2015. Integration with Booking.com
In June 2014, we started our IRS (Internet Reservation Systems) system, and we wanted to have communication with the most important OTAs, such as Booking.com. It was not possible since Booking.com required that its connections were through a Channel Manager and not directly from the Hotel’s PMS. After arduous negotiations Class One , as of February 2015, it has managed to be the first PMS in the world with direct communication from the Hotel with Booking.com, without having to have a server in the middle of the communication.
We should thank Inge Boutsma, Connectivity Account Manager, for having achieved this achievement for their availability at all times to negotiate and know how to transfer our objectives and like our partner Javier Sabariz Cancio, for the complicated negotiations that he has had to carry out and his great negotiating spirit.
To this first experience, pioneer for Booking.com, only 3 hotels have been allowed to connect, and based on the experience obtained, action will be taken accordingly. These 3 hotels are Sunset Beach Club – Benalmadena, Hotel Oleander Playa de Palma and Sa Cabana Alcudia-Mallorca.
I think that talking about Booking.com, in this case it is not precise since it is the most prestigious OTA in the world at the moment.
Through this new communication protocol it is possible to export Inventories (Availability and Rates) directly from the PMS, as well as automatically collect Reservations made through the Web.
Availability and Rates Update:
- Established quotas and Prices per day for the different Rooms, although a Room Type in the PMS may mean different Room Types in the OTA (Standard Double, Sea View Double, Ground Floor Double, etc., being able to increase or decrease the prices in percentage terms, depending on the Type of Room)
- Days of Minimum Stay, maximum stay. Release Control
- Closing dates, and CTA (Close To Arrival), CTD (Close To Departure)
- The possibility of scheduling the update is enabled so that it is carried out automatically (normally, every day at dawn, although it can be configured according to the needs of the Hotel). On the other hand, there is also the manual option that sends the data to the OTA at the time the user decides. The average time of an update for a whole year, both in the automatic and manual cases, is less than one minute.
Reception of Reservations:
- The Reservation made through Booking.com is loaded directly into the PMS (the existence of new Reservations sends them directly at the time that Booking.com occurs to our Seven Stars system).
- A check is made of the prior existence in the PMS of each of the Reserves recovered, as well as the modifications made to them.
- It is indicated to Booking.com if this Reservation has been loaded, and in case of error the reason is indicated to them.
- After receiving each Reservation, a printout of the data associated with it is made (as well as an email is sent to the Head of Accommodations). In this way, the Hotel will perceive that a new Reservation has been loaded into its Computer Systems
- Quota and Booking update automatically
Communication Tools:
- Following the new trends for the optimization of communication between the Hotel and the OTA, direct access from the PMS to the master and transactional values of: Read Room-Rate, Read Commission Overirde, Room Rate Availability, without having to resort to Booking.com’s own EXTRANET. In this way, the Hotel will be able, in a simple way, to obtain all the relevant information for the communication configuration.