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.
Agents are both traditional 'Travel Agents' and 'Channels' of distribution. This reduces confusion and allows one to think of an 'agent' as a business partner who sells rooms at unique prices and/or allocations. 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 Types (See Agent Types for more details)
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.The other two types of Agents are the PMS Agent and Net Rate Agent. Both of these are optional and are activated when you either create a special agent or promo code, or sign-up and activate a OTA Contract Rate Program.
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. Room Type and Rate allocations can be customized to each agent, however there are three Master Agents that MUST have all ROOM TYPES allocated.
Once you have decided to sell your rooms online, it is time to think about how you will manage the availability and rates of these rooms to each Agent Channel. Since each Agent has a unique set of conditions and commission rates, you many want to tailor Room Allocation and Rate Plans to fit each channel. Each of these Channels can be further managed through Rate Loading. See Rate Loading
Once you have determined which channel you will be working with, proceed to the following sections:
You can also publish your rooms at special 'agent prices' and assign them a percentage (%) of any of your room inventory. For example: You might choose to 'load' (increase) your default rates by 10% to a specific Agent, and only sell the agent 40% of a specific Room Type. When the Agent went to their special web address, they would see 10% higher prices and only 40% of the available rooms. Special Rates for Agents
See Related functions:
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