Help! I've got to get up to speed quick.

Up, down, could be better? How to get more bookings is our number one obsession. Talk shop here.
Patypit
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2016 5:37 pm
Location: Rome, Italy

Help! I've got to get up to speed quick.

Post by Patypit »

Hi,
Thank you for accepting me. This is the story.
My italian wife last summer set up a Holiday rental in Rome. It's a villa very close to the centre on the antique roman appian way. She closed the furniture shop, I financed the refurb and she set up and the business. After 4 months she was at a 40% occupancy, looked like it was working. Unfortunately she can no longer run the business so I need to rationalize the pen and paper and stickits methodology.

I need to accept payments via paypal or c d c.

Keep all my agents aligned and have a web accessible "master" calender regarding availability.

Most of my revenue is via booking.com, wimdu, housetrip. What level of integration with agents sites is available?

- Is it just calender integration? Who fires off the syncronization?

- what about pricing? If I change my pricing policy how do I propogate this to my agents? Do I have to manually update each agent descriptions?

I looked at beds24 and they say quote<< allows you to set rates for channels ..........>>unquote.

Any advice TIA for your time.

K
Essar
Posts: 3243
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:24 pm
Location: Bournemouth
Contact:

Post by Essar »

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I list on Booking.com (BC) and several other listing sites with both commission and subscription models.

The problem you have in integrating calendars is Booking.com; they use a non-standard calendar synchronising methodology, most others use iCAL. You also need to have a merchant account to take credit/debit card payments or use PayPal (expensive).

Booking.com has a complex dashboard (extranet) and this can take a long time to master and run properly.

I use a product called FreeToBook; they integrate with BC, you set up your rates, minimum stays, discounts, etc through FTB and they upload them to the BC extranet for you. You enter all your reservations through FTB and they update BC automatically. Any bookings through BC comes to you via FTB.

FTB also provide an iCAL export function so that you can use this on all other listing sites to iCAL import the calendars on a daily basis. Keeping your calendars synchronised.

They also offer payments on-line through WorldPay; all integrated with BC and their own gateway. You can use their payment widgets on your own website; taking reservations and payments automatically.

FTB is free to use, they make an annual charge for the iCAL function, they also charge a £1 fee for all BC reservations. If you use the the FabPay function for payments you will have to set up a merchant account with WorldPay (who operate FabPay for FTB) FTB arrange this for you. You are charged by WorldPay for the credit/debit card payments (these are cheap) without any standing charges, there is a joining fee.
"Write something, even if it's just a suicide note"
"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise"
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Patypit
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2016 5:37 pm
Location: Rome, Italy

Post by Patypit »

Essar wrote:Hello and welcome to the forum.

I list on Booking.com (BC) and several other listing sites with both commission and subscription models.

The problem you have in integrating calendars is Booking.com; they use a non-standard calendar synchronising methodology, most others use iCAL. You also need to have a merchant account to take credit/debit card payments or use PayPal (expensive).

Booking.com has a complex dashboard (extranet) and this can take a long time to master and run properly.

I use a product called FreeToBook; they integrate with BC, you set up your rates, minimum stays, discounts, etc through FTB and they upload them to the BC extranet for you. You enter all your reservations through FTB and they update BC automatically. Any bookings through BC comes to you via FTB.

FTB also provide an iCAL export function so that you can use this on all other listing sites to iCAL import the calendars on a daily basis. Keeping your calendars synchronised.

They also offer payments on-line through WorldPay; all integrated with BC and their own gateway. You can use their payment widgets on your own website; taking reservations and payments automatically.

FTB is free to use, they make an annual charge for the iCAL function, they also charge a £1 fee for all BC reservations. If you use the the FabPay function for payments you will have to set up a merchant account with WorldPay (who operate FabPay for FTB) FTB arrange this for you. You are charged by WorldPay for the credit/debit card payments (these are cheap) without any standing charges, there is a joining fee.

Thanks for the precious info and your time. So I've solved BC - FTB integration but what about WIMDU, Housetrip. If I get a booking from them where will this show up. In FTB? Is it eassy to do?

TIA K
Essar
Posts: 3243
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:24 pm
Location: Bournemouth
Contact:

Post by Essar »

FTB is a channel manager system - you need to have a look at their website for more information about channel management.

The initial set-up can take time - as with anything - but once done it is easy to maintain.

You cannot integrate any other listing sites into FTB's channel manager - sites like HA, TA, HL, FK, OD, HT, WD you simply enter the reservation manually into FTB. Use it as a central booking management system. You can also chase payments and keep a track of all payments done on other sites through FTB. You can prepare email templates and do all your emailing through FTB.
"Write something, even if it's just a suicide note"
"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise"
"As for my amnesia, I've had it as long as I can remember"
Real name: Steve
Gender: Male
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