Hotel channel management is set to turn the industry on its head this year. With new features to benefit the establishment, the digital channels and the guest, hotel distribution technology is anticipated to get better than ever before.
Traditionally, channel management solutions were very basic, and were designed as a simple way for hoteliers to maintain rates and inventory on different travel sites (OTAs). Today, however, this basic function isn't meeting the growing needs of ambitious hoteliers looking to expand their business. Hence channel management solutions are transforming into fully integrated technology which perform a number of tasks all through one easy-to-use interface.
Integrated modules
Michael McCartan, CEO, eRevMax states "over the last couple of years we have seen an increased focus on integrated applications" and improved technology offerings are expected to dominate the market this year. When hotel channel management was first introduced, it was somewhat exploratory. It succeeded in distributing rates and inventory from hotels to OTAs, but it wasn't being used to its full potential. Technology leaders are beginning to add new, exciting features into channel management systems, such as guest feedback analysis and competitor rate analysis, which makes online distribution much more well-rounded, and a tool that hotels cannot thrive without.
Direct channel connectivity
While hotels tend to prefer rate integrity, more and more OTAs are campaigning for greater rate parity. As OTAs keep a strict check on rate disparities and penalize hotels by blacklisting them, it has never been more important for hotels to maintain a good relationship with OTAs. Direct XML connectivity with OTAs enable hotels to make immediate rate updates across all travel sites in one go thereby helping hotels maintain rate parity effectively and efficiently.
Inbuilt safety net
Channel management systems today offer hotels the advantage of managing distribution through a pooled inventory concept which enables them to offer all available rooms for distribution on all channels. Once the pool value reaches a defined threshold, some channels may be closed out and only high-performing channels may be open for distribution. And once the pool value reaches zero, all distribution channels automatically close out availability thereby ensuring no risk of over booking. This inbuilt safety net allows hotels to set and forget about distribution and still know that they will have their rooms full.
2014 is expected to be an exciting year in terms of hotel distribution with new technologies, alternative platforms and rise of meta-search engines gaining ground.
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