10 Key Features to Look Out for in a Channel Management Solution

26 August, 2019

In the present competitive environment that prevails in the hospitality industry, a hotelier strives to maintain an edge over his rivals in the business by addressing multiple challenges faced while managing various distribution channels. A strong Channel Management solution can be very effective in helping the business empower itself to reap substantial benefits from its investment. It is therefore extremely important to have certain industry-specific features imbibed in your channel manager.

Some of these key features are highlighted as below:

Multiple Channel Connectivity

Connecting to multiple channels is an effective strategy to achieve higher sales. A good Channel Manager should be capable of distributing rates and inventory to maximum number of channels simultaneously. These channels would include the recognized OTAs such as Goibibo, MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip, TravelGuru, Agoda, Booking.com, Expedia, ClearTrip, etc. ResAvenue's Channel Connect offers 20+ channels that enable your hotel bookings across these OTAs.


Seamless Connectivity with preferred channels

Most hoteliers have a common requirement of seamless connectivity to desired channels for which they need to have a powerful channel management solution in place that connects smoothly to numerous OTAs for bookings. ResAvenue's Channel Manager connects instantly to all your online distribution channels while making rate and inventory distribution management easy and accurate across extranets.


Faster Room Inventory Administration

Maintain a common inventory pool across OTAs to keep your room allocation updated on all platforms simultaneously even after a booking has just been done. This will help in increasing the productivity of bookings from all channels and also maintain rate parity while avoiding over bookings. ResAvenue's Channel Manager offers Room Pooling, a feature which effectively handles this functionality across various online channels and helps you to ensure rate parity.


Multiple User and Property Management

A Channel Manager can support multiple users and properties. You can add or remove sub-users for individual properties from a single account. Each sub-user can now be allotted specific rights and permissions through the Channel Manager which can be changed periodically as per the requirement. ResAvenue's Channel Manager offers a clearly defined set of controls for the hotelier through which he can assign specific permissions to his sub-users.


Two Way Connectivity with the OTAs and PMS

A hotelier can sync all his hotel information across various channels while automating its operations to save time and effort. Management of bookings and prevention of overbookings can be easily achieved through the Channel Manager as it offers 2-way connectivity with the OTAs as well as the PMS system which is available at the hotel's booking desk. ResAvenue Channel Manager establishes 2-way connectivity with the OTAs and PMS, by providing updates on Availability, Rates & Inventory as well as reservation confirmations back to PMS of the hotel in real time.


Determining Pricing on the basis of Allocation

Depending on the availability of rooms, a channel manager user should ideally be able to create rules that can automatically change prices of hotel rooms as per allocation. With this technique and targeted promotions, the hotel manager can generate higher revenue in peak seasons when the bookings are done much faster and during low sale periods by stimulating the bookings. ResAvenue Channel Manager helps you to drive sales and revenue through strategic room pricing based on the knowledge of consumer behavior and available inventory.


Channel-wise Performance Analytics

An effective Channel Manager allows the hotelier to periodically evaluate the performance of each of their online distribution channels in order to determine their productivity and revenue generation from OTA platforms. ResAvenue Channel Manager helps you to view the period-wise performance of your top 5 channels in terms of total revenue and the number of bookings for each OTA. You can view your OTA throughput metrics either from the dashboard or from the channel-wise booking report.


Channel Manager Mobile App

A Channel manager must be easily accessible on a mobile device. It is extremely easy for a hotelier to navigate, view relevant information and get tasks done using a quickly accessible mobile application. The ResAvenue Channel Manager solution is readily available in a mobile app to hoteliers who can now stay updated and perform all their tasks on-the-go and also enjoy the excellent UI and intuitive design of the application.


Room-Rate Linkages for Speedy Updates

Success in hotel business can be achieved by streamlined rate management with an appropriate Rate Linkage solution available on Channel Manager. Through this function, the hotelier can use readily available master rates to quickly create new room rates based on pricing rules for different room types. Our Channel Connect's Rate Linkage feature enables quick and efficient rate allocation for your inventory.


Round-the-clock Customer Care

An effective Channel Management solution should offer quality 24x7 customer support to hoteliers. Customer Service is a core business process that seeks to assist customers with vital information and technical support. ResAvenue has a dedicated team of experts who provide timely assistance for resolving customer queries and issues whenever required.

To run a business successfully, each hotelier needs to incorporate some key components into his business model. An effective Channel Management solution can contribute largely towards the success of the business. A hotelier can enhance the potential of his channel management solution by ensuring that most of these features are available with it. ResAvenue's Channel Connect offers all of these key features to provide a multi-faceted online distribution platform for maximizing business growth.