How Can Online Hotel Distribution Channels Boost Your Profitability?

John Hobs
Hospitality Technology
3 min readJun 14, 2021

A distribution channel, in the hotel industry, can be very essential for boosting performance and revenues. Distribution channel management means, the practice of management of such distribution channels, or an intermediary chain that a hotel service or room needs to undergo prior to reaching the customers. The management of distribution channels can include managing booking restrictions, rates etc. which can ensure there is constant updating of the inventories of your hotel across every channel. Know about some of the best ways online hotel distribution channels can improve profitability for your hotel business.

More accurate booking

Earlier, booking was purely manual and there were risks of incorrect entries, lack of checking for availability, multiple reservations of the same rooms etc. All these can be avoided with web-based hotel distribution channels. There is a higher level of accuracy. There is up-to-date availability and better transparency. Over-booking of hotels and other human errors can easily be resolved through these channels. Such mistakes could have a big impact on your time, revenues and bottom line. With online hotel distribution channels, you can easily eliminate such errors.

Quicker management of distribution channel

You can easily enhance the pace of channel management processes with a distribution channel manager by your side. There will be no need for you to log into the system of every distribution partner or an online travel agent (OTA) for fine-tuning, given that you can carry out all the adjustments from just one dashboard. You can also save a lot of time that would be otherwise wasted on repetitive administration activities.

Easy availability of information

It can also help you to avail of important key metrics and data. It can be more convenient for you to take vital strategic decisions when there is data or evidence to support you. Distribution channel managers can help you to get key metrics and data in one spot. It can be strategically very advantageous, and business leaders, as well as hotel owners, can spot notable patterns or trends.

Making Direct Hotel Bookings possible

There is an inherent engine for hotel reservations in most of the distribution channel manager platforms. Customers can connect with the booking engine that you have which can help them in making bookings directly, without any third party. It can help you to avoid paying any commission to some third party. Hotel channel connectivity and distribution channel manager platform can also be very effective from the perspective of revenue management.

Performance boost

With a distribution channel manager by your side, you can boost the performance as well as revenues for your hotel business in many ways. For instance, you can have a more dynamic room rate approach with such a platform. It can let you make adjustments much faster, more instantaneously, and across every channel that is present in the system. With the aid of distribution channel managers, you can boost the overall visibility for your hotel, add fresh distribution partners and possibly increase the amount to be charged, occupancy rates and demand for your hotel property.

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John Hobs
Hospitality Technology

The author likes to write about hotel channel management in his spare hours, for the information and knowledge of readers out there.