Difference Between Hotel PMS and Channel Manager

PMS and channel managers are two hotel automation solutions. The two software automate everyday hotel operations, allowing the staff to build a rapport with its guests for long-term relationships. In this blog, we will learn briefly about these two technologies and understand the difference between hotel PMS and Channel Manager.

Let’s get started with the basics.

What is Property Management System?

Property Management System or PMS is a software that helps hotels to automate and streamline their operational tasks. The software manages multiple crucial tasks from online bookings and guest profiles to housekeeping and finances.  

These systems improve the efficiency of day-to-day tasks and enhance the overall guest experience. A hotel PMS is a sustainable way of carrying out regular hotel tasks; no paperwork 

Additionally, a hotelier does not have to worry about double bookings or sending out confirmation emails to guests, a PMS handles it all. This leaves the hotelier with more time to focus on the more critical aspects of a service-based hotel business i.e., providing warm hospitality and flawless services. 

Also Read - Future of Hotel PMS Software

What is Channel Manager?

A channel manager is software that integrates a hotel’s booking system with online travel agencies (OTAs) through APIs. The connection is built in real-time, ensuring the safety and security of data.  

Channel managers help hotels to manage their hotel inventory efficiently and rates up to date across multiple OTAs from a single platform. With a primary function of distribution, the channel manager is more of a marketing tool. 

Just like PMS, channel managers automate and streamline the process of updating inventory and hotel rates across multiple OTAs. They facilitate changes across all the OTAs, a hotel has a presence on, from one platform. This allows hoteliers to focus on other key business operations.  

Difference between PMS and Channel Manager?

Both these products enhance the efficiency of hotel operations and could be used together to create synergies, they have some differences that should be noted.  

Let’s look at some differences between PMS vs channel managers:  

• While PMS is a wider concept and takes care of multiple day-to-day hotel operations, Channel managers focus on a narrower task and look after hotel inventory and rate management only. The latter has distribution as its primary function.  
• A PMS has extensive functionality such as reservation tracking, guest profiles, payments, etc., and it can also include a channel manager as a part of its hotel property management system. However, a channel manager performs a specific role and cannot include the broad range of functions a PMS performs. 

Also Read - Top Hotel PMS Software

Conclusion: Which one should you choose for your hotel?

While both products increase hotel operation efficiency, they both have their suitability conditions.  

If a hotel is looking to cover all its bases by using a single software, then PMS is what it should go with. Further, it is a great option for small-scale hotels with just one or two rooms available, but it also seeks future expansion. Or it is a great option with large properties with multiple rooms to manage.  

However, a channel manager should be chosen when a hotel is only looking for a marketing and distribution solution. This option is generally more suitable for short-term rentals, or small property owners who want to minimize admin.  

How can BOTSHOT help?

With BOTSHOT ‘Hotel in a Box’ hotel management software, you would be able to manage all the tasks, from small to big ones, from a single platform. We have curated an all-in-one kind of solution for all our hardworking hotelier friends, who serve people day in and out and we could not be prouder!  

We understand that managing a hotel is no cakewalk, and hence we have empowered hotels with CreateWith, a product that takes care of a wide range of hotel operations from PMS to channel management to dynamic pricing, all while engaging with the guests through a dynamic, and catchy hotel website.  

This is not all! 

A hotel can also curate its marketing campaigns and send them out to the targeted audience through this one-stop platform. And the multiple queries that follow are also handled by this product.  

So, get in touch with us and get all that your hotel needs from a single place.