Booking.com: Synchronise bookings prices availability

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Synchronising Prices, Availabiltiy and Bookings with your Booking.com account

1 General

  • You need an account with Booking.com If you do not yet have a Booking.com account you can sign up here.

2 Capabilities

With the connection you can

  • Export prices, availability and rules
    • send inventory (available rooms)
    • send minimum stay
    • send maximum stay
    • send closed to arrival and closed to departure
    • send multiple rates
    • add a multiplier to mark prices up or down.
  • Import bookings, modifications to bookings and cancellations, importing modifications or cancellations can be disabled for individual bookings
  • create Booking.com rate plans
  • Send content
    • push properties from Beds24 to Booking.com
    • update content to an existing listing on Booking.com
  • Import a listing from Booking.com as a new property into Beds24
  • Import prices and availability from Booking.com (Coming soon)
  • Report invalid cards and no-shows can be reported to Booking.com from the "Details" tab of the booking. If you use Stripe you can set in SETTINGS->CHANNEL MANAGER to automatically report invalid cards to Booking.com
  • Create and manage promotions
  • View reviews and react to reviews

3 Limitations

If you export inventory you will also need to export rates from Beds24, rates can not be set within the Booking.com extranet.

Booking.com may sometimes withhold the credit card number or CCV unless you specifically request they are sent to you. Contact your Booking.com rep if this is occurring and you require this information.

4 Before you Connect

Prices

When the connection is activated Booking.com will remove all price and availability details on the Booking.com extranet and replace them with the data sent from Beds24. Therefore prices and availability of all rooms must be set up in Beds24 before connecting.

  • We can only send availability if you have set up prices which are activated for this channel. This tutorial gives general information how to set prices for channels.
  • Booking.com needs a room price for the maximum number of guest.
  • If you want to send a single price and a room price you need to ask Booking.com to activate the single price option for you.
  • Prices for "Extra Person", "Extra child" and discounts set in the "Discounts" tab of the rates can not be exported to Booking.com. If you need prices for more occupancy levels talk to Booking.com about derived rates or additional rate codes (see chapter "Multiple Rates" further down).

Extras and Taxes

"Upsell Items" can not be exported to Booking.com.

If required you can enter extras and fees can directly in Booking.com.

Bookings

Upcoming bookings can be imported. Booking.com will only send a summary of the booking, not the full information. The full information can still be accessed in the Booking.com extranet. New bookings made after activation will include full booking information.

Credit Cards

If you want to access credit card details through Beds24 ask Booking.com to only accept bookings with credit card details and always send all details to Beds24.

Rooms and room types

If you sell rooms individually at another channel or your own web site and want to sell them on Booking.com as a "roomtype" with a quantity of more than one you can set up virtual rooms.

Dorms

Booking.com requires the bed price be sent to them as the room price. Therefore they do not accept a single price for a dorm. Make sure you set "Booking.com Rate Type"= One Price. If you want to send a single price for other rooms ask Booking.com to set up a "Single" rate id for these.

5 Sync Prices, Availability and Bookings

Setting up the connection is a 4 step process:

1) You request a connection on Booking.com extranet- nothing changes you are still bookable according to the prices and inventory you have set in the Booking.com extranet

2) Beds24 accepts your request - nothing changes you are still bookable according to the prices inventory you have set in the Booking.com extranet

Between step 2 and 3 you should map your rooms and rates, check everything and import existing bookings from Booking.com to block the booked dates.

3) You enable the connection in Booking.com - this is when Booking.com removes your inventory and rates and you are temporarily not bookable.

4) Beds24 sends prices and availability to Booking.com. You are bookable again. To send the update immediately click the "Update" buttons in the channel manager settings.

Bookings are not removed from the Booking.com extranet. Existing and new bookings are always visible in the Booking.com extranet.


5.1 Initiate the connection in Booking.com

Initiate the XML connection from the property menu within the booking.com extranet and then do the Beds24 setup.

1) Login to Booking.com and go to ACCOUNT->CHANNEL MANAGER. If you do not see this option contact Booking.com and tell them you want to use a channel manager

2) Click the Start button and search for BEDS24.

3) Complete the rest of the on screen instructions.

It is possible to select a "one way" or "two way" connection with Booking.com. The normal case is "two way" which will both export inventory to Booking.com and import bookings from Booking.com. If you select any of the "one way" options only one of these actions will be performed and the other must be manually maintained by you.

4) When ready you will receive a notification from Booking.com, go to the Channel Manager menu again and activate the connection.

5.2 Set up and mapping in Beds24

1) Enter your Booking.com Hotel Id into SETTINGS -> CHANNEL MANAGER -> BOOKING.COM "Hotel ID" setting and then scroll to the bottom of the page and click SAVE.

Bookingcom1.png view large

2) Set "Booking Price Import" to either import the room price only or the room price plus unpaid extras (cleaning charges, local taxes etc.)

3) Some Booking.com rate ids can accept a room price plus a single occupancy price on the same rate id. If you have this rate type and want to send the single occupancy price set "Booking.com Rate Type " = "Full + Single". If you do not have this rate type or you are not sure set "Booking.com Rate Type "= "One Price "


4) Mapping

Map Rooms:

  • Click on the "Get Code" link next to the room id setting, a list of room ids will be retrieved from Booking.com and displayed.
  • Choose the Booking.com room you want to map to the Beds24 room and click on it.
  • When the correct room id has copied to the room id setting, click Save.

Bookingcomrooms.png view large


Map Rates:

  • Click on the "Get Code" link next to the rate id setting and a list of rate ids will be retrieved from Booking.com for the saved room id.
  • Choose the Booking.com rate id for this room and click on it. This will normally be the standard rate.
  • When the correct rate id has copied to the rate id setting, click Save.

Bookingcomrates.png view large 


Tip Click on the "View Actual Data" Button to check which prices and availability will send.

5.2.1 Multiple Rate Plans at Booking.com

Booking.com can support more than one price per room for example to send prices for different occupancies, minimum stays, meal options or refundable and non-refundable prices. There are two options:

1. Linked/Derived Prices

Booking.com can auto calculate different occupancies from one standard rate. This rate is either for the base or for the maximum occupancy of a specific room. The system then automatically adds or subtracts a percentage price per person when the occupancy increases or decreases.

Talk to your Booking.com rep about how to best set this up (either a base rate to add on to or a maximum occupancy rate to subtract from).


2. Multiple Rate Ids

Booking.com can set up multiple rate ids for each room, each with pre-defined booking conditions. Beds24 can send a different price to each Booking.com rate ID. Please use these instructions.

If you do not have the appropriate rate ids you need to request Booking.com to add them.

5.2.2 Price Multiplier

If you want to add a multiplier to your prices, for example because the channel requires a different currency to your Beds24 currency, add a * followed by the multiplier number to your hotel id.

For example a hotel id setting 123456*1.23 will multiply all prices by 1.23 sent for hotel id 123456. (i.e. raised by 23%) Lower prices can be sent with a multiplier less than 1, i.e. 123456*0.85 will send a price 85% of the normal price (i.e. lowered by 15%)

To convert the price of bookings imported from the channel add a * after the multiplier, for example 123456*1.23* will divide the price of the booking by 1.23.

You can also use currency conversion template variable. All currencies supported by the booking page currency selector can be used.

Example: *[CONVERT:IDR-EUR] will convert Indonesian Rupees to Euros.

Example: *[CONVERT:IDR-EUR][/]0.85 will convert Indonesian Rupees to Euros and send a price 85% of the normal price (i.e. lowered by 15%)


5.2.3 Activating in Beds24 and Booking.com

You can view the live availability and prices that will be sent to Booking.com before or after activating using the "View actual data" button.

Booking13.png view large


1) Import existing bookings from Booking.com

Make sure the "Bookings" check box for each mapped room is ticked and saved and then click the "Import existing bookings" button.

Booking15.png view large

If for any reason your existing bookings do not import, the dates could be reopened and resold. To prevent this import the bookings via CSV. 

a. Export your bookings as CSV from booking.com
b. Go to https://api.beds24.com/csv/putbookingcomcsv.php and import the csv file to Beds24. 
Follow the instructions on the page carefully so they import to the correct rooms.

If this is also unsuccessful, block the booked dates in the beds24 calendar. Please note that in this case cancellations and modifications will not be imported automatically.


2) Make sure your inventory is correct in Beds24. Check existing bookings in Booking.com imported and dates blocked by other sources are blocked in Beds24. Dates can be blocked by either entering a booking manually into Beds24 for those dates or using the inventory and override functions on the control panel calendar for those dates. Failure to do this could allow new bookings on dates you are not available. All available dates in Beds24 will be sent to Booking.com as available for new bookings.

Booking com 12.png view large


3) Enable the connection in Beds24 by ticking "Inventory and Rates" for each mapped room and saving. The "Bookings" checkbox should already be ticked but tick it as well if it is not ticked and bookings should be imported.

Bookingcomactivate.png view large

4) When all the set up in Beds24 is correct you can make the final step to enable the connection (go live) from the Booking.com extranet.

Bookingconfirm.png view large

5) When you go live your rates and inventory will be deleted from Booking.com and a full reload will occur from your Beds24 Inventory.

You can use the "Update" button on each room to speed this up. Your bookings will not be deleted from Booking.com but make sure the dates are blocked in Beds24 before going live so they will not be reopened.

6) Once updated, check all your values in the Booking.com extranet for correctness and if required make any adjustments to the settings to fix.

7) Channel collect payments will be shown in the booking invoice if SETTINGS->CHANNEL MANAGER -> “Import Channel Collect Payments” is set to “Yes”.

8) You can allow cancellation fees and commission values to overwrite booking values when cancelled by channel if SETTINGS->CHANNEL MANAGER -> “IImport Cancel Fees” is set to “Yes”.

5.2.4 Maximum number accepted bookings

By default all available rooms are sent to activated channels. In SETTINGS->CHANNEL MANAGER->CHANNEL INVENTORY limit the number of accepted bookings for this channel.

5.2.5 Check Connection

The connection is working if you are not receiving error messages and the display in the channel is correct. If you are receiving error messages check in the "Common Errors" section why you are receiving the error and how to fix it.

5.2.6 Updates

Changes to availability and prices will be instantly sent to the channel. Changes for settings for example minimum stays, or quantity of rooms will send with the next update. Click on "Update" if you want to push them through instantly.

5.2.7 Setup Problems

1) The room is being unexpectedly closed at booking.com

The channel manager will close the room on all dates which do not have a valid price available for sending to booking.com. Make sure you have prices for the complete range of dates you are sending (1 year or 2 years)

2) "Room code is not unique" warning when saving in Beds24.

Each Booking.com room id is unique and can be mapped to only one room in Beds24. If you enter the same Booking.com room id more than once the room updates will overwrite each other causing inaccurate information being sent to Booking.com

3) Missing Credit Card Details

When Booking.com sends the credit card number it will be available in the "Payments and Charges" tab of the booking unless it has been stored in a third party system such as Stripe. The encoded CVC number is available from the booking notification email sent to the host as the line labelled Security Code. Enter the Security Code value from the email into the booking to view the CVC.

  • If there is no Security Code item in the host notification email, the CVC was not collected or sent for this booking. Please ask Booking.com to collect and send it to Beds24 if you require it.
  • If credit card details are always missing and you require them, please ask Booking.com to collect and send credit card details to Beds24
  • If Booking.com normally sends credit card details but did not do so for a specific booking and you always want a card as security, please ask Booking.com to exclusively accept bookings with a credit card number.

4) Daily prices and prices for the Room, Double and Single occupancy can be mapped to Booking.com.

These can be mapped to Booking.com rate id's and will use the booking conditions of that rate id. Extra person and extra child prices within a Beds24 Rate and discounts set in a Rates Discount section are not able to export to Booking.com or other channels.

5.2.8 Notes

1) Credit card details are imported and shown on the "INVOICE" tab of the booking. If not please refer to "Missing Credit Card Details" in Setup Problems above.

2) Multiple Rates - if you want to send multiple prices for a room you must have a rate id for each rate in Booking.com and a matching rate with the price and rate id setup in Beds24. See the Multiple Rates section above for more details.

3) Single occupancy prices must be activated within booking.com if you are sending them to multi person room rates. They can be disabled by setting "Rates" = "Full Only"

4) For bookings imported through the button "Import upcoming bookings" Booking.com will only send a summary of the booking, not the full information. The full information can still be accessed in the Booking.com extranet. New bookings made after activation will include full booking information.

5) Deleting a rate or price in Beds24 will not delete the price in Booking.com. If you need to close a rate at Booking.com, make the rate id unbookable at Beds24, for example by closing the room or removing the price and wait for it to update at Booking.com. Only once the rate has closed at Booking.com it is safe to remove it from Beds24.

You can close a rate at booking.com by making sure there is no price for it on the dates to close in Beds24. As long as the rate has at least a price for 1 day in the next year, all the other dates without prices will be closed.

If you have multiple rates at booking.com, the other rates can continue to be available by giving them prices.

Note that if there is no price on any day at all for a rate, this will not necessarily close the rate, in this case no information will be sent and whatever data is in Booking.com will remain.

You can always see the data being sent with the "View Actual Data" button in the channel manager.

6) Bookings with payment collected by booking.com will show the payment amount collected as a payment in the booking invoice.

6 Manage Bookings

6.1 Report No-shows, Invalid cards or Restrict Channel Modifications

This screenshot shows specific settings for bookings from Booking.com:

Bookingcom manage.png view large

If you want to not allow channel modifications by default you can change the setting for "Allow Channel Modifications" value" in SETTINGS->CHANNEL MANAGER.

If you need a different invoice template for the bookings from this channel you can use the invoicee function. Enter the ID number of the invoicee and all incoming bookings from the channel will be assigned to this invoicee (it does not change existing bookings.

6.2 Charge Virtual Credit Cards

Virtual cards can be set to be auto charged at the date they become valid. This option is available for customers who use Stripe.

If you manually charge virtual credit cards please note that they can only be charged when they become valid.

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