Connecting your distribution channels is one of the most vital steps in the setup process. Distribution allows your property to be seen on various OTAs by the thousands of potential customers.
All of your rates and room types must be setup in myfrontdesk before progressing to this stage.
- The following steps will help you to setup your active channel connections.
- If you are not setup with a particular channel yet, you will need to create an account with them first. Check out our article here for some tips about this.
- If you do not have a myallocator account yet, wait for your onboarding coach to enable the distribution setup for you
- Before starting, confirm that the availability and rate information on your calendar is 100% accurate.
Ask your Onboarding Coach to enable the Channel Distribution page for you.
- Once your Onboarding Coach confirms the page activation, click on Manage (gear icon)
- Go to Channel Distribution.
- Click on Introduction to start the process
Make absolutely sure that your settings on myfrontdesk match those in myallocator. This includes the number of accommodations.
- Any bookings previously received by myallocator can be automatically imported into myfrontdesk by our Reservation Import team once the mandatory information has been completed in the setup process. This process includes both past and future reservations up to 2 years in the past.
- If you choose to import from myallocator, make sure you have not manually added these bookings to myfrontdesk. Doing this will create duplicated reservations and fake overbookings.
- Remember: All direct reservations made in your previous PMS provider's system (eg: phone, website booking engine, walk-in, email) will need to be transferred over manually. Some PMS do offer exporting your past reservations as either a CSV or Excel file for reference.
- We will need to disconnect your myallocator account from your current PMS, so it is possible to connect myfrontdesk. If myallocator gets connected to both systems at the same time it may cause unexpected behavior such as incorrect availability and prices being distributed to channels, reservations not migrating to the proper platform and overbookings.
- Once we connect both accounts, myfrontdesk will override myallocator. From that moment on, myfrontdesk will be the only system in which changes are made and your platform will be live.
- Your credentials to myallocator will be changed in the process and you will be locked out of myallocator. There is no reason to worry because you will manage everything from within myfrontdesk.
Once these steps are complete, continue on and follow the steps below.
Click on "Link to existing myallocator account" and enter your account details.
Make sure all of your room types, rates, availability, and other information has been fully entered into myfrontdesk. Wait for your Onboarding Coach to confirm you are ready and we will create a brand new myallocator account for you.
Contact our Support Team to Activate Distribution for your property.
Enabling myallocator will fully activate your myfrontdesk account and send you live.
Once the distribution is enabled, you can go to Step 2 below.
For most properties, we recommend choosing "Last Room Available (Recommended)".
However, if you would like to keep some rooms in reserve for either a staff dorm or to exclusively sell with mybookings, select "Property Allotment", you will then need to configure your channel allotment.
- Choose Your Distribution Settings
Now that your myfrontdesk distribution settings are enabled, it's time to begin connecting your channels!
Note: Some channels have specific requirements to activate them with a channel manager. We have some great articles that will guide you through the process of activating Booking.com, Expedia, Hostelworld.
To begin setting up your channels, click on the "Channels" tab.
- Select a Channel
The process to activate a channel varies, but for most you will need to enter credentials. We'll go through the LateRooms activation process here, which is standard. Some channels, like Booking.com and Expedia, require you to contact them first, and others have an approval process.
Start by clicking the "Not Setup, click to Setup" button, which will open the channel credential box. Enter the required information (it may be a login and password, or just an ID, depending on each channel).
- Map Your Rooms
This is one of the most vital steps to ensure a positive experience with channel distribution. Be sure to pay close attention to the following information.
- All rooms on the OTA must be mapped to a corresponding room type in myfrontdesk, otherwise, they need to be disabled/unlisted. Distribution channel room types that are left unmapped to a myfrontdesk room type will never receive availability updates which can lead to overbookings.
- We strongly recommend only mapping one Room Type in your channel to a single matching Room Type in myfrontdesk.
- We do not recommend attempting to map multiple individual myfrontdesk rooms to a single Room Type in your channel. This is incompatible with most OTAs and has a big chance of creating overbookings. To learn more, read our Distribution Channel Mapping Guidelines.
- Your myfrontdesk rooms will appear next to a drop-down list of the rooms configured on that channel, select the appropriate OTA room type to match with those you've created in myfrontdesk.
- Add Your Channel-Specific Rate Difference
If you want your default rate on this channel to be different than what shows up on your calendar, then input the additional amount here. You can use a set amount or a percentage. Click Next to continue.
- Confirmation and additional steps
Once you see the confirmation screen and "Setup Complete," you're done mapping the channel in myfrontdesk! Some channels require additional steps to complete setup.
For Booking.com, for example, you need to check your extranet one more time (Extranet > Account > Channel Manager) and confirm the very last step of activation.
Keep in mind
- If you previously had a myallocator account, from this point on, myfrontdesk will be the system to make any changes to, and your platform will be live.
- Your credentials to myallocator will be changed on the process and you will be locked out of myallocator. There is no reason to worry because you will manage everything from within myfrontdesk. Do not attempt to reset you myallocator credentials as it can break the link between both systems and cause issues with availability, prices, and overbookings.
- Keep the extranet login credentials for your various distribution channels up to date in the channels section of myfrontdesk. Changing these without updating them in myfrontdesk can result in connection errors. The channels availability might not sync automatically or bookings will not get imported.
- Myfrontdesk does not change the currency inside of a channel's extranet. Make absolutely sure that the currency settings in your channel site's extranet matches what you have set in myfrontdesk under the "Currency" tab of the distribution section. Check further information here: How to Set Custom Conversion Rates for OTAs.
Hello,
I cant find channel manager button. It is not shown at settings