Why Are Channel Managers for Airbnb’s the Future of Vacation Rentals?

Human error is a fact of life, and mistakes happen constantly. However, getting a double booking, having your dates mixed up or confusing a guest’s reservation shows that you may need help managing your availability and listings. Remember, double bookings cancel out the hard work and time you’ve invested into your business, and you take the proverbial one step forward, two steps back.

There’s a simple way to fix that; most successful short-term rental properties are already doing it – with an integrated booking engine for hotels. While that will provide a smooth booking experience for prospective guests as they will be booking directly to your website, having a superior booking channel means you have a greater chance of selling more rooms across multiple channels.

Displaying your real-time availability on all your channels is extremely important. That’s why hotel channel managers synchronize your listings across all the booking sites you’re on, saving you time, preventing double bookings and earning you more money.

What Is a Channel Manager in Airbnb?

An Airbnb channel manager is a software solution that manages your listings and bookings in one place. It syncs your property’s reservation calendar across all the channels you advertise on and automatically updates your availability with each new booking. Short-term rental managers often need help with the time-consuming and repetitive tasks of managing listings, especially if they do this manually without an automated system.

This manual work creates anxiety for the vacation rental owner as they must double-check everything. Whilst being pedantic about availability and booking is okay for your vacation rental, knowing how to manage it or not listing it on multiple sites can put your investment at risk. That’s why you should invest in a complete apartment management system with many features in a central location.

What Does a Channel Manager Do?

A channel manager retrieves data from online travel agencies like Expedia, Booking.com, Tripadvisor and Airbnb through API integration (Application Programming interface). What is this?

An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programmes to communicate with each other. It’s essentially a software interface that offers services to other pieces of software to solve an existing problem.

RoomRaccoon’s channel manager then connects to more than 100 booking channels through API integration; this connectivity updates information instantly in real-time, so you don’t need to log into each separate account to check a booking manually. It is all centralized and integrated into one platform where the listings, reservations calendar and revenue management are easily accessible.

What Should I Look For in an Airbnb Channel Manager?

A channel manager for your Airbnb can prevent double bookings. This means your calendar is instantly updated with any booking across all your listed channels. A by-product of your Airbnb channel manager preventing double bookings is that it inadvertently saves you time.

Your channel manager should save you time, so you don’t have to update any listings manually, giving you time to focus on the most crucial aspect of your business – the guest.

Another critical feature to look out for in a channel manager for Airbnb is better guest communication. Your vacation rental property should have an effective email template communicating to the guests pre-arrival and post-stay.

What’s the Difference Between a Booking Channel and a Channel Manager?

A channel manager allows you to manage the availability and prices of your rooms on online travel agencies (OTAs) from a single platform. A booking channel is software that enables you to receive reservations directly from your vacation rental’s website.

Let’s explore this difference further by looking at the core value of both tools.

For example, if a vacation rental manager sells on Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb, they don’t have to browse every extranet. The channel manager updates availability and prices automatically and in real time.

The channel manager synchronizes any changes in rates and inventory immediately on all channels; the risk of overbooking is solved. This automation saves time and energy that would be otherwise dedicated to manual control. As a consequence, the risk of human error is also practically eliminated.

With a booking engine and a hotel PMS, the software has an interface and native features that are easy to use. The user can thus select the type of room, the rate and the date of the stay and complete the payment online.

The booking engine guarantees a different booking experience from the simple request form; the guest can complete the booking instantly on the site, and there will be no commissions to the OTAs. Another advantage of managing the payment from the site is having a safe and certified tool for online transactions. A safe and secure online payment system gives prospective guests peace of mind and adds to your business’s credibility.

Tips for Evaluating Vacation Rental Software?

When evaluating vacation rental management software, ensure it can improve your operations and offer optimized communication.

• Improved Operations

Check your bookings and change any settings from various platforms in one centralized place. The reservation calendar can handle whether you need to modify a guest’s stay duration or the cost of their room.

Improved operations emphasize an automated system for managing your rental property with an all-in-one bed and breakfast software. Remember, the vacation rental management software must enhance your business operations in such a way that it works for you, whether you’re a 10-room rental property or a skyscraper apartment property.

• Optimized communication

It’s normal for prospective guests to have many questions about your vacation rental property. A good tip for evaluating vacation rental software is checking for an email communication tool. An auto-response feature that can anticipate their questions and provide the answers they need, no matter the time of the day.

To give your guests a better experience, you can create a personalized email template with your tone of voice. Add their name, check-in, length of stay, date, time, and preferences. These are also automated, which you can personalize emails for your pre-stay or post-stay communications.

5 Benefits of Using a Channel Manager for Airbnb?

Improves your online exposure resulting in higher occupancy and optimized rates

Higher occupancy means increased revenue and revenue per average room (RevPAR). Manage your occupancy and payment with a robust revenue management system that lets you keep your finger on the pulse and align with the market trends.

Eliminates risky double bookings and mitigates cancellations

Say goodbye to double bookings, sell your vacation rental rooms from one central location, and automatically update your availability and occupancy from your PMS to your booking engine and OTAs.

Airbnb channel manager and automation is in the cloud

A cloud-based hotel management software ensures an added degree of safety as users access it via a web browser or an API that integrates with a desktop or mobile operating system. RoomRaccoon’s cloud-based PMS has guest-centric tools that are easy to use and navigate.

Increase overall hotel performance

Our apartment management system gives you complete control of how you sell your rooms or your different vacation rental properties. Set different pricing rules with a Yield Manager that allows you to set different prices for each rental property.

Properties that use two or more yield rules can increase their RevPAR by 14%. The Yield Manager works to get the most bookings at optimal prices with pre-set yield rules. It helps you maximize your vacation property’s earning potential.

Communicate With Your Guests No Matter Where They Booked From

Optimize your guest communication and create automated message templates using your brand’s tone of voice so each message is unique to the guest. Of course, automated messages are designed to answer guest’s questions before they arise, saving you time whilst keeping your guests happy.

What Is the Difference Between Strong and Weak Channel Connections?

A strong channel connection understands revenue objectives and works to increase your revenue. It knows market segmentation, competitors, and how to communicate effectively with your guests. On the other hand, a weak channel connection may still be automated but doesn’t create a difference in your profit margin. There’s no point in investing in a property management system that’s not fully integrated with your vacation rental property’s website.

Why choose RoomRaccoon?

The powerful cloud-based system harnesses the power of intelligent automation to boost operations, maximize profitability and enhance the guest experience. Here are more reasons why RoomRaccoon’s hostel management system is the best for your vacation rental property.

RoomRaccoon was awarded the Best Hotel Management System (HMS) by Hotel Tech Report for 2020 and 2021 and was a finalist for the award again in 2022. The fully integrated platform, preferred by over 10,000 users in Europe, Africa, and North America, is designed to promote and manage your accommodation.

• Use secure payments that enable payment requests and DPO integration
• Easy online check-in and upsell features that boost revenue
• Increased direct bookings with an integrated booking engine
• Our HMS interface is simple to work with and easy to access
• Save valuable time by automating daily procedures

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