Channel manager

A channel manager connects an accommodation business to the many places it sells through — online travel agencies, its own booking engine, metasearch and marketplaces — and keeps them in step. When a unit sells on one channel, the channel manager instantly reduces availability everywhere else, and it pushes rate and restriction changes out in the same way. The point is to sell the same inventory in many places without overbooking or having to update each site by hand. It normally sits between the property management system, which owns the true availability, and the external channels. For campgrounds, a channel manager matters because pitches and cabins are increasingly listed on OTAs and pitch-booking marketplaces alongside direct sales; without one, a single calendar has to be maintained in several systems at once, which is slow and error-prone during a busy season.