Sales channels: FAQ
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| Why | Get a short answer to a common question about sales channels — and see right away where to read more. |
| Who | Administrators and hotel owners who choose and set up sales channels. |
| What you’ll get | An answer to a common question about connecting, cost, synchronization, or bookings from channels. |
| Limitations | The answers are short and step-free; full instructions are linked inside the answers. |
These are the questions hotel teams ask most often about sales channels: connecting, cost, synchronization, bookings. Each answer fits in two or three sentences, with a link to the detailed article.
What is a channel manager and why does a hotel need one?
Section titled “What is a channel manager and why does a hotel need one?”It is a PMS module that connects the calendar grid to sales channels: prices and availability flow from your calendar out to the connected channels, and bookings from those channels arrive in the grid. You need it as soon as a second sales channel appears: updating each channel account by hand is slow — and that is what causes desync. For details, see the channel manager article: Channel Manager.
How much does the channel manager cost?
Section titled “How much does the channel manager cost?”There is no separate fee for the module: it is included in the same subscription as the PMS, Booking Engine, and Guest Portal. The calculator on the pricing page will give you the exact amount for your property. You can try it for 14 days with full access; money can be refunded within the first 7 days after payment, and you can cancel your subscription at any time.
How is the channel manager different from the PMS?
Section titled “How is the channel manager different from the PMS?”The PMS is the management system: the calendar grid, room inventory, guests, money. The channel manager is the distribution module inside the same system: it carries prices and availability from the PMS calendar out to channels and returns bookings to the grid. There is no separate availability counter for channels — quotas are computed from a single calendar, so your website and every channel show the same availability.
How quickly do changes reach Booking.com and Airbnb?
Section titled “How quickly do changes reach Booking.com and Airbnb?”A price or availability change flows out to the connected channels on its own — there is no separate “send” button. How quickly a channel applies the change on its side is up to the channel: there are no fixed timeframes. After mapping, the system schedules price and availability delivery two years ahead by itself — you never update channels by hand.
How do I avoid double bookings?
Section titled “How do I avoid double bookings?”Availability for all channels is computed from a single PMS calendar: every sale recalculates it everywhere, which removes the typical cause of double bookings. They cannot be ruled out entirely: if a channel sells the room at the very moment the booking is placed in the PMS, the pair goes to handling, and the conflict is resolved in the calendar grid by moving the booking to a free room of the same category. The scenarios are covered in the double bookings article: Double bookings.
What if a channel sells a room that is already gone?
Section titled “What if a channel sells a room that is already gone?”The booking still reaches the system — without an assigned room and with an overbooking flag — and waits to be handled. The conflict is resolved in the calendar grid: click the conflict, and the booking moves to a free room of the same category. How conflicts work — in the article about the calendar grid: The Planner: how it works.
Do bookings from channels arrive in the grid on their own?
Section titled “Do bookings from channels arrive in the grid on their own?”New ones do: the booking appears in the calendar grid with the guest and the channel’s booking number, and a notification pops up in the corner of the screen. The source is visible on the booking itself — the channel’s name and logo. Bookings made before the channel was connected do not arrive by themselves: they are imported manually for the period you need. Where bookings land and what to do next — in the article about the calendar grid: The Planner: how it works.
How many channels are supported? Is Booking.com among them?
Section titled “How many channels are supported? Is Booking.com among them?”More than 100 sales channels, international and regional; among them Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Agoda, Google Hotel, and dozens more. The catalog opens in the system: find a channel by name through search and connect it. If you cannot find your channel, write to us and we will check whether it is supported. The connection steps — in the channel manager article: Channel Manager.