Switching from another (existing) Channel Manager to WebBookingPro…Is it possible? Is it stressful and what are the risks?
A few years ago, switching from one Channel Manager to another would require more “manual” work after connecting to a new Channel Manager, but today this process is almost painless and can be done within a few minutes with fully automated steps!
The procedure is quite simple, it is only necessary to follow certain steps:
- step: Prepare WebBookingPro when it is the only Channel Manager:
- Create the required room types (eg “Standard double room”, “Deluxe double room”, “Penthouse suite”). Minimum set the total number of rooms of each type – eg 10 x Standard double room, 10 x Deluxe double room, 2 x Penthouse suite Link how to do it: http://www.webbookingpro.com/old/help/4-rooms-setup/
- Set the price list for each type of room. From the Cockpit, click on “Prices” next to each room type. Link how to set up rates: http://www.webbookingpro.com/old/help/5-rates-setup/
- Set the availability – Availability – according to the actual situation at that moment – for example, for each day if you have 3 accommodation units available, enter the number 3 for that day. From the Cockpit, click on “Availability”. Link how to set availability and restrictions: http://www.webbookingpro.com/old/help/availability-restrictions/ Tip: Another way to quickly set availability and restrictions (eg minimum number of nights) for multiple days. – use the Cockpit, the blue button “SetLong Term Data” and set the target parameters for a specific room type or all rooms at the same time.
The previous 3 steps are essential for all functionalities of the WebBookingPro system – both the booking engine and the Channel Manager. The next step is to connect to your OTA channels.
Step 2: Connecting to OTA channels:
WebBookingPro has certain links directly (such as Booking.com, Agoda, Trip.com), and the other 100 through Channel Manager partners.
When connecting, for example, to direct links like Booking.com (eg steps in http://www.webbookingpro.com/old/help/adding-booking-com-connection/ ). In “Channel Manager Settings” you have a new action “Import, Check”. Once you click on it, WebBookingPro will withdraw all existing reservations on Booking.com and all future changes to existing reservations (cancellation, modification) will be done automatically either in our system or in the PMS with which you are connected to our system.
Before this possibility existed, any Channel Manager could not know anything about your previous bookings made in another Channel Manager. Upon arrival of a change in existing reservations, the Channel Manager would return to Booking.com the information that it does not know the reservation, and Booking.com would send you an email about the change and you would have to manually update that reservation (or cancel or change the date). With this option, all existing reservations will be entered into our system and everything will be done automatically.
Important: Availability – Availability does not change when importing reservations. Import will only enter reservations into the system without reducing availability. It is assumed that you had correctly entered availability in the system before just Import. Of course, after that, if there is a change or cancellation of one of these reservations, the system will automatically set the availability according to the change and forward the data to all other channels.
When, for example, you use our partner OctoRate for OTA connections that are not direct – eg Expedia, the procedure is identical. First, you connect Expedia to OctoRate and then do the Import, and again all reservations to Expedia will appear in the WebBookingPro system in one place.
This option is not supported by all OTA connections. For those that do not support this, you will need to manually process either a cancellation or a change of stay date for bookings that were made prior to joining our system. Of course, this does not apply to reservations made after connecting to our system.
Our statistics show that 99% of reservations are made on the largest OTA channels (Booking.com, Expedia, AirBnB, ..), and for these largest we can import all existing reservations. Therefore, if you have some made on channels that do not support import, it is very likely less than 1% of bookings.
How long will I be without Channel Manager?
On average, all these activities can be done within a few minutes. We can do the whole process for you – you have to give us access to your computer where you have Booking.com or Expedia registered (eg using AnyDesk, Teamviewer) – and then we will do the migration process to another Channel Manager together. The process takes about a few minutes for each channel. Our support is free and included in the subscription price.
