All Room Type and Rate Plan allocations to Agent Channels are listed and managed in SETUP | RELATIONSHIPS | AGENT RELATIONSHIPS. The default screen of Agent Relationships displays the details of your Agent Channels: Agent ID, Agent Type, Agent Name, Number of Rooms Allocated, Commission percentage and Rate Loading percentage.
Examples of Agents Channels include: your website, promotional codes, buuteeq, GDS, Booking.com and other online travel agents. To see the contact details of each Agent, click the Agent ID.
Because you can setup and manage a unique set of Room allocations and Rate Plans to each Agent Channel, we refer to this as an Agent Relationship. There are three general types of Agents, each of which can have multiple channels depending on the online distribution channels you choose to set up. Some Agents are set up by BookingCenter (Master Agents), some are created by you (MyPMS Agents) and some are added automatically after you have signed up for an OTA contract Rate program (Net Rate Agents).
Agent Types (See Agent Types for more details)
Agent Channels
Master Agents and Net Rates Agents are added internally by BookingCenter when you sign up and activate GDS or OTA distribution channels. MyPMS Agents appear as you create them in My Agents. MyPMS Agents are typically used to set up promo codes, connect certain travel agencies, direct booking relationships, etc. See Promo Codes and Special Agents.
Agent Channels are primarily used to sell and distribute rooms online through your Website, GDS and specific Online Travel Agencies (OTA's). The only exception to this are Master Agents BC and BCM which are internal channels that manage your database (See below for details). Selling rooms online or, Online Distribution is process that first involves setting up your Agents and then allocating the Rooms and Rate plans to those Channels.
Each online channel you choose to connect to MyPMS will be listed in Agent Relationships and will grow as you add more channels. For example, you may start with one online channel like your website and then choose to increase your online distribution through GDS and OTA Channels. The number of channels will depend on what you have elected to sign up for or activate.
Once the Agent Channels are set up and listed in Agent Relationships, they can then be managed independently in each channel.
There are two standard channels used to sell online These channels must have subscriptions and be activated before the will live online and be able to accept bookings.
See Agent Channels for a complete list and details on each channel.
Managing Room Type and Rate Plan Allocations
Allocating a Room Type and Rate Plan to each channel involves the same function in Agent Relationships.To see which Room Types and Rate Plans are allocated to an Agent Channel or to ADD or DELETE a Room Type allocation, click on blue link that displays the number of rooms allocated in the "Rooms Allocated" column for the corresponding Agent. For example, 15 of 17. When you click on this number a new screen will open with a List of the Room Types and corresponding Rate Plans you have allocated to that Agent. At this point you can Add or Delete a Room Type Allocation.See Add or Delete Allocation.
Overall, the Room Type Allocation function can be use in the following ways:
However, managing Availability and Rates to each channel can further customized by strategically using the Room Type and Rate Plan allocation functions. See
Manage Availability and Rates
There are several ways to manage availability and Rates using Room Types and Rate Plan combinations. Think about how many rooms you want available online in each channel, the rates you want to offer and if you want to offer any promotions, packages. Then, decide how you want to manage your online availability and rates.The complexity of your online distribution plan depends on the number of rooms you have, the number of channels your selling on and
See Best Practices for using GDS and OTA
These considerations will shape Room Type and Rate Plan allocations and how sp
Manage Availabilty
Unique Room Types
Unique Rate Plans
Closed to Arrival
OOO Rooms
Manage Rates
To Close out Availability on
Managing Availability specifically on GDS and OTA Channels