Channel Managers & booking snafus

undersea · Aug 24, 2015

Double booking type problems (and b . com) were just bandied about on a separate thread, but I am trying to get my arms around how reliable/accurate/useful channel managers are working with Rezkey and the OTAs.
This is concerning, as I do not have the load of repeats as a wannabe new innkeeper. I was hoping that the channel manager could handle this kind of stuff. And I definitely intend to rely heavily on book***.com as one source of guests.
For those who have the Rezkey <--> channel manager <--> OTAs (INCLUDING book . com), are you seeing this type of problem regularly? Personally, I am not really a fan of sending people somewhere else and going through all this pain. If there is an empty room great, but I would prefer to minimize this as close to zero as possible.

TheBeachHouse · Aug 24, 2015

This year we joined Siteminder. It coordinates all the on line sites with ours (Webreserve). It is awesome! We also are listed on Ex ped ia for the first time. Getting a lot of book ings from them.
We are at 100% capacity for the month of August. DH is tired but happy because his business is doing well.
I believe in on line book ing sites. They fill the place up.

Joey Camb · Aug 24, 2015

depends on the set up - we use a UK based company and touch wood very few problems as it checks what I have in and updates my channels every 4 minutes - ie booking.com opens something and it is slammed shut again - could in theory if a booker came through in that 4 mins stuff me up.

Copperhead · Aug 24, 2015

Butting into this tread even though I don't use a channel mgr.

Hickups can happen no matter what system you use to work with. They do not happen often but when they do it can create a major headache like the one on the other thread. It is sorta like our bad pita stories, they don't happen often but when they do it creates havoc in some fashion.
Your best plan is to always do a manual check. I do not list all my rooms with any OTA and once I am down to only 1 room I will remove it from the OTA by closing the room out in the system.

I have had such a hickup with Ex ped ia. My end showed it as closed, no avail. but someone was still able to book. Ex ped ia could not even figure out how that happened. Luckily it was for a future trip so it was an easy fix and 'sorry' via Ex ped ia and by us.

I also do not allow same day bookings through the OTAs which limits the major panic. I am small and can have a watchful eye most the time.

Murphy's law though, if there is a hickup, it will happen during peak season or event!

undersea · Aug 24, 2015

Copperhead said:
Butting into this tread even though I don't use a channel mgr.

Hickups can happen no matter what system you use to work with. They do not happen often but when they do it can create a major headache like the one on the other thread. It is sorta like our bad pita stories, they don't happen often but when they do it creates havoc in some fashion.
Your best plan is to always do a manual check. I do not list all my rooms with any OTA and once I am down to only 1 room I will remove it from the OTA by closing the room out in the system.

I have had such a hickup with Ex ped ia. My end showed it as closed, no avail. but someone was still able to book. Ex ped ia could not even figure out how that happened. Luckily it was for a future trip so it was an easy fix and 'sorry' via Ex ped ia and by us.

I also do not allow same day bookings through the OTAs which limits the major panic. I am small and can have a watchful eye most the time.

Murphy's law though, if there is a hickup, it will happen during peak season or event!.

The only Murphy's law I remember (from a list some 20 years ago), is that a $400 picture tube will blow to protect a 25 cent fuse

2cat_lady · Aug 24, 2015

Other than B**king opening a reserved room somehow, my channel manager does an amazing job (MyAllocator w/ ResKey) but you still have to be vigilant. Luckily, DH has made it his favourite game to play--who's reserving, who's looking and from where, looks at the reviews, etc.
Once I noticed an open room on Expedia. It was reserved on my end, on my channel manager and even Expedia's availability grid. I called customer service and they couldn't figure it out either. First off, they said they would take responsibility if I became double booked but then they managed to reboot my data somehow and then all was good again.

Silverspoon · Aug 24, 2015

Copperhead said:
Butting into this tread even though I don't use a channel mgr.

Hickups can happen no matter what system you use to work with. They do not happen often but when they do it can create a major headache like the one on the other thread. It is sorta like our bad pita stories, they don't happen often but when they do it creates havoc in some fashion.
Your best plan is to always do a manual check. I do not list all my rooms with any OTA and once I am down to only 1 room I will remove it from the OTA by closing the room out in the system.

I have had such a hickup with Ex ped ia. My end showed it as closed, no avail. but someone was still able to book. Ex ped ia could not even figure out how that happened. Luckily it was for a future trip so it was an easy fix and 'sorry' via Ex ped ia and by us.

I also do not allow same day bookings through the OTAs which limits the major panic. I am small and can have a watchful eye most the time.

Murphy's law though, if there is a hickup, it will happen during peak season or event!.

Oh for sure it happens...we have been on the guest end of such a mistake, in London at 8:30 at night after a day and half flight snafu that left us with a confirmed reservation from Expedia at a hotel with no vacancies. It was not a pretty sight and as a result we will never use Expedia again.
I suspect that nonexistent rooms are booked more often than most think.

Copperhead · Aug 25, 2015

Silverspoon said:
Copperhead said:

Butting into this tread even though I don't use a channel mgr.

Hickups can happen no matter what system you use to work with. They do not happen often but when they do it can create a major headache like the one on the other thread. It is sorta like our bad pita stories, they don't happen often but when they do it creates havoc in some fashion.
Your best plan is to always do a manual check. I do not list all my rooms with any OTA and once I am down to only 1 room I will remove it from the OTA by closing the room out in the system.

I have had such a hickup with Ex ped ia. My end showed it as closed, no avail. but someone was still able to book. Ex ped ia could not even figure out how that happened. Luckily it was for a future trip so it was an easy fix and 'sorry' via Ex ped ia and by us.

I also do not allow same day bookings through the OTAs which limits the major panic. I am small and can have a watchful eye most the time.

Murphy's law though, if there is a hickup, it will happen during peak season or event!.

Click to expand...

Oh for sure it happens...we have been on the guest end of such a mistake, in London at 8:30 at night after a day and half flight snafu that left us with a confirmed reservation from Expedia at a hotel with no vacancies. It was not a pretty sight and as a result we will never use Expedia again.
I suspect that nonexistent rooms are booked more often than most think.
.

Silver, that reminded me of the time it happened to us in Seattle after a late night flight. Got to the hotel, Ex ped ia confirmation in hand and they didn't have our reservation. Luckily they did have rooms available and after about 45 minutes they finally just gave us the room and said the day MGR would work it out.

I recall that after our 2 week trip, I came home to an email from the hotel asking us if our CC had been charged via Ex ped ia. So for some reason Ex ped ia was not associating the confirmation number with our reservation. In the end the hotel was paid via Ex ped ia.

We have used them since (when hubby is the planner) and no other problems but I prefer booking directly with the hotel.

Anon Inn · Sep 1, 2015

TheBeachHouse said:
This year we joined Siteminder. It coordinates all the on line sites with ours (Webreserve). It is awesome! We also are listed on Ex ped ia for the first time. Getting a lot of book ings from them.
We are at 100% capacity for the month of August. DH is tired but happy because his business is doing well.
I believe in on line book ing sites. They fill the place up..

How many rooms do you have and how many on exp?

TheBeachHouse · Sep 2, 2015

Anon Inn said:
TheBeachHouse said:

This year we joined Siteminder. It coordinates all the on line sites with ours (Webreserve). It is awesome! We also are listed on Ex ped ia for the first time. Getting a lot of book ings from them.
We are at 100% capacity for the month of August. DH is tired but happy because his business is doing well.
I believe in on line book ing sites. They fill the place up..

Click to expand...

How many rooms do you have and how many on exp?
.

Anon Inn said:
How many rooms do you have and how many on exp?

we have 6 rooms and all are on Exp. We use site minder dot com to make sure we don't overbook. it has proven VERY useful and reliable.

Generic · Sep 2, 2015

TheBeachHouse said:
Anon Inn said:

TheBeachHouse said:

This year we joined Siteminder. It coordinates all the on line sites with ours (Webreserve). It is awesome! We also are listed on Ex ped ia for the first time. Getting a lot of book ings from them.
We are at 100% capacity for the month of August. DH is tired but happy because his business is doing well.
I believe in on line book ing sites. They fill the place up..

Click to expand...

How many rooms do you have and how many on exp?
.

Click to expand...

Anon Inn said:

How many rooms do you have and how many on exp?

Click to expand...

we have 6 rooms and all are on Exp. We use site minder dot com to make sure we don't overbook. it has proven VERY useful and reliable.
.

We use My Allocator to connect with Reskey

undersea · Sep 2, 2015

Charlie said:
TheBeachHouse said:

Anon Inn said:

TheBeachHouse said:

This year we joined Siteminder. It coordinates all the on line sites with ours (Webreserve). It is awesome! We also are listed on Ex ped ia for the first time. Getting a lot of book ings from them.
We are at 100% capacity for the month of August. DH is tired but happy because his business is doing well.
I believe in on line book ing sites. They fill the place up..

Click to expand...

How many rooms do you have and how many on exp?
.

Click to expand...

Anon Inn said:

How many rooms do you have and how many on exp?

Click to expand...

we have 6 rooms and all are on Exp. We use site minder dot com to make sure we don't overbook. it has proven VERY useful and reliable.
.

Click to expand...

We use My Allocator to connect with Reskey
.

I was on a hostel site, and they mentioned that MyAllocator was recently bought out. Price rise in store, especially for new clients...

Channel Managers & booking snafus

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