Before starting to integrate your SuperControl account with Third-party Channels, we recommend considering carefully the points below. Doing so will help to ensure that the Channel integration process is as smooth as possible.
1) Are you switching existing listings over from another channel manager?
Please be aware that you cannot link your channels with more than one channel manager at a time. This means you will have to:
- Temporarily 'snooze/disable' your channel listings
- Disconnect your channels from your current channel manager
- Re-connect your channels to SuperControl
Depending on the number of channels you have this may require a day or two offline.
You should also consider how you are going to manage your direct bookings during this time. Ideally your website should not be taking bookings while your channels are inactive to prevent the risk of double bookings.
If you have a website to switch on/integrate with SuperControl you should only do this AFTER your existing channel listings have been connected (again, this will avoid you receiving double bookings).
2) Existing bookings
If you have existing direct bookings, it's very important to ensure these have been added to your account before you integrate your channels.
*Airbnb, Booking.com, Trip Advisor - your existing, upcoming bookings will be automatically imported so you don't need to worry about adding these in manually*
3) Do you list any of your properties on a channel that we don't currently provide an API integration for?
You can use our iCal feed to link calendars from SuperControl to a third party calendar. This is a very basic feed and will only sync availability between your listings/properties in SuperControl. iCal 'bookings' don't show any details of the booking, they are simply there to block booked dates. You will still need to manage both your listing content/prices and bookings via the third party platform. There's more information on how you can set this up below (it is a 2 step process):
iCal availability import guide
iCal availability export guide
4) The SuperControl Channel Service Fee
We charge a 1% plus VAT channel service fee on the total accommodation value of bookings received via OTAs (API integrations only). For more detailed information on the channel service fee, please take a look at our Channel Service Fee guide
5) Creating channel specific booking extras
There may be certain fees you wish to charge guests booking via a channel that you don't want to charge to your direct bookers. Or perhaps you'd like to charge a different booking fee to guests depending on the channel they have booked through?
If this is something you need to do then follow the steps in this guide.
Note: If you are happy to send the default booking extras you have set up for your direct bookings to your channel bookings too then you don't need to do this! There are settings you just enable when you are onboarding/integrating your channel listings to do this.
Also, just a little reminder, you can only send DEFAULT booking extras to channel listings, not optional extras.
6) Corresponding with guests who book via channels
You can apply/set-up automated emails to be sent to your channel bookers. Depending on the channel, you will need consider to what correspondence is necessary for example Airbnb handle payments so you wouldn't need to send your Airbnb guests a balance reminder.
Please be aware that most OTAs strip attachments/links from emails sent to guests so ensure your email templates don't contain these (plain text only).
For a reminder on how to set up automated emails, take a look at this guide.
You are now ready to integrate with channels.