As a rental owner, it can be tricky to manage your availability across various calendars, especially if your property is listed on multiple holiday rental websites. In order to maximize your profitability, you might find that you benefit from using a channel manager. But what do they do? And how effective are they? We take a look at the key features of this popular property software.
What is a channel manager?
Very simply, a channel manager is a piece of software that allows rental owners to control bookings from different sites, all in one place. Calendars from online portals such as Airbnb, Expedia, and Booking.com can be synchronised into one platform, giving the owner to keep a clear overview of their property’s occupancy.
The main purpose of a channel manager is to save time, but it also avoids mistakes such as overbooking or duplicate reservations.
What other functionality does a channel manager provide?
A channel manager makes particular sense if you are the owner of more than one property, especially if your accommodation is advertised on numerous holiday rentals websites. The channel manager allows you to synchronise the availability of all of your properties from one single piece of software, freeing up more of your time to promote other aspects of your business.
What protection does a channel manager provide?
Whilst the features of a channel manager will certainly save time, their main purpose is to avoid overbookings, any rental owners worst nightmare. More than just an embarrassing inconvenience, many of the most popular booking websites charge owners who have double booked their properties, so channel managers are essential in avoiding costly compensation claims.
Sounds great, anything else I should know?
In addition to organising your calendars, avoiding incidences of overbooking, and generally removing the stress from the management of property rentals, many channel managers allow you to integrate payments for your bookings through their system. It is possible to securely link your payment gateway to the channel manager and receive payment for the accommodation straight to your bank account, further simplifying the process of renting your property. And if that wasn’t enough, channel managers are capable of creating and storing databases, generating invoices, and sending automated emails to your clients.
With so many options on the market, you need to be sure that the rental property software you choose suits your exact needs. Which is where 365villas steps in. Let us do the hard work for you, and remove the stress from letting your holiday accommodation with the holiday rental industry’s most complete and easy to use software.