferable, maximizing bookings and revenue requires assistance from third-party distribution agents. In this article, you will find extensive information regarding distribution channel management in the hotel industry and the role a distribution channel manager can play.

What is Distribution Channel Management?

Within the hotel industry, a distribution channel refers to a chain of intermediaries that a hotel room or service passes through before reaching the customer. These chains can be short, such as a direct sale from the hotel to the customer, or longer, passing through wholesalers, online travel agents, retail travel agents, or information centers.

Therefore, distribution channel management is the practice of managing each distribution channel. This can involve managing your rates and booking restrictions, ensuring your hotel’s inventory is continually updated across all channels, and various additional tasks.

An effective hotel channel management strategy is imperative for maintaining the partnerships and business relationships necessary to optimize sales and maximize revenue.

What is a Hotel Distribution Channel Manager?

A hotel distribution channel manager is an online management solution, which allows you to centralize all of your different distribution channels and manage operations connected to them, all from the same place. These solutions can be cloud-based or software-based, and real-time management operations can be performed.

Through the use of a distribution channel manager, all parties involved in the distribution of hotel rooms or other hotel services can gain live access to key information, such as rates and availability.

What Are the Advantages of a Distribution Channel Manager?

Below, you find a list of some of the most significant advantages of using a distribution channel manager.

1. Faster Distribution Channel Management

One of the primary advantages of using a distribution channel manager is the ability to speed up the processes associated with managing channels. For instance, you will no longer need to log in to the system of each online travel agent or distribution partner to make adjustments, because adjustments can be made in one place.

Repetitive tasks can also be automated, saving substantial time on general administration.

2. Fewer Booking Mistakes

Another major advantage for those in the hospitality industry is the improved accuracy offered by distribution channel managers. For example, enhanced transparency and up-to-date availability can solve human error issues, such as over-booking your hotel or property.

Mistakes can often be costly, in terms of time, money, and potentially even business partnerships, so eradicating these is a key channel management priority and can be enormously beneficial.

3. Availability of Data and Key Metrics

Aside from the purely functional aspects of distribution channel managers, these solutions also offer the added bonus of providing key data and metrics in a single place. This can be of great strategic benefit, allowing hotel owners and other business leaders to identify notable trends or patterns.

From there, it becomes easier to make key strategic decisions, which are supported by evidence or data.

4. Facilitate Direct Hotel Bookings

Most distribution channel manager platforms also include a built-in booking engine, or the ability to connect with your booking engine, allowing customers to make direct bookings.

This can be of great value for revenue management purposes, because direct bookings are the most simple distribution channel and do not require the hotel or resort to pay commission fees to a third-party distributor.

5. Improve Revenue and Business Performance

Finally, using a distribution channel manager can help improve revenue and business performance in several ways. For example, the platform will enable a more dynamic approach to room rates, allowing adjustments to be made quickly, at the moment, across all channels in the system.

Additionally, distribution channel managers can make it easier to add new distribution partners and improve overall hotel visibility, potentially increasing demand, occupancy rates, and the amount that can be charged.

List of Online Travel Agents (OTAs) to Increase Your Hotel Bookings

The role of online travel agents, or OTA for short, has become more and more significant within the hotel sector, because they deliver a convenient way for customers to compare hotels and book them online. In the article “Online Travel Agents (OTAs) to Increase Your Hotel Bookings,” you will learn more about OTAs and the best platforms to turn to to grow the number of hotel bookings.

Distribution channel management is an important concept within the hotel industry; using a distribution channel manager can improve associated processes. As a result, management can be made faster and more accurate, more dynamic pricing strategies can be adopted, visibility can be enhanced, and revenue can be increased.

More Information About Hotel Management Software

Would you like to learn more about hotel management software solutions that can help you to grow your hotel business? In the following articles, you will find more information about the most important hotel management software for hotels:

More Tips to Grow Your Business

Revfine.com is a knowledge platform for the hospitality & travel industry. Professionals use our insights, strategies and actionable tips to get inspired, optimise revenue, innovate processes and improve customer experience. You can find all hotel & hospitality tips in the categories Revenue Management, Marketing & Distribution, Hotel Operations, Staffing & Career, Technology and Software.

This article is written by:

Hi, I am Martijn Barten, founder of Revfine.com. I am specialized in optimizing revenue by combining revenue management with marketing strategies. I have over 15 years of experience developing, implementing, and managing revenue management and marketing strategies and processes for individual properties and multi-properties.