Booking Extranet: What is it and how to manage it?
An OTA is, without a doubt, one of the most important channels for hotel reservations. Among the OTAs, Booking is one of the most popular and has the highest volume of users and reservations.
To help hotels manage sales and rate strategies, Booking offers a panel or interface known as Extranet. But what is the Booking extranet? How do you use it? We’ll tell you about it here!
What is the Booking extranet?
The Booking extranet is the panel or interface that the user (hotel) has at their disposal to manage their accommodation or complex within Booking. In other words, it is the administration page for hotels within this digital channel.
Within the Booking extranet you will find all the information related to your property, as well as different functions and parameters to manage. You can modify rates, prices, room offers, policies, photos, descriptions, etc. As well as managing your Booking listings, past and future bookings, reports and more.
The importance of the Booking extranet
Knowing how to use the Booking extranet is crucial because there you can perform tasks such as:
Access functions such as modifying your hotel description, photographs, room offers, etc.
Adjust your rates and prices according to the season, dates, capacity, etc.
Be able to launch paid ads on Booking.
Know the reviews and respond to them.
View past and future bookings.
You can edit your property and modify your hotel information.
Access reports and Booking tips.
In a nutshell, the Booking extranet allows you to fully manage your hotel or property and thus make it more attractive. It also allows you to manage your rates and promote your hotel to get many more bookings.
Steps to use the Booking extranet
Step 1: Login
The first step is to log in to the Booking extranet, to do this you must search on Google: Booking extranet and click on the first result. Once there you must enter the username and password that are the same ones you registered with Booking.
Step 2: Identity authentication
You will have to choose the desired language, as well as verify your identity. You can do this through a code that you will receive on your mobile phone or through the Booking app.
Step 3: Browse the Booking Extranet
The last step is to take a dip through the entire Booking Extranet. This is to familiarize yourself with everything that the platform has to offer. You can see the property ID by clicking on the accommodation symbol at the top. This will help you better understand what this platform has to offer.
How to take advantage of the Booking Extranet?
To obtain all the benefits of the Booking Extranet, here are 5 features that IHCS recommends including in your sales strategy through OTAs.
Optimize visibility in listings
If you want to reach more people, it is necessary to optimize your properties to improve their positioning and visibility on Booking. This is done through the best listings, One of the features of the Booking extranet. Here you can improve concepts such as your hotel descriptions, room photos, etc.
Another feature of this extranet is the tips, which offer ideas on how to improve your visibility in listings. These tips are not always the best for your hotel business plan, or at least, the best for that moment. Although they can give you clarity!
Create or delete Booking ads
You can both create and delete Booking ads designed to attract more customers. For many, this is the most complex thing in the Booking extranet because to delete an ad, for example, you must close it in the availability calendar of the extranet.
If you have a reservation for that ad, you must first close the room for that date range that begins after the previous reservation. As long as you have scheduled reservations, you cannot delete the ad. That is why many have headaches with this process. Managing guest reviews
Guest reviews and opinions play a key role in both visibility on Booking and the final decision on reservations. From the Booking extranet you will have full access to the reviews and opinions, which will give you the option, for example, to respond to them.
To do so, you have to enter the guest reviews section. There you look for the opinion, click on it and leave the message, then press send and that’s it, you have responded to the review. Keep in mind that, to modify the responses, you can only do so through the Booking extranet.
Rate changes
Perhaps, one of the most important functions of the Booking extranet is the management of the rates of your accommodation. And it is that, from this platform, you can change the rates for both dates and rooms and even launch offers such as discounts.
Within the extranet you should look for the Rates and availability section. There, choose the room and the dates for which you want to modify the rate. Now enter the new rates and click on save changes. It’s that easy to modify your rates within the Booking extranet.
Linking with channel management platforms
There are software programs that allow you to manage all of your hotel’s sales channels from one place. This includes, for example, your own booking platform, as well as your OTAs like Booking. This way you simplify the entire process such as modifying your offer, availability and prices.
From the Booking extranet, and hand in hand with the platform you use, you can make the link between the two. You can also verify that both platforms are in the same direction, that there are no differences in room availability, prices, etc.
Thus aligning all the channels in the same direction.
