Kigo Channel Manager: Check Out What’s New

 “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” -Winston Churchill

Kigo’s current channel manager automatically distributes property management companies’ constantly changing pricing and availability, photos and descriptions to OTAs so their listings are always consistent.

With the new and improved Kigo Channel Manager platform, we upgraded our connection to our channel partner APIs (HomeAway/Vrbo, Booking.com, Airbnb) so that property content and photos are updated more frequently and efficiently.

Fresh Content Leads to Increased Bookings

Channel Manager can now sync property details in real-time, which means customers always get fresh rates, pictures, and property details. OTAs like Airbnb reward this freshness and consistency with higher rankings, and that usually means more visibility and bookings for the property.

The time that property managers might have spent logging in to each channel to manually update this property data can now be spent creating channel-specific marketing and pricing strategies.

With different channels come different audiences and new listing rules.

If you place more ads on more channels, will you get more bookings? The conventional wisdom is yes but the reality is something else. You may actually be wasting time, money and opportunities—and getting no extra bookings for your efforts.

Your one-listing strategy may be compatible with one channel template and work for this channel’s travelers, but that same strategy could be completely off for another channel.

Pricing Flexibility and Strategies

Kigo’s vacation rental channel manager now allows length of stay (LOS) pricing to be set per OTA channel, which helps increase occupancy and reduce gaps. Because Airbnb, HomeAway/Vrbo and Booking.com cater to different audiences, this new functionality is important. It allows the property manager to tailor length of stay and rates.

Property management companies typically set lengthier stays to secure a certain revenue per reservation, but that can impact occupancy and create short gaps between guest stays. Kigo Channel Manager allows setting shorter minimum stays and the option to increase the daily rate, enabling the property to generate more revenue per day for shorter bookings. By doing so, the property can boost occupancy at any time of the year.

Also, the new version allows for setting up specific stay and pricing strategies per season. Rules can be established depending on blocks of dates, and minimum stays can be also adjusted for specific seasons.

In addition, dates can be blocked per channel in order to get the best rate possible for those days. For example, a set of dates that typically generates more revenue on one channel compared to the others can be blocked so that you can get the booking on the OTA of your preference. Also, prices and fees can be adjusted to reflect appropriate commissions and necessary charges for taxes and guest fees.

Improved GAP management

Kigo Channel Manager also has a specific and flexible setting to manage gaps and generate more opportunities for bookings at a rate based on length of stay that is more attractive to the property manager.

The property manager can now adjust the rate as shorter stays are generated. Thus, a minimum stay strategy for any period of the year is established. When gaps are available, our channel manager allows for more flexible rules that help increase occupancy without affecting daily base rates, and the property has the opportunity for more bookings.

New Accounting Capabilities

• New accounting types – Added over a dozen new accounting types (e.g. Damage Waiver, Resort Fee, etc.) to allow for the proper categorization for reporting and external integrations
• New booking agent tools – Adding the ability to manage booking agents in the new system as well as new reporting
• New reporting – new financial, operations and reservation management reporting
• New connectivity with Rental Guardian
• New Owner Statements
• Accounting Rules – ability to separate rent from channel commissions based on channel source and payment mode

In this blog post, we have used the word “new” 16 times (now 17). What we are trying to say is that we have made quite a lot of changes. Take the new channel manager out for a spin. We really think you will love all our improvements!