For small hosts
Do you need a channel manager? A plain guide for hosts with 1–5 listings
“Channel manager” sounds like hotel software. For a host with a few rooms or apartments, the question is simpler: how do I stop selling the same night twice when I'm on more than one site?
What a channel manager does
It keeps one calendar for each listing and shares it with every booking site you use. A booking on any site closes those nights everywhere else. Some tools also manage prices, messages and payments — but availability is the part that prevents double bookings.
Two kinds: calendar links and direct connections
- Calendar-link (iCal) tools use the export and import links every major site already offers. They're simple and often free, and work with almost any site — but the sites read the links every few hours, so updates aren't instant.
- Direct (API) connections are official, real-time links between the tool and each site. They update availability and prices within seconds, but are usually paid per listing, take longer to set up, and some sites only allow them for certain partners.
Calendar links are usually enough when…
- you have one unit per listing (a room, a cottage, an apartment);
- you're on two to five sites;
- most guests book days or weeks ahead rather than the same evening.
Consider a direct connection when…
- you sell several identical rooms as one room type;
- you want prices and minimum stays to change everywhere at once;
- a lot of your bookings are same-day, where a few hours' delay really matters.
Questions to ask any tool
- Which of my sites does it support, and does it both send and receive?
- Does it ask for my Airbnb or Booking.com password? (It shouldn't need to.)
- Will it tell me when a calendar link stops working?
- What happens to my bookings if I leave — can I export them?
Axorooms is a calendar-link channel manager built for small hosts: free for 5 listings, 31 sites, no passwords, alerts when a link breaks, and every booking downloadable as a spreadsheet whenever you like.