What is your budget?

A channel manager is only necessary for property management companies that promote their listings across multiple channels, which is something that should only be done if it’s beneficial to your business (which, truth be told, it generally is). Assess whether listing on multiple channels is bringing or will bring in more revenue and whether you can afford the commission charged by specific channels, as the percentage varies between OTAs. Answering these questions about budget is where you should start before using a channel manager to disperse your listings to multiple booking sites.

How many vacation rental property listings do you own / manage?

A channel manager is only necessary for property management companies that promote their listings across multiple channels, which is something that should only be done if it’s beneficial to your business (which, truth be told, it generally is). Assess whether listing on multiple channels is bringing or will bring in more revenue and whether you can afford the commission charged by specific channels, as the percentage varies between OTAs. Answering these questions about budget is where you should start before using a channel manager to disperse your listings to multiple booking sites.

How different or diverse are your listings?

A channel manager is only necessary for property management companies that promote their listings across multiple channels, which is something that should only be done if it’s beneficial to your business (which, truth be told, it generally is). Assess whether listing on multiple channels is bringing or will bring in more revenue and whether you can afford the commission charged by specific channels, as the percentage varies between OTAs. Answering these questions about budget is where you should start before using a channel manager to disperse your listings to multiple booking sites.

How do you define your target audience? What are they looking for?

Are they an audience that you can reach out to with targeted ads online or will the widespread exposure of an OTA help to promote your listings to more people? Are your listings diverse in that they offer more of an experience than just an overnight stay? If that is the case, you may want to promote them on booking channels like Airbnb, TripAdvisor and the like to bundle them with attractions and experiences nearby.

Is there such a thing as listing on too many channels?

Yes. It may cost money to have each of your listings featured on every booking channel and this may be prohibitive for your business. Further, too much exposure might be overwhelming if your business is relatively new, so keeping to one or two booking channels at the outset could be more practical for your property management company, at least until you’re ready to expand your operations.

Conversely, if you’re looking to scale and grow your vacation rental property management portfolio then it would make sense to have your listings showcased on as many booking channels as possible. That being said, there is a lot of heavy lifting that comes with having your listings distributed across multiple booking channels, but if you’re up to the challenge then you’re likely to see an increase in bookings across the board.

How many channels do you want to use?

The first step is to familiarize yourself with the diverse booking channels at your disposal.

Property Management Software

Oftentimes, channel managers are available as a tool within a property management software (PMS), but if not, combining the power of a PMS with your channel manager is the best way to successfully manage your short-term property listings.

The key benefit here is two-way communication between the two, meaning that when you update a specific reservation or listing information from your calendar, it will update in your PMS and vice versa. Save yourself the time of updating information twice and have everything sync automatically to become more efficient as a property manager.

Of course, integrating a channel manager tool with a PMS will also allow you to sync with other tools available within the PMS such as a unified inbox, task management solution and analytics to keep everything working in harmony for your listings.

Pricing Tools

Your calendar may be full of reservations, but it’s not fully optimized until you take advantage of a pricing tool. The value of being able to automate your price adjustments to continuously maximize occupancy and revenue cannot be overstated. Sophisticated pricing tools can measure demand and tweak your prices accordingly in real time, lowering rates during slower periods and boosting them when the travelers are lining up.

Online Booking Solution

Once you have all of your listings featured across the various channels, you may want to consider creating a channel of your very own, where you don’t have to share the spotlight – or the commission.

A direct booking platform will allow you to build up your brand and a loyal customer base, providing satisfied guests with a place to peruse all of your accommodations when they want to book with you again down the line. With the right channel manager and booking website builder combination, you can seamlessly sync the two so that all of the updates and info you’re pushing to other OTAs will be reflected on your direct booking channel as well.