Channel manager for Booking.com
1. You need an account with Booking.com.
2. Click here for general information on how the channel manager works.
3. Please be sure that you already finish setting up the rates
Capabilities
With the connection you can:
1. Export prices and availability
2. send inventory (available rooms)
3. send minimum stay
4. send maximum stay
5. send multiple rates
6. Import bookings, modifications to bookings and cancellations (by request)
Limitations
If you export inventory you will also need to export rates from Effective Tours, rates can not be set within the Booking.com extranet. Booking.com may sometimes withhold the credit card number or CCV unless you specifically request they are sent to you. Contact your Booking.com rep if this is occurring and you require this information.
Before you Connect
Prices
When the connection is activated Booking.com will remove all price and availability details on the Booking.com extranet and replace them with the data sent from Effective Tours. Therefore prices and availability of all rooms must be set up in Effective Tours before connecting.
- We can only send availability if you have set up prices which are activated for this channel.
- Booking.com needs a room price for the maximum number of guest.
- If you want to send a single price and a room price you need to ask Booking.com to activate the single price option for you.
- If you need prices for more occupancy levels talk to Booking.com about derived rates or additional rate codes (see chapter “Multiple Rates” further down).
Extras and Taxes
If required you can enter extras and fees can directly in Booking.com.
Bookings
Upcoming bookings can be imported. Booking.com will only send a summary of the booking, not the full information. The full information can still be accessed in the Booking.com extranet. New bookings made after activation will include full booking information.
Credit Cards
If you want to access credit card details through Effective Tours ask Booking.com to only accept bookings with credit card details and always send all details to Effective Tours.
Rooms and room types
If you have room types here and sell rooms individually at another channel or your own web site and want to sell them here as a “roomtype” with a quantity of more than one you can set up virtual roooms.
Sync Prices, Availability and Bookings
Setting up the connection is a 16 step process (click for instructions)
Multiple Rate Plans at Booking.com
Booking.com can support more than one price per room for example to send prices for different occupancie, minimum stays, meal options or refundable and non-refundable prices. There are two options:
1. Linked/Derived Prices
Booking.com can auto calculate different occupancies from one standard rate. This rate is either for the base or for the maximum occupancy of a specific room. The system then automatically adds or subtracts a percentage price per person when the occupancy increases or decreases.
Talk to your Booking.com rep about how to best set this up (either a base rate to add on to or a maximum occupancy rate to subtract from).
2. Multiple Rate Ids
Booking.com can set up multiple rate ids for each room, each with pre-defined booking conditions. Effective Tours can send a different price to each Booking.com rate ID.
If you do not have the appropriate rate ids you need to add them at Booking extranet
Maximum number accepted bookings
By default all available rooms are sent to activated channels.
Updates
Changes to availability will be instantly sent to the channel. Changes for settings for example minimum stays, or quantity of rooms or rates will send after you click the Update OTA button in Effective Tours.
Notes
1) Credit card details are imported and shown on the “Credit Card” tab of the booking. If not please refer to “Missing Credit Card Details” in Setup Problems above.
2) Multiple Rates – if you want to send multiple prices for a room you must have a rate id for each rate in Booking.com and a matching rate with the price and rate id setup in Effective Tours.
3) Single occupancy prices must be activated within booking.com if you are sending them to multi person room rates.
4) Deleting a rate or price in Effective Tours will not delete the price in Booking.com. If you need to close a rate at Booking.com, make the rate id unbookable at Effective Tours, for example by closing the room or removing the price and wait for it to update at Booking.com. Only once the rate has closed at Booking.com it is safe to remove it from Effective Tours.
You can close a rate at booking.com by making sure there is no price for it on the dates to close in Effective Tours. As long as the rate has at least a price for 1 day in the next year, all the other dates without prices will be closed.
If you have multiple rates at booking.com, the other rates can continue to be available by giving them prices.
Note that if there is no price on any day at all for a rate, this will not necessarily close the rate, in this case no information will be sent and whatever data is in Booking.com will remain.
You can always see the data being sent with the “Rate & Inventory Preview ” button in the rates tab.