If you’re unsure of whether or not you’d like to invest in a property management software, the best place to start is gaining a thorough understanding of the benefits a software platform can offer your business. 

The most useful and necessary software tool any short-term property manager can utilize is a channel manager system. Read on to learn about the advantages of using a channel manager to help you run your short-term rental business.

1. It saves you time
   Property managers functioning without a channel management system need to manually log in to each of the booking channels on which they list their rentals in order to make adjustments to their calendars, prices, descriptions and photos as well as add new listings.With an effective channel manager, all changes made in your central dashboard will be automatically replicated across the channels of your choosing.
2. It helps you eliminate human error
   One of the main concerns of short-term property managers is double bookings. Without a channel manager to keep all of your individual calendars in sync, you run the risk of leaving a date that was reserved on one channel open on another channel. This makes it possible for more than one guest to book the same property on the same night, which would force you to cancel on one of them.Cancelations not only damage your reputation among travelers, they also are often met with consequences from the OTA, which will work to discourage hosts from doing anything that might upset or inconvenience users.A channel manager automatically updates all of your calendars to reflect bookings made on all of your channels, preventing guests on Airbnb from being able to book dates that were reserved by other guests on Booking.com
3. It enables growth
   Many property managers find themselves unable to expand their promotion to more than one or two channels simply because of the amount of work it would take to publish all of their listings on yet another channel and then maintain those listings in a professional manner.The best channel management software options will be directly integrated with all of the major booking channels, making the publication process simple and straightforward and enabling easy maintenance of all your listings on those channels.Listing your rentals on more channels means more exposure to travelers, more bookings and more revenue.

How much does a channel manager cost?

This is a tough question to answer as the price of a channel manager not only varies from software to software, but generally also changes according to the number of properties the client manages.

Also, while some platforms charge a flat yearly or monthly fee, others charge commission per booking. 

Since many property management software solutions include a channel manager, you may only be able to receive a quote for a property management system and channel manager together from many platforms. 

Reach out to property management software companies and find out how much they’d charge you after assessing your unique portfolio.