Channel manager

The channel manager publishes your rooms and prices on booking channels and keeps availability in step with what you sell in Areca. Bookings from the channels appear in Areca on their own.

Available channels: Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Agoda and Hostelworld.

The channel manager is part of the paid PRO plan. It is not included in the trial. PRO includes one connection to each channel. You can connect more than one account on the same channel, for example two Booking.com property IDs, and each extra connection costs €2/month. See Plans and billing.

Connect

  1. Set up your room types and prices first. They are what the channels receive.
  2. Open Settings > Channel Manager and click Connect Channel Manager.
  3. Under Connected channels, click Add a channel and choose one.
  4. Enter your property ID on that channel and the currency to send prices in. For Airbnb you sign in to Airbnb instead.

Synchronize sends everything again. Disconnect stops the connection.

Bookings from channels

Bookings, changes and cancellations from the channels appear in Areca on their own. A channel booking has one more tab, named after the channel, for example Booking.com, with what the channel sent:

  • the Channel reference and when it was received,
  • Payment: Collected by the channel or Collected at the property, the Payment type and Deposits,
  • Channel commission, Guest notes and Guest language,
  • each room as the channel booked it.

The booking ID and booking method belong to the channel and cannot be changed. Everything else you manage as any other booking.

Overbooking

When a channel sells a room that is no longer free, for example when two guests book at the same moment, the booking shows an Overbooking banner and has no room. Click Assign room and pick a free one. If nothing is free, move another stay in the calendar to make room. The guest keeps the price agreed with the channel.

Booking.com

Approve the Areca email address

Booking.com accepts emails to its guests only from addresses you approved in the extranet. Add [email protected] to that list, so Areca can send booking confirmations to guests who booked on Booking.com. Without it, Booking.com rejects these emails and the guest does not get them.

  1. Sign in to the Booking.com extranet.
  2. Go to Property > Messaging preferences > Security settings and confirm your identity if asked.
  3. In Your email addresses, click Add email address and enter [email protected].

Airbnb

You connect Airbnb by signing in to your Airbnb account, not with a property ID.

Maximum stay counts from the arrival day

Airbnb checks the maximum stay only on the guest's arrival day. A guest who arrives on a day with a maximum stay of 30 nights can book 30 nights, even if the stay runs into dates with a lower limit.

For example, if May has a maximum stay of 30 nights and June has 20, a guest arriving in mid-May can still book 30 nights and stay until mid-June. To stop long stays running into a period with a lower limit, set the lower maximum stay on the arrival dates before that period too.

Expedia

Connect Expedia with your Expedia property ID, as described in Connect.

Agoda

Connect Agoda with your Agoda property ID, as described in Connect.

Hostelworld

Connect Hostelworld with your Hostelworld property ID, as described in Connect.