Channel manager (Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, Airbnb)
Send your prices, rooms free and stay rules to the booking sites within seconds, and get their bookings, changes and cancellations in by themselves.
The channel manager connects ChatBeds to Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, Airbnb and many more sites through Channex, a certified channel manager. It works both ways:
| Direction | What goes |
|---|---|
| Out: ChatBeds to the sites | For each room type and rate plan, 364 days ahead: the price, the rooms free, closed nights, minimum and maximum stay, and closed to arrival or departure. Any change here is sent within seconds: a booking, a cancellation, a price you set, RevBot or the price calendar. |
| In: the sites to ChatBeds | New bookings with the guest's name, phone and email, the price, the site's reference and commission, who collects the payment, and the card's last 4 digits. Changes and cancellations too. |
Pro plan
The channel manager is part of the Pro plan. Calendar sync (iCal) stays on every plan.
Connect
Open Distribution
Go to Distribution → Channel manager. An owner or admin clicks Connect the channel manager.
Your hotel is set up at Channex
ChatBeds makes your hotel, its room types and rate plans at Channex, and sends 364 days of prices, rooms and rules. You need no Channex account of your own.
Connect your sites
Click Connect your sites. Channex's own screens open inside ChatBeds. Choose a site (for example Booking.com), sign in or give your hotel ID there, and map each of the site's rooms and rates to yours.
Unlink the calendars first
If a room is also linked by calendar (iCal) to the same site, unlink it there once the site is connected, or bookings may arrive twice.
What the sites see
Each room type, with its own rate (Standard) and each of its rate plans. The rooms free are your rooms of that type, less those booked, blocked, held for groups or out of order. A new room type or rate plan is added at Channex by itself; map it to the site's rooms in Connect your sites.
Stay rules come from the Rate grid: closed nights, minimum and maximum stay, and closed to arrival (CTA) and closed to departure (CTD). See Rates and RevBot.
Bookings from the sites
- A new booking arrives within seconds, booked as
Booking.com(or the site's name), with the guest, the price and the site's reference. It shows on the tape chart and the managers get the usual alert, which names the site. - The booking panel shows the site, its reference, the commission, who collects the payment (the site, or you at the hotel) and the card's type and last 4 digits. The full card number is never stored in ChatBeds.
- A change on the site (dates, room, guests) changes the booking here.
- A cancellation on the site cancels the booking here, with no fee.
- No WhatsApp confirmation goes to the guest: the site has already confirmed.
Overbooking
A site can sell a room in the seconds before it hears that the room is gone. ChatBeds always takes the site's booking, then warns the managers with a critical alert if no room of that type is free. Move a guest, or ask the site to relocate.
Check it is working
The Sync log lists each send (→) and each booking read (←), with any error in red. If Channex can't be reached, ChatBeds tries again by itself, and every hour sends everything again and reads any booking it missed.
- Read bookings now reads any booking not yet in ChatBeds.
- Send everything again sends all 364 days again.
Disconnect
Disconnect stops the sending. The sites keep the last prices and rooms they had, and their bookings stop coming in, so close or disconnect your sites in Connect your sites first.
Common questions
No. Set them in ChatBeds (by hand, with seasons, RevBot or the price calendar). A price changed on the extranet is replaced by ChatBeds' next send.
Yes. Map only that plan to the site in Connect your sites.
The site sent a room that isn't mapped. Fix the mapping in Connect your sites, then click Read bookings now.
Still need help?
Guest messages and the inbox
Confirmations and reminders on WhatsApp and by email, in the guest's language, at the times you choose; guests' answers in one conversation, translated.
Channels (Airbnb, Booking.com and more)
Link each room's calendar with Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia or Google Calendar so a room sold in one place shows as taken everywhere.