A Quick Guide to Vacation Rental Channel Managers for Property Managers
Vacation rental property managers and short-term rental hosts have a growing number of tools at their disposal, and perhaps none is more impactful than vacation rental channel managers.
The best channel managers for vacation rentals simplify everything: they make it easier for property managers to manage listings across numerous platforms, all while boosting revenue, occupancy rate, and visibility.
What Is a Vacation Rental Channel Manager?
A channel manager is a software tool that consolidates property management responsibilities into one place. It enables you to manage all your vacation rentals listed on third-party websites from a centralized location. Channel managers automatically update listings, rates, availability, and calendars across all the channels you’re listed on in real-time, allowing you to simplify and automate many of your property management processes.
Who Uses a Channel Manager?
Channel managers actually originated in the hotel industry. Hoteliers use these systems to sell rooms on multiple sites and prevent overbookings.
Short term rentals have different distribution needs than hotels, but property managers were able to adopt the technology and tailor it to their requirements. The biggest difference between channel managers for hotels and short term rental channel managers is connectivity: vacation rental channel managers provide a direct link to the best listing sites in the industry, such as Vrbo, Booking.com, Airbnb, and Expedia. This allows property managers to reach a much broader market of travelers around the world than they could on their own.
Why is that important?
Data shows property managers who list rentals on multiple sites experience a significant uptick in business thanks to enhanced visibility. Managing a multi-channel distribution strategy manually can be quite complex and time-consuming, however, which is why channel managers for vacation rentals have become so popular.
How Channel Managers Work
Channel managers for vacation rentals bridge the gap between property management systems (such as Track Hospitality Software) and listing sites. To do that efficiently, channel managers use API (Application Programming Interface) connections that enable two-way synchronization.
Through secure API connections, channel managers can instantly and safely sync data from different sources.
For instance, when you revise your rates or make adjustments on your end, a channel manager automatically updates all your listings so you don’t have to do it manually by switching back and forth between accounts. On the other end, when a traveler makes a booking on a specific OTA, a channel manager automatically updates availability across all OTAs you’ve opted into.
What Are the Benefits of a Vacation Rental Channel Manager?
Well, first and foremost: it saves you tons of time!
The best vacation rental channel managers effectively automate the process of property management, freeing up bandwidth so you and your team can focus on delivering top-notch guest experiences.
Important as it may be, saved time isn’t the only benefit of vacation rental channel managers. They also:
- Eliminate the risk of double-bookings & overbooking
- Ensure information remains up-to-date on all listing sites
- Allow you to easily track which OTAs are producing the best ROI
- Boost bookings, occupancy, and revenue
- Maximize visibility of your listings
VacayHome Connect Channel Manager Plus
VacayHome Connect’s Channel Manager Plus is a true full-service distribution solution. With our Channel Manager Plus service, you remain the merchant of record while leveraging our industry-leading technology and team of experts.
VacayHome Connect’s Channel Manager Plus features:
- Industry-best API connections with all the top OTAs and all their affiliates (Learn more)
- Expedia’s affiliate network with 550+ airlines & 35,000+ car rental companies
- Exclusive private channels that aren’t available anywhere else
- Dedicated Implementation & Client Success Managers
- 24/7 multilingual contact center based in the U.S. (with Tier 2 support)
- Fully managed promotions and merchandising (Learn more)
- Amenities (450+), automated image tagging, and full reservation transparency
- Property clustering tools (Learn more)
- Much more!
Ready to learn more about Channel Manager Plus? Simply click the button below to set up a quick demo!
