Connect OTAs with the channel manager

#What is a channel manager?

A channel manager connects your PMS to the online travel agencies (OTAs) you sell on, such as Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb, and keeps your listings in step with Roomsy. When a room is booked anywhere (the front desk, your booking engine, or one OTA), it is taken off sale everywhere else within moments. When you change a price or restriction in Roomsy, it is pushed to every channel. OTA bookings, changes and cancellations flow straight onto your calendar.

Roomsy’s built-in channel manager is powered by Channex and connects to Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Agoda, Trip.com, Hostelworld, Vrbo and hundreds of other channels. If you already use SiteMinder, you can connect that instead (see the end of this guide).

#Before you start

• Your room types and rooms are final. Each room type becomes a room type on the channels.
• Each room type has the rate plans you want to sell on OTAs, with prices loaded for the coming months.
• Every future booking is in Roomsy, so the first sync sends the right availability.
• Your property address, country and currency are correct in General Information.

#Step 1 — Enable the channel manager

1. Open Settings → Integrations → Channex
   Under Set Up Channel Manager you see your property, location and currency, and every room type with its room count and rate plans. This is exactly what will be created on the channel manager.
2. Check the list
   Any warnings (for example, a room type with no rate plan) are shown here. Fix them in Settings first.
3. Click Enable Channel Manager
   Roomsy creates your property, room types and rate plans on the channel manager and links each one to its Roomsy counterpart. This takes a few seconds, and you see how many room types and rate plans were created.
4. Make sure Channex Integration is switched on
   Check Settings → Extensions → Channel Manager.

#Step 2 — Connect your OTA accounts

With the channel manager enabled, each OTA account (Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb…) is connected to it and its rooms and rates are mapped to yours. Open Help → Support Request in Roomsy, or email [email protected], and tell us which OTAs you sell on. We’ll walk you through it. What to expect:

• Booking.com: in the Booking.com extranet, under Account → Connectivity provider, choose Channex and accept. Then send us your Booking.com hotel ID.
• Expedia: in Expedia Partner Central, choose Channex as your connectivity provider (or ask your Expedia market manager to). Then send us your Expedia property ID.
• Airbnb: you sign in to Airbnb once to authorise the connection, then each listing is matched to a room type.
• Other channels (Agoda, Trip.com, Hostelworld, Vrbo…) follow a similar pattern with their own property ID.

#Step 3 — Run a Full Sync

Once your OTAs are connected and mapped, click Full Sync on the Channex page. It pushes availability and rates for the full sync window to every channel. The page shows when you last synced. After that, changes sync automatically whenever a booking is made or you edit rates. You only need Full Sync again after changing mappings or if a channel looks out of step.

#Options on the Channex page

#OTA bookings in Roomsy

• They appear on the calendar with the OTA as the booking source, and feed the Booking Source report.
• The OTA’s price and any tax the OTA collected arrive on the invoice. A setting in Settings → Features → Invoice & Payments hides the “OTA Withheld Tax” line from the guest’s copy.
• Card or virtual card (VCC) details can be viewed and charged through a card vault.
• Modifications and cancellations update the booking automatically and are recorded in its History.
• Turn Confirm OTA Reservations on in Settings → Features → Email to also send your own confirmation email to OTA guests.

#Using SiteMinder instead

If your property already uses SiteMinder as its channel manager, open Settings → Integrations → Siteminder, enter your SiteMinder Hotel ID, choose your region and click Connect. Then ask SiteMinder to enable Roomsy as your PMS. Other connectors (Hotel Link, Maximojo) are listed in Settings → Extensions → Channel Manager. Use only one channel manager at a time.

#Common questions