Mapping: match channel categories and rates

Why	After a channel is connected, tell the system which channel category is which PMS category and which channel rate is which PMS rate. Without this, a booking has nowhere to land.
Who	Administrators connecting a channel or checking that everything is ready for the season.
What you’ll get	The channel’s categories and rates matched; once saved, prices and availability start flowing to the channel for two years ahead.
Limitations	Channel screens differ slightly from one another; the idea and the steps are the same.

Connecting a channel ends with mapping: first come two dialogs (picking the channel from the catalog and entering the property ID), then the pairs of categories and rates. The channel and the PMS show their lists, and you pair them up. This article covers where to open the mapping, how to match categories and rates, and what starts once you save.

What mapping is

The channel has its own categories and rates — with its own names and identifiers; so does the PMS. Until they are paired, the system cannot tell that a channel category is your category, and its rate is your rate.

Mapping links the channel’s categories and rates to the PMS categories and rates, one pair at a time. Everything downstream depends on these pairs: a booking from the channel lands in the matched category, and the channel’s price is computed from the matched PMS rate.

Mapping is done once, right after the channel is connected; after that it only needs a check — before the season, for example.

Open the mapping

Connected channels are listed as “Connected OTA” on the “Channels” tab.

1. Open “Channel Manager” in the left menu — the “Channels” tab.
2. On the card of the channel you need, press the “Mapping” icon.
3. The “Category and rate mapping” dialog opens: the header shows the channel, the date of the last configuration, and the property ID in the channel; at the bottom are the “Cancel” and “Save mapping” buttons.

The “Mapping” icon is one of five icon buttons on a channel’s card; “Edit channel” and “Delete channel” stand in the same row.

Match the categories

Categories are paired on the “Categories and occupancy” tab. On the left are the channel’s categories with their identifiers: rows like “Single Room” + “OTA ID ost-4408”, where the ID is the category’s identifier on the channel’s side. On the right, each row has a “PMS category” label and a “Select a PMS category” field.

1. For every row, open the “Select a PMS category” field and pick a category from your inventory.
2. The chosen value appears in the row right away — “DBL Double Room”, for example.
3. Picked the wrong one — clear the choice with the cross in the field and pick another category.

Go through the whole list: every category the channel sells should end up matched.

Match the rates

Rates live on the “Rates” tab, as a table: “OTA rate” | “OTA ID” | “PMS rate”.

Each channel rate shows how many categories it is linked to — “Linked categories: 4”: one channel rate can be linked to several PMS categories at once.

1. For every channel rate, pick a PMS rate in the “Select a PMS rate” field — prices for this channel will be computed from it.
2. Check the pairs: a mapped rate, like a mapped category, shows its value right in the row.

Save

The “Save mapping” button sits at the bottom of the dialog, next to “Cancel”. Once the mapping is saved, prices and availability start flowing to the channel on their own — two years ahead; some channels have a shorter horizon.

Result: the channel knows what to sell and at what prices.

The pairs can be checked at any time: the mapping dialog opens from the channel’s card just like it did during setup.

Mapping is done once: after that, price and availability changes travel to the channel on their own, without a “send” button. Sales restrictions — minimum and maximum stay, arrival and departure closures — go to the channel together with prices and availability. The prices themselves are set in rate plans — Rate plans: how they work.

A few limits worth knowing in advance:

• Descriptions are delivered to the channel; photos are not.
• Hourly bookings are never delivered to channels.
• Mapping does not bring in past bookings: whatever the channel sold before it was connected will not arrive on its own — such bookings are imported manually for a period: Past channel bookings.

If the channel directory is empty

Instead of the category list, the dialog shows a message: “The channel directory is empty. Check the channel connection and the property ID.” This happens when the property ID in the channel is entered incorrectly or the channel has not delivered its data yet.

You entered the ID when connecting the channel — in the “Property ID in the channel” field (for some channels, “Hotel ID in OTA”); the channel’s own account gives it to you. Check the ID in the channel settings and try the mapping again.

See also

• Connect Booking.com — the step before mapping: the catalog, the property ID, connecting the channel.
• Past channel bookings — how to bring over bookings the channel sold before it was connected.
• Rate plans: how they work — where the prices are set that get matched with the channel’s rates.
• Switching from another PMS: what moves over — what moves over when you switch from another system.