Listing your property on online travel agency (OTA) channels increases visibility and revenue – but it comes at a cost. And if you’re managing OTA bookings manually, it can cost you even more.
NB: This is an article from WebRezPro
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Manually consolidating data between your property management system (PMS) and OTA channels is inefficient and prone to error. Mistakes lead to guest dissatisfaction, billing discrepancies, and conflict with OTA partners – eroding both your profits and peace of mind.
There’s a better way.
By integrating your property management system with your OTA channels, you can take full advantage of robust functionality to control and track inventory, analyze results, and ultimately drive revenue.
Three Steps to Managing OTA Bookings Profitably
Most properties work with multiple OTAs, each with a different extranet to navigate. When systems aren’t connected, hoteliers must update rates, inventory, and reservations across each platform separately, creating lots of manual work and a high risk of human error.
Instead, by connecting your third-party distribution channels to your PMS, you can centralize bookings to automate reservation management, inventory updates, and commission tracking – saving time, protecting profits, and delivering a smooth guest experience.
1. Connect your PMS to your OTA channels
Whether you list your property with one or two OTAs or several via a channel manager, connecting your PMS to your OTA partners is a must. This integration allows you to control your online inventory across all booking platforms from your PMS and ensures OTA reservations are automatically sent to your PMS.
Advantages of PMS-OTA integration:
- Real-time synchronization of rates and availability across all connected channels
- Drastically reduces costly manual errors and double bookings
- Makes managing last-minute bookings and cancellations easy
- Enables faster response to demand, maximizing revenue opportunities
- Reduces rate disparity across OTAs, protecting your OTA ranking and maintaining guest trust
2. Track OTA reservations through your PMS
To effectively manage OTA bookings and commissions, you need to understand where your revenue originates. A PMS that’s integrated with your OTA channels automatically tracks bookings coming through those channels, helping you discover your most profitable sources and refine your distribution strategy.
