** Channel manager definition: what are we talking about? **
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Hello and welcome to the YouTube channel I display Complet, the channel which helps seasonal rental companies, professional sub-renters, and seasonal rental concierge services to increase their turnover. I do a Live every day from Sunday to Thursday. So, don't hesitate to subscribe to the YouTube channel I'm displaying Complet, and to activate the bell so as not to miss any of these Lives, which will also allow you to be with me during the live, to participate, and to ask me the questions that you might ask yourself while reading this live. If you are with me, if you arrive, do not hesitate to say hello when you arrive. It's always a pleasure. That's the point of being together.
Today, we are talking about the definition of a channel manager. This is a question that will interest people who are just starting out, or people who are not just starting out, but who do not yet have this kind of tool for working in seasonal rentals. So, I'm going to help you know a little bit about what it is, what it's for, and how can it allow you to access new dimensions in your seasonal rental business?
– Hello to you. Welcome Jordan, Alice. I believe you are a couple. That's why your profile is Jordan and Alice. Welcome, Jordan and Alice.
I'm going to start with different elements. First, I'll start with the definition itself. What is the definition itself of a channel manager? And then, I'm going to share what the interests and shortcomings of a channel manager are so that you have everything you need to know if it's something that's for you, that will help you in your business.
Already, the first thing you need to know is that it is an online digital tool. This is a tool that you will subscribe to. Today, it must be said, you have a plethora of offers on this subject. There is an absolutely colossal range of choices on the channel manager. And the primary objective of a channel manager is to centralize the availability of your seasonal rental. Why centralize availability? Because when we start marketing on different sites, already, directly, but also on Airbnb, on Booking, on Abritel and other sites, we can find ourselves in a situation where we have, at a given moment, reservations which will be concomitant, at the same time, extremely close, on dates which are the same. So, the risk you have is that for the same night, you end up with two reservations, which is, we agree, totally impossible, unless you have logic on Booking, but for Right now, we're not there yet. So, it's still quite difficult to manage having two reservations. Basically, what does that entail? You must call to cancel one of the two reservations. It's time consuming, and it's not very pleasant. So, the channel manager really aims to be able, completely instantaneously, to take information. — on Airbnb, for example, you have just made a reservation — and sent to all other sites that: “Please note, the date October 16 is no longer available, because it has been sold. » This is the primary interest of the channel manager. What you need to know is that it is a tool that is now a standard in the hotel world. Only in seasonal rentals, I must admit, because I often see it on the networks, some people still ask themselves the question: “Do you need to have a channel manager?” » This is a question that today, for me, does not arise at all, for all the benefits that I will explain to you just after. When today, we want to have a professional activity, having a channel manager, it is really essential to set up marketing that is both serene, but also efficient. So on that, that’s really the point of this tool.
I'm going to start with the negative points about the channel manager, and then after, we'll talk about the positive points. You will see, and I said it from the start, I am extremely favorable. This will show through in my speech, so I have to express this lack of objectivity in my speech from the start. I am truly convinced that a channel manager is essential. So, obviously, I'm going to share some negative points, because there are some, and it's important to have them in mind before starting, before subscribing to this type of service, but for me, there are a lot many more positives than negatives. So, I am obviously biased on what I am going to share with you.
The first thing is that it is a paid tool. So, it's a budget. The budgets range from simple to a hundredfold. I'm exaggerating a little anyway, but they can really go to very significant differences. And some tools are really inexpensive. They will almost be anecdotal in your budget. But for other tools, it is a real budget which can easily, when you develop, weigh, in fact, on the profitability of your property. On that, it depends on the investment you want to make. The first negative point is this.
The second negative point is that sometimes it is in English. So it's true that depending on your fluency in English, it can be quite problematic not to have access to something that is in French, knowing that some Internet Explorer — I say explorer, but it's Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, these things — are sometimes able to transform your language, automatically translate the language of the page you are looking at. Maybe this can help some of you. And then, there are a lot of Chanels who still do the translation today. So that’s the second thing.
The third thing is that some are sometimes a little complex to set up. This may require training. In any case, it will require, for some, a little time to get started, to set up, to connect the ads: to set up all the benefits, in fact, that you can derive from this type of software.
So, the negatives are that. It costs a little money, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. It's sometimes in English, so you either have to make the effort to translate, or do with exploring, for example, so that it translates for you if you're allergic to English. If you're not allergic to English, frankly, practically speaking, it's always the same words, so there aren't too many surprises. But I know some people complain about it, so I mention it. And then sometimes, it can be complex to set up, and it can either force you to spend time on it, or force you to train on the tool to be able to set it up. These are the three negative points.
Now, there are many, many positives that I wanted to mention. The first is, as I said at the very beginning, to avoid overbooking, to avoid having several reservations that will arrive simultaneously on the same date. That's honestly a big problem. This is something that can really happen, especially once you start distributing to a lot of sites. If you are good, if you have good decoration, if you have an apartment that works, that meets demand, if you have good grades, if you have good pricing and a good revenue management strategy, you are going to be attractive. So mechanically, by being attractive, you really take the risk, during the most popular periods, of capturing reservations on identical dates at relatively simultaneous periods. And frankly, it's something you do once. We did the exercise once to cancel overbookings, but the second time, we got fed up, and we wanted a channel manager. In general, that's really it. So, first positive point, avoid overbooking.
Second positive point, as it is essential to have a revenue management logic, therefore an optimization of your prices and an optimization of all the levers which will be able to help you increase turnover and increase occupancy, to all these elements, having a channel manager will help you do it very quickly. I'll give you a concrete example. If you want to change your prices because you see that there is an upcoming period for which you already have several reservations, you say to yourself: “Actually, maybe I have the potential to increase a little little my prices. » In these cases, if you do this without having a channel manager, you will spend a lot of time changing prices on each site. Each site also has a different way of changing prices, because otherwise it would be too simple. And then, if on top of that, you say to yourself: “I would also like to change my cancellation conditions, or the minimum length of stay” or on the other hand, conversely: “There is perhaps a another period in which I need to launch a promotion. » In fact, each time, for these four modifications, for example, each time, you have to redo all of these modifications from the beginning on all the sites. So if you're on five sites, that's four modifications on five different sites, and each time, with different locations, different ways of programming. With a channel manager, you have four edits, and that's it. That is, you make your modification, and after that, that's it. That’s still enormous added value. In terms of saving time, it is still essential.
And besides, on that, because it's true that pricing is my field, so I have a complementary point on pricing. In addition to that, certain channels will allow you to make modifications that are not even offered in the systems. I'll give you a concrete example. On Airbnb, for example, on promotions, it is very difficult to be able to do promotions by period. So, they changed the promotions. I must not get involved in a subject. I open a parenthesis, and I close it right after so as not to be too complex to follow. Just an aside. On Airbnb, for certain promotions, you cannot choose the period for which you want to run the promotion. It's very problematic, because sometimes, we don't want to have this promotion at all. The period is going to be strong, we will fill up, we don't need to reduce prices. Precisely, the channel manager can help, in these circumstances, to streamline these things, and to be much more precise. So that’s the second thing. So, first thing, avoid overbooking. Second thing, centralize the modification of levers and prices.
Third thing, automate communication with travelers. On certain channels, you have the possibility of automatically sending a certain number of messages which will allow you to improve your relationship with travelers, which is obviously, you know as well as I, crucial to the satisfaction, ultimately, of the traveler , and on his intention to give you a good rating. Good ratings are also just as crucial, since when the traveler looks at your ad, the price, and the photos, the rating will also factor into their decision-making. For him, this is the fairest perception of the value for money that you offer. So you have to get good grades, and to get good grades, there are several things. Obviously, there is cleaning and decoration. But there is also the relationship we have with the traveler. The channel manager offers you, as soon as you have reservations, some suggest you really have an automatic sending of messages which will be sent to travelers upstream to give them all the information. It is also these emails that will allow you to capture the traveler's email, and subsequently, encourage them to put a note on the reservation site. So third point, automate communication with travelers.
Fourth point which is crucial, and no one talks about it, but in the same way, for us, it's something that we use a lot: being able to extract reservations in one go. So this is a point that will concern you more if you are planning on a seasonal rental concierge activity. When we are a seasonal rental concierge, obviously, we have to invoice our work at some point. And in these cases, extracting the reservations to be able to invoice the owners is essential. The extraction must be of quality. Some channels offer extractions that are a little loose, with data that is not usable. Concrete example, dates that output in text mode in Excel. No one knows anything about that. This is normal, it's impossible to use. So the quality of extraction and the fact of being able to extract reservations at once is a major advantage. For what ? Because if you don't have a channel manager, tomorrow, if you have to go to each of the sites, extract the small reservations from each apartment, it's hell! You spend four days on your billing. So fourth point, extract reservations in one go from a single tool.
The penultimate point is to have support, in any case, technical support to be able to launch your own style of direct marketing. Most channels will allow you to have either the site with their service, the direct site, which is a bit like a package with the channel manager, or what we call a booking engine. That is to say the reservation system, with the possibility of searching for a city, of searching for dates that you will be able to enter in a classic Wordpress site. In both cases, in fact, it obviously helps you enormously to be able to take reservations directly. And taking reservations directly, that is to say directly from the traveler to you, without going through Airbnb and Booking, is essential. Why is this important? Because these are reservations where you know you have direct contact with the traveler. You can earn more than on Airbnb and Booking depending on your pricing method. So, it's really a very significant benefit compared to reservations on Airbnb and Booking, for these two reasons. Having help to obtain your direct site, to work on your notoriety directly from travelers to you, is essential.
And then the sixth point — the fifth point was the direct site — is that a large majority of channel managers will help you increase, improve your online distribution. What do we mean when we say “online distribution”? It is the choice of the sites on which we are marketed. And in fact, this choice of sites on which we are marketed can, most of the time, extend to sites that we may not necessarily have thought of. And the fact that the channels directly offer connectivity with a certain number of sites can help you to be present on these sites without it being a phenomenal workload on a daily basis. It's always, in fact, the beginning which is a bit long, because you have to create the ad, create your account, etc. But after that, the fact that it is connected with your channel is a precious help to be able to be present on more sites. And obviously, the more we are present on the sites, the more we give travelers an opportunity to see us. And the more opportunities there are to see us, the more likely it is to be purchased.
So there you have it for the six benefits of the channel manager. I will summarize the six benefits. The first is to avoid overbooking, therefore overbooking, double reservations for the same night. The second is to be able to more easily change prices and all optimization levers: cancellation conditions, length of stay, promotion, etc. The third is to automate communication with travelers to improve their satisfaction, so that they can more easily find you in advance, because you have sent all the information, or so that they can also think better about rate you after coming. The fourth benefit is being able to extract reservations at once. It can help you drastically. It can also help that you are a seasonal rental company, especially when you have to take stock of the year, but mainly when you are a seasonal rental concierge service, for which, every month, you will have to invoice your work. It also helps to have a quality direct site that works with a booking engine like the most modern sites. And the sixth point is also help in expanding its distribution network, therefore being present and being distributed on a larger number of sites. So here are the different points concerning a channel manager.
- Hello everyone.
– Hello, Romain, welcome. I hope you're well.
– Hello, Yvon. I think, Yvon, that Marie-Jo is your first name. Tell me if I'm wrong. I think I have your first name memorized correctly and you will tell me if I'm wrong.
– Romain: “Please note that without a channel manager, Airbnb does not commission the 15% to the owner. »
But that is not necessarily a positive point. It is true that to date, it seems that this is not the case. We'll recap this for anyone who missed it. Today, Airbnb is changing its commissioning method. Just a summary, and I did a video on the channel on this that says: “In December, Airbnb changed its commission. » You can find this video on the internet, on the YouTube channel J'annonce Complet. Before, we either had the entire commission paid by the host, or part of it was paid for by the traveler and the host. Now there is a transformation. Starting in December, a majority of hosts will be charged the full commission, and this will be more split between the guest and the host. It seems that for the moment, this is not set up for people who do not have a channel manager. What Airbnb says is that it should be for everyone, but it is clear that for the moment, a priori, those who do not have a channel manager have not yet used this. So, there are still service fees that are assimilated to travelers. This is for context, so that you can understand Romain's remark. Now, to answer your point, maybe you were just saying in a negative aspect, much like I perceive it. It's true that if you don't have a channel manager, you can't cover the entire commission. And for me, it's quite negative, actually. It's not very professional to have service fees added on top. It is better to cover all commissions. This is my belief. Afterwards, is this an argument for subscribing to a channel manager? It can be an argument in addition to everything else that really adds to the set of important points for which it makes sense, precisely, to subscribe to a channel manager.
– Hello, Nizar, welcome: “On top as usual. » It's a pleasure. Thank you very much for your feedback.
– Marie-Jo, great! I'm happy. I have a good memory, I'm happy.
Look, if you don't have any further questions, I'll stop there. I would like to remind you that it is really important that you subscribe to the YouTube channel I display Complete. It supports me, precisely, to continue the videos, to continue to deal with subjects that help you on a daily basis. So, don't hesitate to subscribe, to click on the bell to be alerted when I go live. Another equally important point is that if you have not yet received the six mistakes not to make when determining your sales prices, then subscribe to the private Facebook group in which we talk about all these subjects -there. In fact, upon registration, you will receive by email this bonus of 6 mistakes not to make. The link is just below, or just above depending on whether you are on YouTube or Facebook.
– Nizar told me: “You have to be a professional and think like a channel manager about reducing costs. »
That's a very good remark, because the question often arises about revenue management. Besides, I made a video on that, which said: “Is it worth paying for revenue management? » Revenue management, for people who have never heard that word, revenue management, is the maximization of the turnover of a seasonal rental by varying the sales prices, and all the levers at our disposal, therefore lengths of stay, cancellation conditions, promotions, etc. So that’s revenue management. And I had precisely answered this question a little, and it's true that what I shared at the time, and I'm also my vision as a business leader, because I too, obviously, On a daily basis, I am faced with potential expenses to incur. The channel manager can also be a question for the business manager to say to himself: “Do I put money into a channel manager, or do I not? »And I agree with your point of view, Nizar. It’s about saying to yourself: “In fact, what will be the return on investment from this type of financial commitment? » Obviously, we can have the logic of reducing expenses as much as possible, but I agree with you on the fact that cutting back on this expense in relation to the return on investment that it can produce would be really damaging, in fact, for the activity . In my opinion, it is really part of this type of expenditure which is smart expenditure, one could say intelligent expenditure, because it brings a benefit which is such that it is worth it. Moreover, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that these are expenditures of money, but also expenditures of time. Because it's true that integrating a new work tool takes time, that's normal. It's not that we are stupider than others. No way. It's just that it takes time for everyone, but it's worth it, because in fact, we'll gain more afterwards and that's where it's interesting.
– Jordan and Alice: “We bought your training. For as long as we've been waiting for it, and without hesitation. Revenue management is obviously essential. »
I thank you. Super nice. It's really a pleasure. I look forward to hearing from you both about the training, and telling me what you thought of it, what it brought you, how it helped you, etc. Great. In any case, congratulations and welcome to the training. I think you have subscribed to the revenue max training, which is currently there as a special operation until tonight, actually. So listen, I'm delighted. Welcome, it’s a pleasure.
Listen, thank you very much for this live. So I'll see you tomorrow for the next live. Take care of yourself.