Thinking about connecting your hotel to a channel manager? Ore are you wondering what other hotels are using? In this post, we are providing you with a list of channel managers and we are sharing some statistics about the usage of channel managers of our properties on the various HotelSpecials websites. Let’s get started!
What is a channel manager?
A hotel channel manager is a software which hoteliers can use to administer their availability and prices. Why would you use a channel manager? Channel managers make it easy for hotels to manage their allotment, availability and prices because they can monitor these elements all in one places. Whereas beforehand you had to give allotment to the various online travel agencies (OTAs) and organisations you work with separately, the channel manager keeps track of your bookings and availability.
How many hotels use a channel manager?
Share of hotels using a channel manager on HotelSpecials
As expected the share of hotels using a channel manager on the HotelSpecials websites is high but (almost) 20% of our properties are still not using a channel manager. Since we are mainly active in countries that are all considered to be on the forefront of development and new technology this is surprising.
What are the most popular channel managers on HotelSpecials?
As you can see in the graphic above, Cubilis is the most popular one across all markets. It has a really strong presence in the Benelux but they are behind in other markets. The venture-funded Siteminder has a lot of chains as clients and is also present on most markets as you will see below.
Popularity of channel managers on each market
Let’s take a look at each market. Please note that we have by far the most hotels in The Netherlands, Sweden and Germany resulting in the fact that the results for France and Belgium are based on a smaller base of hotels. Let’s start with The Netherlands:
As you can see the penetration of channel managers is quite high with 89% of hotels using one. RezExchange from Amadeus is, along with Cubilis, dominating the market. Moving on their neighbour Germany:
In Germany we see a lower penetration of channel managers with only 78% of the hotels using them. Local player DIRS21 is the biggest one with 16% of the hotels making use of it. Unsurprisingly, there are many local players on the huge German market. The usually known bigger players like RateTiger have quite lower penetrations and also Rezexchange from Amadeus has a lower than expected customer base in Germany. Next stop is Sweden:
Even though Sweden normally adapts fast to new trends we see that penetration is a bit lower with 72% of hotels being connected to a channel manager. Local player BookVisit has a strong position with independent hotels along with RateTiger. Siteminder is the preferred partner for a large chain and thus bumping up the numbers based on that. Now, lets move on to our two smaller markets France and Belgium:
Once again Cubilis is very strong in Belgium but in France the local AvailPro is dominating.
Key takeaways
Looking at the fact that we have 60+ connections to channel managers and still miss many, it’s clear that the number of channel managers are too high. It’s not a controversial guess that we will see some consolidation of the market with fewer companies active. Maybe we will see some of the larger players buying their way into local markets during next year. As the costs for acquiring new hotels goes up and margins are pushed down by the competition, a shakeout of companies seems likely. So, if you haven’t chosen one of the players of this long list of channel managers yet, our advice would be to go for one of the bigger players in order to make sure you can have a long-lasting partnership with them.
