Agent Relationships

All Room Type and Rate Plan allocations to Agent Channels are listed and managed in SETUP | RELATIONSHIPS | AGENT RELATIONSHIPS.  The default screen of Agent Relationships displays the details of your Agent Channels:  Agent ID, Agent Type, Agent Name, Number of Rooms Allocated, Commission percentage and Rate Loading percentage. Examples of Agents Channels include: your website, promotional codes,  buuteeq, GDS, Booking.com and other online travel agents. To see the contact details of each Agent, click the Agent ID.

Because you can setup and manage a unique set of Room allocations and Rate Plans to each Agent Channel,  we refer to this as an Agent Relationship. There are three general types of Agents, each of which can have multiple channels depending on the online distribution channels you choose to set up. Some Agents are set up by BookingCenter (Master Agents), some are created by you (MyPMS Agents) and some are added automatically after you have signed up for an OTA contract Rate program (Net Rate Agents).

Agent Categories

• Master Agents: These agents control the availability and rates to your basic channels:  They must have allocations in order to function properly.
• PMS Agents: These are "special" agents that you have set up in the My Agents area. This Agent is also used to set up Promotional Codes.
  
• Net Rate Agents: These agents will only be visible if you have signed up for a Contract Program with a major OTA
  

Agent Channels

Master Agents and Net Rates Agents are added internally by BookingCenter when you sign up and activate GDS or OTA distribution channels. MyPMS Agents appear as you create them in My Agents. MyPMS Agents are typically used to set up promo codes, connect certain travel agencies, direct booking relationships, etc. See Promo Codes and Special Agents.

Agent Channels are primarily used to sell and distribute rooms online through your Website, GDS and specific Online Travel Agencies (OTA's). The only exception to this are Master Agents BC and BCM which are internal channels that manage your database (See below for details). Selling rooms online or, Online Distribution is process that first involves setting up your Agents and then allocating the Rooms and Rate plans to those Channels.

Each online channel you choose to connect to MyPMS will be listed in Agent Relationships and will grow as you add more channels. For example,  you may start with one online channel like your website and then choose to increase your online distribution through GDS and OTA Channels. The number of channels will depend on what you have elected to sign up for or activate.

Once the Agent Channels are set up and listed in Agent Relationships, they can then be managed independently in each channel.

There are two standard channels used to sell online which are visible by default in your MyPMS. These are provided by BookingCenter and set up by default  in your MyPMS system. These channels must have subscriptions and be activated before the will live online and be able to accept bookings.

See Agent Channels for a complete list and details on each channel. 

Managing Room Type and Rate Plan Allocations

Allocating a Room Type and Rate Plan to each channel involves the same function in Agent Relationships.To see which Room Types and Rate Plans are allocated to an Agent Channel or to ADD or DELETE a Room Type allocation, click on blue link that displays the number of rooms allocated in the "Rooms Allocated" column for the corresponding Agent. For example, 15 of 17. When you click on this number a new screen will open with a List of the Room Types and corresponding Rate Plans you have allocated to that Agent. At this point you can Add or Delete a Room Type Allocation.See Add or Delete Allocation.

Overall, the Room Type Allocation function can be use in the following ways:

1. Use one Rate Plan for different Room Types in one channel. For example, STANDARD Rate Plan is allocated to Room Type STANDARD and STANDARDVIEW.
2. Multiple Rate Plans can be allocated to one Room Type in the same Channel to offer different rates for the same room.  For example, a QUEEN Room Type with a Standard Rate, Weekend Special Package and Seasonal Rate all allocated and only accessible if the booking meets rate and availability restrictions. See Rate Restrictions.
3. Use Rate Loading to Increase or decrease the Rates of all of the Room Types and Rate Plans allocated in the entire channel.

However, managing Availability and Rates to each channel can further customized by strategically using the Room Type and Rate Plan allocation functions.

Room Type and Rate allocations can be customized to each agent, however there are three Master Agents that MUST have all ROOM TYPES allocated

• Agent BC is the channel that is distributing rooms to your Booking Engine.
• Agent BCM: Internal BookingCenter channel that manages all of your allocations.
• Agent MyPMS: Controls Room Types and Rate Plans allocated to your Front Desk and is viewable by users when making or modifying a booking.
  
  

Manage Availability and Rates

To see Room Type and Rate allocations to this channel, click on the number of rooms shown in the the column labeled Room Allocated. For example 26 of 32.

Managing Availability to GDS and OTA Channels

Selling rooms online or, Online Distribution is process that first involves setting up your Agents and then allocating the Rooms and Rate plans to those Channels. The number and types of channels you will manage depend on what you have elected to sign-up for or activate.

Each Agent a corresponding channel is Availability and Rates plans to each of these channels is setup and managed individually. and distribution is managed in each individual channel.

under Rooms Allocated for that agent. In the example below we have 100% of our rooms allocated to the MyPMS agent at the rack rate for each room type.

To manage rooms and rates to your Front Desk, Website, GDS or OTA in MyPMS, you have three choices.

• A wholesale agent that buys at an entirely different rate,
• Websites that are do not see all Room Types,
• Prices are adjusted up or down to reflect commissions

Need help? Submit a ticket

Articles and FAQ

Step-by-step tutorials