JacTravel has unveiled a dedicated channel management strategy under the leadership of commercial manager, James Blackmore.

Embracing a trend in the usage of channel management technology by hotels, the organisation has set out to connect with as many channel managers as it can via XML interfaces. 

Leading companies already signed up include: RateTiger, TravelClick, Figaro, and A&O amongst several others.

Channel management is a relatively-new and rapidly-growing service to hotels whereby a hotel can change its room rates and availability simultaneously to wide number of distribution partners, without needing to visit each company’s extranet or platform individually to make manual updates. 

For hotels, channel management does not just save time; it also allows them to show total availability to all distributors, whereas previously they had to decide how many rooms to promote on each separate distribution channel.

Dozens of channel management businesses have sprung up in the past few years, with a variety of approaches to pricing and underlying technology. 

Growth in the niche has been strong, with several firms reporting high double-digit growth rates in sales and triple digit growth rates in usage. 

RateTiger has seen hotel updates grow over 3,400% since 2007.

Blackmore said: “We see Channel Management as a helpful development because the technology makes life easier for our hotel partners. 

“It is also good for us as we will likely see more availability, more frequent and strategic promotions and hence do more business than we might otherwise.”